Update: Blessence Maternity
Blessence’s ShaeLynhas responded to the feedback received to their newest tee, "Adoption is The New Pregnant."
Thank you expressing your concerns. We respect your opinion, and welcome any and all feedback. Since the tee made its debut, we have received only letters of thanks and support from women of all circumstance — those who have adopted, been adopted, or know someone who is in the process of adopting a child in need.
The company’s founder is adopted and has adopted siblings. The slogan is not meant to offend, it is merely a celebration of the joy of welcoming a child into one’s family, regardless of the biological origin. The tee was created to honor adoptive mothers who are often overlooked, simply because their "40 weeks," or more likely, years of waiting for their child to arrive aren’t on public display.
As you know, many women are unable to have babies "the natural way," but adopt children and love them no less than had they come from their own seed. That is the premise under which the slogan was developed – in the spirit of love and equality for ALL children, ALL mothers, and ALL families – biological or not.
Updated April 1, 2008: Blessence Maternity is excited to announce their newest tee: Adoption is The New Pregnant ($36) - designed to celebrate adoptive moms everywhere. Often times, new moms who adopt get lost in the shuffle and don¹t enjoy the "perks" of pregnancy, but Blessence Maternity changes all that with their new tee. This tee shares the sentiment that moms are moms no matter where the baby came from.
Original Post: Blessence Maternity is owned by ShaeLyn Werner, a Texas mom of 7. During her recent pregnancy (she had a daughter in May), she started looking for hip positive message maternity shirts. According to her website, "Finding none, ShaeLyn started designing and developing her own maternity collection. She noticed a void in the marketplace for stylish inspirational maternity clothing and knew that if she was wanting them, there were other expecting mothers wanting them as well."
ShaeLyn launched her fun line in March 2007, two months before she gave birth to her daughter, Skylor Blessence.
She sent me the "Baby Love" in teal ($36) to check out. Blessence offers inspirational tees (choose from tank tops, short sleeves and long sleeves, all with slogans), holiday tees (this section coming soon), Spanish tees, sports tees and a collection for baby.
I also liked many of her shirts. Check out "Twinkle, Twinkle" shirt ($36), "Angel on Board", "Babylicious Body". They also have cute shirts for baby. Loved the angel one-piece ($36)!
Blessence also has celeb fans like Marcia Cross, Grey’s Anatomy’’s Chandra Wilson, Tori Spelling, Tisha Campbell and Melina Kankaredes. New mom Trista Sutter was seen in Blessence’s "Blessed Belly" shirt in June 2007’s OK Magazine - you can see a copy of the scan here.
You can find a list of retailers on their site or shop online.
10/23 Exclusive for CBB Readers: Free shipping available, – the customer would has to email after they placed their order and give their order number and free shipping code "CBB". They are provided with the email address when they have completed check out.
- Posted on Apr 16, 08 at 4:06PM
- Permalink
- 10 Comments
October 24th, 2007 at 3:22 pm
How rude!
October 29th, 2007 at 3:46 pm
Adoption CAN NOT and NEVER WILL BE the new pregnant!!!!!!!!!!!!! Please use your head before making any more foolish and hurtful statements on your shirts!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
October 31st, 2007 at 6:43 pm
Wow, this is revolting. I’m an adoptive mother of a beautiful daughter, and I find the message that adoption=pregnancy offensive. I didn’t carry my daughter in my body; her first mother did, and she was and will always be an essential part of my daughter’s life. This flip T-shirt message, clever though it tries to be, totally diminishes the first mothers of children who are adopted. Saying “40 is the new 30″ doesn’t erase 30-year-olds, but “Adoption is the new pregnancy” sure does make it sound like there is only one woman in the equation, and it’s the one doing the adopting. I would never in a million years wear a shirt like this.
November 4th, 2007 at 7:51 pm
I have a difficult time putting my opinion of this into words. I placed my son for adoption 6 years ago this coming January. I have a really difficult time expressing how I feel about this clever little t-shirt you heartless bastards are so pleased to present to the world. I can’t imagine who came up with this idea and why in gods name they thought it would be such a wonderful thing for adoptive mothers. I know for a fact that my sons mother (his adoptive mother) would be just as offended by this ridiculous shirt as I am.
Adoption is not the new pregnancy. No, not at all. In fact, if you wanted to diminish others’ roles, I would make a shirt that read instead:
“Adoption doesn’t exist without pregnancy.”
I’m sure it would sell better.
November 21st, 2007 at 11:50 am
My wife is pregnant And she is searching for maternity intimate apparel.Where can we find it? thank you
November 28th, 2007 at 5:16 pm
Her own maternity collection.She is making maternity intimate apparel or something like that.I am not sure.
April 1st, 2008 at 9:40 am
I wonder if you are aware that, in order for adoption to occur, there must first be the loss of a child’s home, family, heritage, name, and everything that has been familiar to him/her while in the womb, and until the day s/he was removed from his/her home. This shirt is offensive on SO many levels. You’re saying adoption is “eh, no biggie”, you just sign some papers, and viola! Insta-family! Um, no. That’s not the way it works. Adoptive parents, I hope, go through a process, both on paper, and in their hearts. Adoptive parents have to understand and accept that they are NOT the only parents their child has, which your shirt is apparently trying to deny. Other posters have touched on the enormous loss of the biological mother, who no longer has her baby. I am frightened at the flippant attitude and happy-go-lucky message this shirt displays. It absolutely makes me sick! Please, stop selling this trash. Matter of fact, to show your understanding of the utter offensiveness of this t-shirt, I’ll attend the “shirt burning”. You just let me know when and where. You say you’d lose money that way? We-hell, live and learn, folks, live and learn.
April 4th, 2008 at 4:02 pm
first, amoms do not experience any part of pregnancy. and i think it’s unfair and callous to marginalize pregnancy as “all the perks.” what about those of us who suffer from hyperemesis gravadarium, joint pain, stretchmarks, long and painful labors, pre-eclampsia and other pregnancy “perks?” the designer of this shirt (and the retailers that sell them) are collectively slapping pregnant and birthing women in the face….
sorry but adoption is adoption…nothing else.
April 5th, 2008 at 6:23 pm
lighten up. The shirt is great and i love it. My wife and i are adopting after having one biologically and love the shirt. Don’t be so uptight
November 23rd, 2008 at 3:29 pm
I love this shirt! I am not at all a person who wants to trivialize or diminish preganancy in any way- it is a wonderful, beautiful miracle that women are lucky enough to experience. Some of us, though, will never get to experience this. I want a baby more than I want anything else in the world, and have been waiting for a long time. It is emotional hell. Why not lighten the load with a cute shirt like this?
We all know that without pregancy there would be no adoption. We all know that adopted children have two mothers, two fathers. I don’t think that this shirt is offensive, just like I don’t find it offensive when pregnant woman wear shirts that say “Baby on Board” or “Mama Mia!”
Accept it for what it is, an expression of excitement. Surely there are more important things to be concerned about than a two people accepting, loving and cherishing a child. Adoptive mothers don’t get sonograms, baby showers, belly pictures, or the birth experience…why can’t we have one little shirt? We want the world to be excited with us, but we don’t get a big belly to show off. I would wear this shirt in a heart-beat, and I plan on ordering one. I’ll consider it my maternity wear!
As an adoptive-mother-to-be, I applaude this shirt and what it stands for.