Amelia Rose Hassler, 6, sells and designs T-shirts

Amelia Rose Hassler and her mother, Maria Coder, sit hovered over a laptop as Amelia paints a cat mermaid the standard tabby orange. Amelia is 6 years old and she is creating this design for her mother to add to a T-shirt for their online store.

The designs are all picked and colored by Amelia, and so far designs include a duck holding up a fishing rod, a pink-and-white rat, and a double rainbow filled sky.

Currently, Amelia is working on her latest design of choice, a cat with a mermaid tail.

Coder began the online Etsy store, selling various items, more than a year ago. When Amelia saw what her mother was up to she asked to be included. So, Coder decided to find a way to include her daughter by letting Amelia come up with some of the designs.

For the pair, this time together is valuable. Amelia is, after all, a busy girl balancing school with weekly hip-hop classes and swimming lessons. Her mother enjoys the time they spend together on the craft and thinks of it as a teaching opportunity.

“What I like about it is the conversations we have,” Coder said. “We opened a bank account for her, so now she’s learning about profits and loss and covering expenses.”

Teaching her daughter financial literacy was not something Coder expected but, she said, these are things she wished she knew when she was younger, so setting her daughter up for success while Amelia is young is an investment in the future.

The process of making and selling the shirts opens up more than just money conversations, Coder said she also uses the time to teach her daughter practical life skills.

“We talk about how sometimes when you have a goal and we’re not meeting the goal, we don’t get rid of the goal, we change the tactic and we talk about helpful ways to get it done,” Coder said.

Despite the educational talks, Coder said she keeps the atmosphere around the T-shirt creations fun. Amelia picks a design outline and paints them on her own time. And when they aren’t using the computer’s paint tools, they are using real paint together. Coder said she and Amelia spend a lot of time doing arts and crafts, or visiting art installations.

Their walls are covered in Amelia’s artwork, from paintings to little motivational posters to coloring pages. Coder said she and Amelia host monthly arts-and-crafts parties in which they invite groups of classmates to join them.

During The Press’s visit, Amelia’s fingers were painted blue, her favorite color, which she said she did herself as another form of art.

“I don’t think there’s a craft Amelia doesn’t like,” Coder said.

Amelia dreams of being a contortionist and practices her flexibility often according to her mother. Her upcoming birthday party combines her favorite interests: Frozen, flexibility, and rats. Although Amelia cares for two pet fish by the names of Ana and Sophia, the pet she really wants is a rat.

“They’re so cute,” she said.

Every year for Amelia’s birthday party, Coder said, she includes a craft for the kids to do and take home. Last year’s craft was a metal tin that became the home of a little bear wrapped in a blanket that they called Reading Buddies. This year’s craft will be mouse-themed necklaces and knick-knacks that have been hidden in play-doh waiting for the children to uncover them.

During the pandemic, Coder started a blog called Rosie Reader. She wanted to find something to keep her daughter entertained while they were stuck inside, so she started the blog on which she and Amelia read children’s books together and wrote reviews. Each book is accompanied on the blog by free, printable coloring pages or activities. Coder said she is sure to use books easy to find in public libraries because much of the Rosie Reader audience is teachers and mothers. 

Amelia’s favorite book is Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.

Amelia and her mom will sell her shirts in-person at a pop-up Saturday, May 11, from noon to 5 p.m. outside the Yoburger located at 3726 Riverdale Ave.

Coder said she has been waiting for this pop-up because it’s another part of the process she wants to share with Amelia.