Learn how the Safety Sasses founder is changing the face of protective eyewear and helping creative youth
Story by Pamela Price
When Blythe Zemel relocated to Boerne, she saw something special in the growing Hill Country community. “I noticed a lot of creative, imaginative young people,” she said, “but they needed direction. The talent was here, but it needed shaping.”
Blythe, who holds an art degree, knew first-hand how valuable mentoring can be in cultivating emerging talent.
“There were a mix of male and female artists back in Houston. I taught them, and we formed a tight network that really pushed entrepreneurship.”
That’s why, in Boerne, Blythe saw an opportunity to make a difference.
The heart of BlytheArts
For those of us who’ve worked with artistic teens and young adults, we know the ability to channel innate creativity into marketable skills can be liberating.
It’s one thing to be gifted at drawing or working with clay. It’s another to take the essential problem-solving, imaginational and project planning skills and use them to make a living. And, in an increasingly digital world, creative skills can translate into a number of fields, provided one receives the right mentoring at the right time.
Yet being a creative person can come at a price — especially for young people. We live in an age when teens feel pressured to conform to unrealistic standards or rushed into stereotypes. And all of it’s reinforced by culture and peer groups while being reinforced on a grand scale through social media.
How does one learn to express one’s authentic self? It’s a challenge for all, but especially when you march to the beat of your own drum.
“Artists often struggle with mental illness and learning disabilities,” Blythe said, “yet studies show that creative people benefit from exposure to other people like them, people who think and interact differently with the world.”
And that’s how Blythe’s underground mobile arts program, BlytheArts, came to Boerne.
A signature style
Through her youth mentoring work, Blythe seeks to meet the call of becoming “the person you needed when you were growing up.”
She teaches online, at various facilities, and with homeschool groups. Her creative tribe has expanded entirely through word of mouth about the talented artist.
“I’m a creativity teacher, not an art teacher,” Blythe pointed out. Rather than teaching a tightly prescribed curriculum, she works with each student to customize learning.
To recharge herself, she’s a hardcore trail runner. Blythe keeps busy with her own artwork and entrepreneurship, having started a successful clothing line in her twenties.
Also, she loves working on cars. Loves it. In fact, the garage aesthetic informs her personal brand.
Describing her style as “outlandishly vintage,” a pairing of mid-century glamour and hip auto garage grunge, Blythe’s a “girl with grit,” and she combines the grit of welding and car repair with her own brand of femininity.
“I’m pretty, tough and soft at the same time. I like to dress fancy, in lipstick and heels. But I also like to be a tomboy. I think a lot of women are like that, honestly. I think most people are, fundamentally, a mix of traits and interests.”
Not everyone has Blythe’s eye for opportunity, however.
For example, after recognizing an unmet need to provide women with stylish protective eyewear, Blythe designed colorful glasses for anyone who shares her passion for standing out and staying safe while in the garage, maker’s space or while renovating a home.
“One day I thought, ‘I look ugly in these [glasses]. Why isn’t someone making them look better?’ So, two years ago, I pulled my trademark. I started pulling patents. I sought investors. Then I launched the first phase, working through retailers across the country.”
Safety Sasses
Now her Safety Sasses brand is taking off. The young company’s success is driven by social media, wholesale marketing and like-minded businesses that serve creative people like artists, makers and tradespeople.
The brand’s cheeky tagline? “Put some sass in your safety glass.”
Next Blythe plans to get her signature eyewear into America’s factories. She knows the company’s future depends a lot on the market and consumer mood. Yet she seems more interested in the process than the destination.
“These glasses are my art. They reflect my philosophy and creative point of view. In the glasses and my work, there’s a juxtaposition going on, between the fashionable and the essential. My whole life is a juxtaposition. Being creative isn’t just a set of skills. It’s an act. That presents challenges. To live a successful life — and make money — one has to pair technical skills with communication and vulnerability, to always keep learning.”
Safety Sasses also dovetails neatly with her work mentoring Boerne-area youth. As she’s advanced the company from the idea to implementation stage, she’s showing artistic teenagers what it takes to come up with a design, build a brand and market it.
It may be the lesson of a lifetime.
Explore More: Safety Sasses
Just as this story went to press, Blythe launched WeHeartArtCollective.com as a resource to help families tap into her affordable creative mentoring, classes and workshops. In-person and remote opportunities are available. Space is limited.
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