Every student has a Unique hobby, and many students have an after-school job or spend their summers working. The majority of these students work as a base-level employee at various food and retail chains, one Millard West sophomore Kate Hessel has created and run a business sparked by one of her hobbies.

Sophomore Hessel enjoys being creative and making things in her free time, recently she decided to turn this hobby into a business by designing and printing T-shirts to sell. Hessel has started receiving her first orders since starting her business Anchored by Faith recently growing from an Instagram page to a large online site to process the growing amount of orders she began to receive. 

“I just started making a few shirts at first,” Hessel said. “It was just a hobby at first, but some of my friends and family saw my shirts and suggested that I start a business with it.”

Kate starts with an idea for a shirt and begins designing. After her design is final she sends it to her Cricut to be cut out of vinyl. She finishes off the shirt by applying the design to the shirt and packing the order up.

“It’s a lot of fun to think of new designs for my shirts,” Hessel said. “I think of an idea for a shirt like a phrase then I think of a way to visually represent my idea in a way that will look good on a piece of clothing.”

Hessel found a way to make money in high school like many other students but in a way that expresses her creativity. Designing the shirts for her website takes time and creativity to be able to get to her final product which is a cute and meaningful graphic shirt that expresses her interests as well as pop culture references.

“I started with custom Bible quotes shirts at first,” Hessel said. “My first designs inspired the business name anchored by faith. After I had the business name I created an Instagram account to run the business through and started posting more designs. Eventually, I started designing shirts that referenced popular shows.”

Since starting her business she has grown from a single design to offering several as well as custom shirts. Her website Anchored by Faith is now up and running.