We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Rebekah Robeck. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Rebekah below.

Rebekah, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

Let’s Be Kind is a non‐profit that focuses on Creating Student Led Cultures of Unity Through Kindness on School Campuses. In 2018 Rebekah Robeck an 8th grader at Costa Mesa Middle School started Let’s Be Kind
Day by gifting her student body the first Let’s Be Kind Tees.

“At the start of my 8th grade year I moved from living abroad in El Salvador with my family back to
California. Attending middle school here was different. The culture seemed to be focused around
putting each other down. I was told my hair looked weird and people would make fun of the way I
spoke Spanish so I decided I wanted to do something about how people were treating me and treating
each other. I came up with a kindness event called Let’s Be Kind Day, this is where I passed out t‐shirts
to the entire student body of my school that said Let’s Be Kind on them. I am so proud of what it has
done because in five years we have reached over 30 schools and have given t‐shirts to more than
18,500 students. The t‐shirt and this one act of kindness has changed schools, students and families.
I hope to change the culture on school campuses to create a place of unity through spreading
kindness!”

Without knowing other kids care, it is really easy to feel alone without anyone to talk to. By wearing a Let’s Be
Kind t‐shirt you can start spreading kindness through your actions and let other kids know they always have
someone to talk to.

Let’s Be Kind day was something we never thought would be more than just the one day my eighth grade year but because of it’s message and the heart behind it students asked for another day. After many students asking for another Let’s Be Kind day my freshman year we continued to have Let’s Be Kind days up to present. Students gravitate to the t-shirt and the day event because it is student lead and they know that when they see our logo and our t-shirt they are safe, they are welcome to come up to the person wearing the t-shirt as fully themselves. Honestly we didn’t know if what we were doing was going to work, but after seeing the changes in students everyday lives we realized that our message of being kind to yourself and to one another made an impact of the culture of school campuses.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

One of the loneliest places on a school campus is the playground and lunch time. We are focused on bringing unity through kindness on school campuses. Our unique relationships that we build with schools,
cities, along with the community at large is what sets us apart. Our program is designed to encourage the
social‐emotional experience of students. We work with schools to help them have conversations about
breaking down barriers between groups and address how students can feel like they belong. We have
already seen a rise in change with students as they are the ones asking to have a let’s be kind day on their
campus. Our program includes, a Let’s Be Kind Day, and pop‐up events called LBK Mobile Conversational
Lounge. Here is where we will bring to have that personal relationship with students on their campus. Our
hope is to have our LBK Van and set up a lounge area before school, during lunch and after school. Our
biggest request from students is to “just show up”. They need us on their campus and we want to be the
ones that are constantly showing up for them.

Wearing a t‐shirt spreads the message of kindness, inclusivity, and belonging. It helps create a culture of
unity and kindness on school campuses. Each school designs a let’s be kind day that fits the culture of their
specific campus. We provide t‐shirts for all students, teachers and staff to wear on the specific day which is
celebrated together as a district wide event. We are working with the Newport‐Mesa Unified School District
to provide more social‐emotional experience opportunities such as our Van pop‐ups and conversational
lounges.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

There was a moment in the beggining of our journey where we thought we couldn’t continue in what we are doing. We had been trying to work with my current high school at the time and we got pushed back again and again. It was extremely discouraging and on top of it there had been some issues that were already hard to deal with. My mom and I were talking about these issues and it seamed we we’re stuck in this season of things not going our way. In this conversation my mom asked of this is something we should even continue to do. My immediate response was yes, this is something we most defenity should continue in. At the time is was hard to see the future in what we were doing but after talking through the purpose in what we are doing in looking at our accomplishments we decided to work harder to make our hopes and dreams come true!

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.

What’s special about me and my cofounder is that we are mother and daughter. From the beginning my mom has been the most supportive business partner I could ask for. There have definitely been challenges in trying to figure out the mother-daughter partner relationship but in working through that I think we have a pretty cool partnership and way of communicating!

Contact Info:

• Website: letsbekind.org
• Instagram: letsbekindday
• Facebook: Let’s Be Kind Day
• Twitter: LetsBeKindDay1
• Youtube: letsbekindday
• Other: TikTok: letsbekindday

Image Credits
Steve Cowell