Be You. Be Kind.

This year at Jonas Paul Eyewear, we are launching a movement that is centered around bold kindness. We have SO many awesome, talented, unique kids out there who wear our glasses, and we are so excited to celebrate them this year and encourage them to be themselves, to be kind, and to embrace their passions and talents!

How exactly are we going about celebrating and creating this movement? Here are the three pillars on which everything we do this year will be supported by. We'd love for you to join us in using these pillars to shape conversations at home and the interactions we have with those around us:

In a world where, especially for kids and teens, social media has such a strong presence, it can be easy to play the comparison game. "I'm not as pretty as she is." "He's better than me at sports." "I'm not as smart or as funny or as cool as him or her." "My photo didn't get as many likes as my friends." Our culture has become so scroll-focused and we are prone to base our worth on the affirmations (or lack thereof) from others. To be honest, this isn't new news. The dialogue may have shifted toward an online presence, but even before this strong prevalence of technology we as a culture consistently sought out the affirmations and praise from others.

To combat the negative messages that we see on social media, at work, or on the playground, we invite you to join us in sharing affirmations and kind encouragements this year. Whether that means telling someone that they look beautiful, cheering them on if they are having a hard time completing a task, or simply offering a listening, kind ear to those around you, we are firm believers that small acts of kindness make a big impact.

Hard, but real talk: the number of stories we have heard lately of kids being bullied for wearing kids glasses and teen glasses or being treated unkindly for following their unique passions is truly disheartening. A very wise anonymous person once said, "Children are great imitators. So give them something great to imitate." We're here to encourage you this year to go out of your way to have hard conversations with your kids about what it means to be kind to those around you, how we can best love our neighbors as ourselves, and how we can treat others as we would want to be treated.

We believe that we can change the world for the better, and that the conversations it takes to spread kindness through the world start right within the walls of our own homes. Through difficult conversations and a strong intentionality to learn about sharing kindness and generosity with our words, we are confident that we can make this world a better place! It doesn't cost a single penny to be kind to someone, yet kindness is one of the most generous gifts we can give.

Former President Theodore Roosevelt once said, "Comparison is a thief to joy." Comparison can lead to resentment of our current season and current self, and certainly has the power to steal our joy or sneak up on us and change the way we see ourselves. This year, we invite you and your kids to eliminate this joy-thief from your life. By demonstrating to our kids that we all bring something unique and valuable to the table, we will be showing them just how important it is to love ourselves and our unique talents. quirks, and interests.

Along with loving ourselves and the value that we all bring to this world, we as a team have a goal to better love the world around us this year and invite you to do the same! As a company, we will be improving our packaging to be more sustainable and will be encouraging customers to recycle that packaging when possible. We will be more intentional about recycling frames that are no longer usable or sellable in our inventory (check out the recent addition of our frame donation program if you're looking for a new home for your old glasses!). We will be working to partner with sustainable clothing brands for our photoshoots.

In this year of kindness, perhaps one of the most important yet most difficult things to do is to give ourselves and those around us grace. We won't be perfect in our attempt to be boldly kind to ourselves and each other no matter how hard we try - that is just something that goes hand in hand with being human. That said, as we proceed through this year, we hope we can look back on every single day and say that we did the best that we could in being intentionally kind.

We hope you'll join us in our mission to make the world a better, kinder place!