Q&A with Hebe Jiang: Love One Another Shirt Design Challenge Winner!

Hebe Jiang is a 13 year old student at Robert Frost Middle School. We connected with Hebe to learn more about her and her inspiration for the Love One Another shirt design challenge.

Tell us a bit more about yourself!

A couple of my hobbies are to draw, write, read, sing, run, and more! My favorite subject is English because I find so much joy in reading and writing. I love to use my emotions, thoughts, and beliefs to create and express myself in all of my writing. A couple of other things I enjoy are traveling, baking, and hanging out with friends. I also believe that everyone can balance socializing and productivity at the same time, like I do. I have so much more things I could share, but that’s about it for now!

Why did you enter the shirt design challenge, and what inspired your design?

I’ve always been fond of organizations that support others. I have heard of So What Else before, but I had never heard of the challenge. To be honest, when I first entered the challenge, I entered for fun. However, throughout the thoughts and making of my design, I slowly started to see much more meaning than just a drawing. Something that inspired my design was peace, love, and unity. I believe that in order for our world to really build/work together, we must respect and have peace with each other. I believe that holding grudges shouldn’t be mandatory, and that everyone deserves a second chance. So I started to think of phrases I could use to describe that thought. I went through multiple phrases until I found the perfect one – “Live in Peace.” 

I slowly grew my idea further, finding symbols that could describe that belief. I found that the turtle symbolized peace, so I added that in my design. I also added a heart around the turtle, showing how important love is along with peace. I added the Earth inside the heart, showing that love and peace should be spread globally. Finally, I added flowers on each side of the heart, symbolizing new beginnings and hope. My design was meant to spread love, peace, unity, and new beginnings to everyone. I really do hope my design does make an impact on others’ thoughts and decisions.

Why are unity, service, humanity and kindness important to you?

I have multiple reasons why unity, service, humanity, and kindness are important to me. Since I have a lot to say, I’ll just share how I feel about kindness for now. I feel like kindness is such a needed thing in our world, especially seeing how most people are treated now and then. Truly, kindness is simple. You just have to respect and stay warm to others. However, some people don’t realize that. 

Kindness is important to me because sometimes if you choose not to spread it, it could ruin people’s lives. I have seen multiple bullies around and have also seen how they affect people. If I’m being honest, bullying had also ruined me at one point. After experiencing that, I realized that kindness is so much more important than it seems, especially kindness towards yourself. The truth is, not everyone will like you, and that’s okay. All you need is your own sense of kindness, respect, and care to realize that bullies are nothing against you. If you are perchance dealing with a bully, always reassure yourself, and don’t ever lose yourself to someone who’s obsessed with making you miserable.

Did you know the purchase of one t-shirt feeds one person for an entire year? Get your shirt and learn more about the Love One Another program here.