DON'T BE A DICK

For years I threatened to make hoodies.

Two teenage boys. I adore them completely. They are also, at times, teenage boys — which means they occasionally said something unkind, or briefly channelled the worst energy of the internet rather than the best energy of themselves.

Every time it happened: I am going to embroider this on your hoodie. DBAD. Don't Be a Dick.

It became a joke. A shorthand. A reminder that I hope landed with love precisely because it didn't take itself too seriously. 

For a long time, I was actually nervous to make this print — because I didn’t want them to think I thought badly of them. I don’t. They are extraordinary. Kind and funny and full of potential in a way that still stops me sometimes.

But the joke is serious underneath. Because the principle behind it is the most fundamental thing I know about how to be in the world.

You don't need to be the smartest in the room. Don't make someone feel small in a conversation. It costs nothing to be decent. Nothing to listen more than you talk. Nothing to smile.

There is nothing complicated about kindness. It is a choice made repeatedly, in small moments.

This print is funny. It is also the most earnest thing I have ever made. Both are true simultaneously, which is exactly why it works.

Downstairs loo. Kitchen. Office wall. Leaving present. Secret Santa. Works everywhere.