Our Origin Story

Design With Us’s origin story started when Jordan Reeves was born in 2005 and her family discovered she was literally born just right. She was born with “just” a right hand. Her family had never known about limb differences before her birth. So her mom, Jen Lee Reeves, started blogging about her experiences and seeking connections online. That’s why she called the blog “Born Just Right.”

As Jordan grew, Jen captured stories and lessons she learned about raising a disabled child. Those blog posts evolved with her as Jen learned more about disability and the disability community. But really, she learned the most when Jordan discovered her voice after inventing a super fun idea that brought nothing but joy with her disability: A prosthetic arm that shoots biodegradable glitter. She called it Project Unicorn.

Jordan was 10 at the time and she was really into unicorns and glitter. People were interested in her idea and she had a chance to talk about her disability while focused on something fun. Suddenly, people didn’t feel pity when they talked to her about her limb difference, they spoke with interest and happiness. Jordan was given opportunities to speak at large events including a couple of TEDx talks. It was around this time when she and her mom agreed the special opportunities coming her way should also benefit more young people. So they turned Born Just Right the blog into Born Just Right the nonprofit.

With the nonprofit, they launched a number of workshops so other kids with physical disabilities could learn how to design based on their own lived experiences. There is a lot of power when you learn how to speak up for your ideas. And when you can speak up, you can also offer input at events, give insight on design needs and even contribute to academic work. That’s why the Born Just Right organization launched a youth design consultancy in 2019 called Make Just Right so youth who attended workshops could continue to hone their design interests AND get paid when people and organizations needed their input.

That same year, Jordan and her mom released a book called Born Just Right - it’s a middle-grade book where Jordan shares her experiences with disability, design and inclusion. She wanted to release a book that helped middle schoolers feel more comfortable talking about disability. That book is now used in upper elementary and middle school programs across the country. Her story is also featured in a number of Scholastic lesson plans.

The challenge with this origin story is we launched this nonprofit for other kids, not Jordan. With a book and even other big opportunities like a feature in Marvel’s Hero Project and becoming a top 5 finalist for TIME Magazine’s Kid of the Year 2020, it became very clear that Jordan wanted to be sure this organization is not just focused on her. We want to give her the freedom to comfortably support Design With Us without as tight a connection to her story. Jordan continues behind the scenes to support our work, while Jen will make sure the organization builds new opportunities for kids with disabilities as the executive director.