By Brittany Bivins
CLEVELAND, OH (WOIO) - One 8-year-old girl is fighting bullying and loneliness in her own school with something she designed herself: a T-shirt.
Kody Teet lives in Toledo, and Cleveland 19 News spoke to her over Skype with her mother, Abby Teet.
Abby Teet says her daughter often came home from school, upset that some classmates did not have anyone to sit with at lunch or recess. She even told her parents it had happened to her before.
"It makes me kind of sad," said Kody.
Around that time, Abby Teet began seeing memes pop up on social media in reference to the movie "Mean Girls," which read "You Can't Sit With Us."
Those messages made Abby Teet pause.
"I mean, I get it. I know to some people, that's a funny meme or whatever, I said, but I wonder how that makes kids and other people feel," she said.
Together, mother and daughter made shirts of their own. They have a different message. You can sit with us.
Abby Teet says they sold out of the original order within a matter of days. Some of the orders came from Arizona. One came from Canada.
"They want to wear my T-shirts because they want to make other people feel happy," said Kody.
Since then, they’ve restocked the shirts. You can order one at https://www.kodyteet.com/product-page/you-can-sit-with-us. For each T-shirt ordered, $5 is donated to anti-bullying non-profit organizations.
Abby Teet says it's been a great experience, not only for her daughter, but for her family, to be able to talk frankly about bullying and the importance of kindness.
"She's so sweet, Kody is, so when she gets home from school, I'll show her that on Facebook, and her little eyes tear up," she said. "She gets so excited, but even more so, she's been in that situation herself, so even just to see her relate to other little kids across the country has been eye-opening for us."
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