FAQ
Just Ask: Pretty Brainy Answers Your Questions
Photography: John Mueller Productions
How do you decide what famous women in history are featured on Pretty Brainy ’tween girls’ fashion?
Our famous women in history have accomplished goals that defy limiting beliefs about what is possible in the world and what a person “should” do. Part of our vision is to help ’tween girls see more broadly what they can do with their own lives via the lives of women who accepted challenges and accomplished goals that set new standards for the world. Another part of our decision-making is based on knowing how girls respond and why.
Do you plan to create goods for ’tween boys?
The mission and vision of Pretty Brainy are steeped in ’tween girls’ fashion because that is what we know. Another company would be better suited to doing for boys what we do for girls.
Where are you located?
Pretty Brainy is located in Colorado on the Front Range outside of Denver. Our entrepreneurial spirit and drive are informed by the landscape and culture of the American West.
Where is Pretty Brainy available?
Pretty Brainy currently is available for purchase at www.prettybrainy.com and select retailers.
Do you create mother-daughter fashions?
We want girls to wear our clothes. ’Tween girls, as with boys, grow by individuating themselves from their parents. When we were girls, we wouldn’t wear outfits our mothers bought for us, much less something our mothers were wearing.
We encourage every mother to realize that, if she really wants her daughter to wear Pretty Brainy, she may need to convince her the shirt was her idea. For more on raising a ’tween girl, see Parents Only.
What are age-appropriate clothes for ’tween girls?
Age-appropriate clothes for ’tween girls reflect the energy and interests of girls who are 7 to 14 years old. Though the age span between 7 and 14 is analogous to “dog years,” this is a time, especially ages 7 to 10, when girls in general are their most exuberant and self-confident and begin having the experiences that determine what they will do with their lives. Pretty Brainy designs age-appropriate clothes because we appreciate girls for exactly who they are at this age. At Pretty Brainy, being a ’tween is not about being “in-between” anything: it’s the best age to be.
Doesn’t the beaded fringe get in the way of school and play?
We encourage everyone to choose the best apparel for the event, occasion, and activity, and we wouldn’t play softball, for example, in a fringed beaded shirt. But a girls’ printed T without beaded fringe? Absolutely. That’s why we give you options.
Why do you carry adult sizes?
On our first day in business in 2008, we discovered that women, especially teachers, wanted to wear Pretty Brainy themselves. A Pretty Brainy girls’ printed T is not only a great ’tween girl gift idea, but our customers tell us it also is great as a teacher’s gift and for young women graduating high school, college, and graduate school.
Don’t your products encourage cheating in school?
We encourage girls to see the enjoyment of grasping the subject matter from which they begin to distance themselves as early as second grade. We make it fun to see the real-world applications of math. Pretty Brainy girls’ graphic Ts bear girl-facing messages that put learning new information in a context meant to be fun and enlightening. Educators are supportive of and eager to wear Pretty Brainy themselves because Pretty Brainy is innovative in supporting their key role in our children’s lives. The design idea comes from CEO and founder Heidi Olinger, who is a former teacher.
Where were you when I was growing up?
Growing up right alongside you. Every challenge of growing up has two sides, and Pretty Brainy is the other side of growing up in a world in which girls were told their career options were nursing, teaching, or secretarial work. Period. We, too, wish we had known earlier about Jackie Cochran and other record-setters and rule-breakers. But then, we wouldn’t have had the insight to create Pretty Brainy.