We Left America — But We’re Not Walking Away

Our family moved to the Netherlands. Our values didn't change. Neither did Kind Cotton.

Today we took a huge leap into uncharted waters. We packed up 16 suitcases between the six of us—my parents, our kids, and my partner, Kevin—and moved our lives to the Netherlands.

Simply writing that sentence makes me cry big tears of both sadness and joy. To understand how we got here, I need to take you back to a café in Scotland in 2018.

Kev and I were wrapping up an incredible vacation. I looked at him and shared a dream I had been carrying with me: someday, I wanted to live abroad. He felt similarly, and as we took our last few sips of coffee, we dreamed about what our lives could look like.

Fast forward eight years, two kids, more than 100 book fairs, and nearly 300,000 books later, and…it just didn't happen.

Until now. So why are we taking this huge leap? Probably for many of the reasons you expect—and maybe some you don't.

The life we wanted to build

We love to travel.

I didn't have the opportunity to travel growing up, so when Kev and I took our first trip to Europe in 2017, I fell in love. I fell in love with experiencing cultures different from our own, meeting people whose lives looked different from ours, and realizing just how much there is to see and learn outside of the little corner of the world we call home.

We want our daughters to have those experiences too.

We want them to grow up curious about the world and the people in it. We want them to understand that there isn't just one way to live, one way to build a community, or one way to see the world.

And there are parts of everyday life in the Netherlands that we're incredibly excited about.

The bike culture. We are BEYOND excited to live somewhere we can walk or bike almost everywhere we need to go.

A slower pace of life. Our work isn't going away, but we're excited to give our daughters a childhood that feels a little slower, a little more independent, and a little more connected to the community around them.

Travel. We want our kids to see the world. To hear different languages. To experience different cultures. To learn about people by actually meeting them.

And then there's safety. This one is harder to write about. I was a kindergarten teacher for many years. Active shooter drills were part of the job.

I watched five-year-olds practice what they would do if someone entered their school with a gun.

Those experiences stay with you. And once you become a parent, they hit differently.

There are things we've accepted as "normal" in America that I don't think should ever feel normal.

And yes, politics played a part.

If you've been part of the Kind Cotton community for any amount of time, this probably isn't surprising. We've never been quiet about what we believe....

We believe LGBTQ+ kids deserve to grow up knowing they are loved exactly as they are.

We believe trans people deserve dignity, safety, healthcare, and the freedom to exist without their identities being debated.

We believe immigrants are human beings deserving of compassion and dignity.

We believe public schools, teachers, and libraries are worth fighting for.

We believe children deserve access to books that reflect themselves and introduce them to people whose lives may look completely different from their own.

We believe women should have control over their own bodies.

We believe Black lives matter.

We believe kindness requires more from us than simply being nice to the people around us.

Those beliefs built Kind Cotton.

And over the past several years, we've watched many of the things we believe in come increasingly under attack in the country we call home. Books are being removed from shelves. Educators are being targeted for creating inclusive classrooms. Trans kids and adults are being used as political punching bags. Immigrant families are being dehumanized. Rights we once assumed were settled are suddenly up for debate.

We've spent years using Kind Cotton to speak up about these things. But somewhere along the way, those conversations stopped happening only through our business. They started happening around our dinner table too.

What kind of childhood do we want for our daughters? What kind of community do we want to raise them in? What do we want their everyday lives to feel like?

And if we had the opportunity to experience something different, were we brave enough to actually do it? Eventually, our answer was yes.

We also recognize what an enormous privilege it is to even have that choice. Most families can't simply decide to pack 16 suitcases, cross an ocean, and start a new life in another country. We don't take that opportunity lightly.

And we don't pretend the Netherlands is some perfect utopia where injustice doesn't exist. It isn't. We're not moving because we think we've found a perfect country. We're moving because we had an opportunity to build a different kind of life for our family, and after dreaming about it for nearly a decade, we decided it was finally time to take the leap.

