After over a month of planning their positivity awareness campaign, sophomores Caroline Landry and Katie Lee launched their new merchandise last Thursday.

“Absolute Positivity is our campaign to spread positivity throughout school,” Landry said. “In the face of prevalent bullying and negativity, these jackets display positive messages that counter the damaging language frequently heard in school.”

Landry and Lee hope that these jackets serve as a daily reminder for people to keep a healthy, positive attitude.

“Whenever someone wears this jacket, our hope is that others would take some time to stop and focus on something good that’s happening in their lives,” Landry said. “Many students can be hurt by mean comments going around, and this is our way of contributing to a positive atmosphere.”

This urge to promote positivity stems from a facetime call nearly a month ago, when Landry and Lee began discussing schoolwide problems of harmful language that they experienced firsthand.

“One time Caroline and I were walking through school, and we heard people using derogatory and racist language as jokes with each other,” Lee said. “When we tried to confront them about why that language isn’t funny, they wouldn’t listen because they outnumbered us five to two and ignored us.”

After witnessing this type of behavior, Landry and Lee both began making plans to launch a counter campaign against racism and negativity. They contacted friends to test and review their idea, and they set up an Instagram account (@absolutepositivityco) to advertise to other high school students.

They also spent hours figuring out where to print and make the jackets, and more time carefully designing the layout and color combinations of the jacket itself.

“By the time we got a grasp of our general idea, we had no idea that it would be so difficult to sell jackets,” Lee said. “Luckily, our friends and parents really supported us through this process by giving us valuable feedback.”

Now that the merchandise has officially been launched, sales have exceeded their expectations as more people are appreciating the message behind these jackets.

“Our campaign is off to a good start, but that doesn’t mean we can take our foot off the pedal,” Lee said. “We represent this campaign and what it stands for, so we try our best not to show any negative vibes.”

As a future step, both Landry and Lee are considering donating their profits to a scholarship fund for people of disadvantaged or low income backgrounds. Though the idea is still being brainstormed, they hope to create a fund that recognizes students who have contributed to a more positive environment within their school.

“Ultimately, we started this campaign to promote positivity within our school,” Landry said. “If we can create a positive atmosphere that lasts even after we graduate, then this campaign would be considered a success.”