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Thomas Kovarik

HARD AT WORK. Students work on detailing their shirts.

On Thursday May 19, students filled the Design Lab to create shirts that read “believe survivors,” an activity led by HerSpace.

HerSpace is an affinity group for female-identifying students, and meets in both the Upper and Middle Schools. The Middle School group created shirts earlier in the year with empowering messages, which inspired co-presidents Audrey Leatham and Clara Ann Bagnoli to bring T-shirt making to the Upper School.

“We were so inspired by the middle school shirts,” Leatham said, “we wanted to do something to end the year strong.”

The group opted to make shirts in the Design Lab for a cheaper and more sustainable alternative to buying new ones.

The entire T-shirt-making process was created from scratch. The group made a stencil design in Adobe Illustrator, which was cut out by the Design Lab’s Cricut, a cutting machine. The stencils were then ironed onto T-shirts that students brought from home.

The stencils read “believe survivors” and were available in pink and white.

The phrase “believe survivors” is common in movements combatting sexual assault, and was used on T-shirts that HerSpace created years ago. Using it again was both a nod to tradition and an acknowledgment of the continuous need to do better.

“3-5 years ago HerSpace had these shirts that said ‘believe survivors,’ so we’re going back to some old traditions [from] pre-covid,” Bagnoli said.

The group views this activity as an opportunity to address rape culture and the prevalence of sexual assault. By calling out the issue with shirts, they shed light on what often goes unspoken.

“I hope as people start to wear their shirts, that they create more awareness, and work along other sexual assault awareness projects, like the clothesline project,” HerSpace member Helen Townley said.

The group wanted to do something to end the year and decided it was a good time given all the discussion of gender and gender-based discrimination that has been happening at SPA.

“Post junior retreat, post speaker day, with a lot of things on gender, we felt like right now is a pivotal point of what our school is going to be like in the narrative of rape culture,” Bagnoli said.

HerSpace hopes that as students wear their shirts, there is a growing awareness of rape culture, and people take the message to heart.

“Hopefully we will come out of this changing time with a positive thing,” Bagnoli said.

HerSpace meets during Thursday Tutorials in the 9th-grade history room.