But we need to make something very clear...

We left America. We are not walking away from it.

Moving our family to the Netherlands does not mean we have stopped caring about what happens in the United States. It doesn't mean Kind Cotton is suddenly going to stop talking about American politics because we live across an ocean.

Quite the opposite.

When books are banned in American schools, we'll speak up.

When trans kids are targeted by politicians, we'll speak up.

When immigrants are dehumanized, we'll speak up.

When teachers and public schools are attacked, we'll speak up.

When the rights and safety of marginalized communities are threatened, we'll speak up.

We will continue to advocate. We will continue to share resources. We will continue to support mutual aid efforts whenever possible. We will continue putting inclusive books into the hands of kids.

Our address changed. Our convictions didn't.

We know there may be people who ask how we can leave America while continuing to fight so loudly for what happens there. For us, those things aren't contradictory.

We made the decision we believed was right for our family while recognizing how fortunate we were to have that choice. But moving across an ocean didn't erase the people we love, the community we've built, or our responsibility to use the platform we have to stand up for what we believe.

Kind Cotton has never been about where Kev and I happen to live. It's about what all of us believe is worth fighting for.

So, what happens to Kind Cotton?

The short answer? Not much changes.

Kind Cotton is still Kind Cotton. Our mission is still our mission.

Our U.S. operations will continue, and we're incredibly excited that we've secured partnerships with book nonprofits that will allow us to ship books directly to schools so our book fairs can continue. The logistics may look a little different behind the scenes, but the goal remains exactly the same: getting inclusive books into the hands of kids.

And we're not leaving our American community behind.

Kind Cotton will continue to respond to what's happening in America. We'll continue creating designs that say something. We'll continue talking about the issues that matter to us—even when they're uncomfortable, even when they're political, and even when someone tells us a clothing company should "stick to selling shirts."

If you've been here awhile, you already know that's never been who we are. And it never will be.

Kind Cotton is growing across the ocean, too.

While the heart of Kind Cotton's existing community and work remains in the United States, we're also beginning to explore what our mission might look like here.

We'll be starting an EU side of the company, and one of our hopes is to partner with nonprofits in the Netherlands that provide books to refugee families.

We're still in the very early stages. We don't know exactly what this will look like yet, and we don't want to pretend we have it all figured out. But that's part of what makes this chapter so exciting...

We're going to learn.

We're going to meet people.

We're going to explore our new community.

And hopefully, we'll find new ways to do what Kind Cotton has always tried to do: use kindness as a catalyst for meaningful change.

Why are we telling you all of this?

Because Kind Cotton has never been just a tee company. And you've never been just customers.

Over the years, you've celebrated milestones with us. You've voted on designs. You've helped us respond when communities needed support. You've helped put hundreds of thousands of books into kids' hands. You've sent us photos and stories from your classrooms, your families, Pride celebrations, protests, libraries, and everyday lives.

You've watched this little idea grow into something we never could have imagined sitting in that café eight years ago.

We want to show you some of what we're learning here. We want to share the beautiful moments and probably some of the really hard ones too. We want to introduce you to people and organizations doing incredible work. We want to see what kindness and community look like from another part of the world.

And we're pretty sure we'll make plenty of mistakes along the way....Six people, 16 suitcases, two kids, two grandparents, one small business, and an entirely new country. What could possibly go wrong? 😂

But mostly, we're incredibly grateful.

Grateful that two people sitting in a café in Scotland were brave enough to dream about a life that felt completely unrealistic at the time.

Grateful that eight years later, we were brave enough to actually try it.

And eternally grateful to every single one of you who has supported Kind Cotton and helped us put nearly 300,000 books into the hands of kids.

This isn't goodbye.

Not to America.

Not to our community.

And certainly not to the work we've only just begun.

Our family moved. Kind Cotton didn't.

We're still here. We're still fighting. We're just doing it from the other side of the ocean now. ❤️

— Kaitlin & Kevin