In this video Mamma Z breaks down her inspiration behind the cleats and you can also watch the WHOLE drawing and coloring process from start to finish!! (In super fast forward, of course, we couldn't make a 4 hour long video!)

Alex Collins of the Baltimore Ravens was the original inspiration behind creating my own cleats for the #mycausemycleats movement!

This was by far the best response this mother could have gotten to tell her son. Not only is it inspiring, it's from one of the best football players in the game! He didn't HAVE to do a shout out or say anything AT ALL...but he did and that's what makes him such a special person. 

​He truly inspired me to get all the materials together and make these cleats for the #mycausemycleats movement!

Once I heard about Alex Collins and his amazing story with Carl... I started researching the NFL Bullying Campaigns and players that also are trying to fight the bullying movement! 
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I found this blog post :

I started on the left Cleat and just allowed myself to be expressive without a lot of restrictions.  I knew I wanted a bunch of bright colors and words that inspire me in my fight against bullying.
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• No Bullying
  
• Be Buddy...Not a Bully!
  
• Speak Up
• Say No To Hate
• Words Do Hurt
• Show Love
• #mycausemycleats
• Love
• Stop The Hate

The goal is to get the attention of the NFL, Nike, Alex Collins and the other NFL Players that endorse Anti-Bullying Cleats!
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Awww... what a great picture of Izaac with his new fan art poster!
His grandmother and giveaway winner, Nicole, reads the Zombie Squirts books to him often as he loves to look for Captain Crawly! Thank you, Nicole, for supporting the Zombie Squirts' anti-bullying message and sharing our children's books with your family!
~ Mamma Z

Many who know me, know I am a HUGE Star Wars fan. This parody poster is a result of a desire to write a story about the Zombie Squirts gang dressing up as Star Wars characters to watch a movie premiere. However, I fear that now Star Wars is owned by Disney, I may get my pants sued if I sell a book using the likes of their property. So, I decided to make this instead.

I hope to someday bring the story to fruition as possibly a freebee comic strip short or something of that nature. To put it in a nutshell, a couple of the Squirts girls get told they can't wear certain costumes because they're not the right gender. As you can see in the poster above, Lily is Bobba Fett and Annie is Darth Vader.  In the short story, it is explained that you can dress up as whomever you want! It doesn't matter if you're a boy or a girl, if it makes you happy, do it! I, as a child, ALWAYS wanted to dress up as Darth Vader or the Incredible Hulk for Halloween but my mom wouldn't let me... I had to wear my dance costumes that made me look like a princess or Uncle Sam.

I was not pleased. LOL

I think it's important to let children express themselves freely without consequences of being shamed by parents, siblings, friends, etc.  Confidence is built by self-expression so we can't keep shaming and taking it away from others. Confidence builds self-esteem, which can help counteract any bullying directed towards them, plus help other victims by standing up to the bullying as it's happening. Bring kids UP, not down.

~ Mamma Z