Selling Girl Power Tee Shirts

When the housing market tanked four years ago, Melissa Warren knew her job as a brand manager at a building products manufacturer was safe. But, she discovered, she didn't want it anymore. "My budget was halved, so there was no money to do anything new. Friends were getting laid off, and vying to keep their jobs was bringing out the worst in some coworkers," Warren says.

Then one day a twelve-year-old girl at the mall changed Warren's life. "She was wearing a tee shirt that said High Maintenance. Shock waves ran through my body. I wondered if she even knew what that meant," Warren says. Warren knew she'd never let a child wear a tee shirt with a message like that. She decided to create the antidote: a line of girl power tee shirts.

Girl Power Tee Shirts: The Medium for a Message

"I hate reality TV, those housewives shows. Girls are growing up thinking that's how women treat each other," Warren says. She went home and started doodling, coming up with tee shirt designs. "I'm an English major and I love the Victorian era when women were feminine and ladylike. Bbut they were treated horribly." Warren decided to merge modern day empowerment with Victorian style.

She made some test samples and did a focus group while she was still employed. But Warren knew that if she was going to give her all to the new venture, she had to quit her job. "Resigning is one of hardest things I've ever done. I loved my boss. He understood what I wanted to do," Warren says.

Her Melicious tee-shirt business is two years old. She sells her girl power shirts online and at seven boutiques in the Wilmington, North Carolina area. "I'm not making as much as I did as a brand manager, but this work is fulfilling. Corny as it sounds, I have a message," Warren says.

This year, she intends to visit 50 boutiques throughout the Carolinas to pitch her tee shirts. The biggest challenge in setting up her business, even for this multitasker, was doing it all. "At work, I had accountants, a sales team, an agency that did press releases and social media. Now I'm doing that all myself." But she wouldn't change a thing.

"People told me that it's not the right time, that I shouldn't quit a job when everybody is looking for one. There is not going to be a right time," Warren says firmly. "You have to make it happen." Someday, Warren would like to see her shirts in boutiques across the country.

A portion of the girl power tee shirt sales goes to Girls Rock NC, a mentor program teaching girls about music by women. "I grew up in a rural area without a strong female mentor in my family. I put myself through college. I want to reach out to girls who don't have a positive role model. I want to give girls that extra push because sometimes they don't get it otherwise."