After years of working with youth and nonprofits and noticing how many people lacked real opportunities to achieve their dreams, Ahyana King decided to use her passion for design to change things. “One of the toughest challenges within our society is the absence of a freedom mentality—if you’re mentally free, the sky really is the limit. With my business, Phreedum, the core premise is to use the creativity of design to raise money for local nonprofits helping people on their own personal journeys to freedom. We choose art and t-shirts as a medium and design and sellgraphic tees and clothes.”

The goal of Phreedum is to use their designs to spark new dialogues about what it means to be free, independent, and immune to society’s strong influence. “Every design has a story behind it and the website where we sell the shirts, shares each story. We try to incorporating different languages, talk about liberation in different countries, and encourage being comfortable with who you are and branching out from the norm and mainstream culture.”

Ahyana has found, not surprisingly, that young people are the ones that most need to hear Phreedum’s message. “We want our clothes to be marketable to elementary through college age groups, because those are the age groups on the verge of ‘becoming.’ We want our designs to make them ask themselves, ‘How do I utilize my potential to do whatever I want to do and be fulfilled, and what role should others’ expectations plan in that?’ And hopefully our designs do this and open up a chance for dialogue.”

In some cases, the design is inspired by, rather than inspiring, the conversation. “Often I am challenged with taking a conversation and concept and creating an image that can reflect it and cycle back through to create a new dialogue. My goal is to make a certain idea into a design I can challenge society with.”

Additionally, Phreedum has a blog with new posts every “Phind out Phriday,” to highlight local entrepreneurs and raise awareness about social issues in Philadelphia and abroad. “It has been a great opportunity for cross-promotion and a chance to talk with others who are pursuing dreams and goals in other businesses, which is just what Phreedum is all about. We interview people who design in magazines, do culinary art, participate in art or advocacy groups, and others who aren’t artists at all.”

For now, Phreedum continues to dream up new designs, and find more ideas and dialogue topics to share with society. But for Ahyana, that’s not all Phreedum offers to its customers and followers: “I think our products are awesome and affordable and when you purchase them, you not only know what your money is going towards, but you also get something you can look and feel great in!”