'Born This Way' Star Sean McElwee Creates Line of Seanese Shirts for the Holidays
Fans of Sean McElwee, cast member of hit reality TV show “Born This Way,” will be glad to know McElwee has them covered for the holidays.
In May 2017, McElwee launched his t-shirt company, Seanese, with only six designs. He now has over 60 designs, all of which are his creations. As his mother Sandra McElwee says, “Now his funny phrases are being immortalized on swag!”
With the holidays fast approaching, McElwee wanted to create t-shirt designs for the occasion. He told The Mighty, “Christmas is my favorite holiday. Every year I’m Santa’s helper at the Down syndrome Association of Orange County’s breakfast with Santa. I’m an Elf and I help keep Santa from being mobbed by the kids and I pose for pictures and help them.”
McElwee said he likes to tease Santa. “My Christmas t-shirts — and they are long sleeve, sweatshirts and hoodies too — are things I like to say to make Santa laugh.”
What some people might not know about Sean, is his faith is important to him, “But Jesus is the reason for the season and I had to tell Jesus Happy Birthday on a shirt, too,” McElwee added.
While McElwee is the creative mind behind his designs, he is not afraid to ask for help when he feels he needs it. “I have friends who celebrate Hanukkah for eight days so they get presents every day,” he said. “So I made them some shirts too, but I had to have friends help me with those ideas.”
For some of his holiday shirts, McElwee worked with Samantha McCarthy, an artist and college student in Pennsylvania. With Sean’s direction, Samantha has created different design aspects. The elf, for example, has McElwee’s eyes. “She’s really a good artist,” McElwee added. “She did my Halloween shirt, too.”
Each month, McElwee donates 10 percent of all his sales to a different nonprofit organization. During the month of November, he will be supporting the National Down Syndrome Congress.
You can visit Seanese to purchase t-shirts.
Ellen Stumbo is the founder of Disability Matters, an organization with the mission to encourage every church to embrace disability. Ellen is a national speaker who focuses on issues pertaining adoption, faith, disability and parenting kids with disabilities. Ellen writes for several online platforms including Focus on the Family, LifeWay, MomSense, Not Alone, Mamapedia, Group, The Mighty and the Huffington Post. Her writing also appears in several book anthologies. Ellen blogs at ellenstumbo.com and you can also find her on Twitter and Facebook.
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