Kids of the Diaspora

Leni Charles 

Around 2016, I had the opportunity to launch a signature line for a T-shirt contest. I wanted to design a T-shirt that anyone could see themselves wearing, and that’s how Kids of the Diaspora was born. The shirt didn’t win the contest, but that wasn’t my goal anyway. The contest just gave me the energy to get started. The shirt became very popular and in high demand within the community, and as time went on, new opportunities came to grow the project. That’s when my sister Cherrie joined, and together we’ve been building the brand ever since, and the community has grown right along with it.

Cherrie O.

The label is for anyone who can identify with it—your skin color isn’t what makes you a Kid of the Diaspora. It can speak to those who experienced social exclusion while growing up or to anyone who wears the fashion as a sign of solidarity. The brand has helped me understand the deeper connections that shaped me from a young age. Even as a child, I knew what racism was and how it felt, but it wasn’t until I became an adult that I began to understand how those experiences of racism touch every aspect of life, your well-being, your health, and how you respond to discrimination. Everything is interconnected, just as we all are. That’s why we describe ourselves as an awareness brand committed to inclusivity and visibility.

Leni Charles

For me, the feeling of being a kid of the diaspora goes back to my earliest childhood. We wear the label’s name on our T-shirts on the left, close to our hearts. Every diaspora kid’s story is different, but we still connect on an emotional level, no matter where our roots lie. We share the common experience of being seen as different across national borders. Likewise, the feeling of not fully belonging anywhere. We want to embrace this “in-between” space as our home and, in doing so, empower our community.

Leni Charles

They’re a series of events that we’ve held in cities like Vienna, Berlin, London, and Stockholm, where absolutely anyone is welcome. Together, we go on an imaginary journey to let go of the internal labels that define us and allow us to reach our own “inner garden.” Afterwards, we organize a paint party where everyone creates a visual expression of their garden...

Cherrie O.

Exactly, first we guide them to discover their “inner garden,” then they paint it at the paint party, and we help them in interpreting their own images and draw strength from them. Along the way, we also do important anti-racism work.