To many students in high school, fear is something to be avoided. To juniors Anthony Rosales and Nick Orozco, fear is a business opportunity.
“All the time we just hear, ‘I’m scared, I’m scared,” Orozco said. “I feel it’s something that everyone says and can relate to.”
This and their passion for fashion led them to create their very own clothing line, called “I’m Scared.” Orozco and Rosales explained that they decided to call it that in order to express that people don’t need to be scared of their fears anymore.
Through family connections that they have in the fashion industry, Orozco and Rosales were able to create their very own T-shirts using a logo that they designed themselves. They have been getting the word out through social media and word of mouth.
The clothing brand, which was first released on Oct. 25, has been a long time in the making.
“Anthony has been telling me about the brand since last year,” junior Marcellus Neal said, who is a close friend of Orozco and Rosales. Neal and Rosales were in a culinary class when Rosales approached him with the idea.
“Once we brought it up, it was something that we couldn’t stop talking about,” Rosales said.
Orozco and Rosales worked on this project for months on end until they started advertising the shirts at the beginning of this school year. Plastered around the school are small stickers of their logo that urge people to follow them on Instagram. On their Instagram page, they have posted pictures of their clothes being modeled by fellow students, including Neal. Their social media is entirely run by Rosales, Orozco, and their many friends. Junior Caroline White helps out with taking their pictures for advertising their brand.
“I do photography, and I figured that possibly they’d want some sort of nice pictures,” White said.
White has helped with taking pictures for their Instagram, which has surpassed 500 followers. Their social media has been their main place for advertising their clothes, and it is also where information is available for how to order their shirts.
After hinting at the release of the shirts, “I’m Scared” dropped in late October and accumulated 75 orders.
“ shows how much success we’ve had with it and how much success we could have,” Orozco said in late October.
Even though their business has been around for only a few months, it’s only the beginning for “I’m Scared.”
“We want to be about . If we start something, we’re going to finish it,” Rosales said. “We just want to make our dream come true.”
Even though there has been a major success with their brand, it didn’t always seem like this was going to be the outcome. With most things, self doubt comes, and thoughts about things not working out start to creep in.
“It was a hit or miss. This could’ve gone two ways. We could either make a name for ourselves or no one could really care about it,” Rosales said. “We kept pushing and pushing to work towards that. So here we are, and it did get the attention.”
