I am so often asked the question, "why gender neutral?" People see fairy wands and instantly think of little girls. My mission is to create a safe space for any child to play freely and not feel limited by their gender.
A few years ago, I was introduced to the transgender community and like many others, I was confused. This was a foreign concept to me that I couldn't quite grasp. After many questions and conversations and corrections for saying the wrong thing, I realized that I did not necessarily need to understand the trans and gender fluid community, I just needed to accept them for who they are.
Enter whimsiekids. When I was starting my brand, I knew I wanted it to be gender neutral, that was my top priority. Obviously, the dream would be to start my own Children's clothing line and have each piece modeled by both a boy and girl but that takes a lot of time and let's face it, a lot of cash so I knew I needed to start small and give myself room to grow. The entirely point of my wands is to allow children to embrace their imaginations and play freely. They can pretend to be a fairy, magician, witch, you name it which to me is the beauty of open-ended play. I didn't want any child to feel as though they couldn't play a certain way because it wasn't "for them."
Most often, people look at my wands and assume they are for little girls and I always try my best to offer the suggestion of boys playing with them as well because we can get so stuck in our gender norms and generational perceptions of what gender even means. That is why I try my best to talk about the importance of gender inclusivity, and not limiting children to different colors or clothing. It is important to me that I create a safe space for kids to learn who they are and what they like, and that starts with having the ability to choose.