Elizabeth Brunner, Founder of StereoType
Name: Elizabeth Brunner
Founder: StereoType
Who is Elizabeth Brunner?
Elizabeth Brunner is a San Francisco-based designer, mom of boy-girl twins and the founder of StereoType, a fashion-forward gender-free kids clothing brand that’s designed to celebrate individuality and freedom of expression by blending traditional ideas of boys’ and girls’ wear. StereoType’s blended fashion collection combines elements of style, design and comfort to inspire creativity, individuality and freedom of expression.
Throughout her life, Elizabeth has been examining our collective perceptions of fashion, and going through the process of learning and unlearning the ‘rules’ associated with it, which has become a deeply personal journey. After studying fashion design at California College of the Arts, Elizabeth found herself at odds with wasteful fashion industry standards, which led her to making the decision to launch her own line, Piece x Piece, a pioneering line of one-of-a-kind, high-end pieces that reused discarded sample swatches from larger fashion houses.
However, it wasn’t until a few years later that she met her ultimate style muses: her own boy-girl twins. Watching them dress themselves, she was in awe of the way they joyfully broke all the ‘rules’ of gendered clothing, blending their wardrobes together with a sense of style that could only be described as ‘free-for-all.’ It was the ultimate unlearning of the rules that we’ve all been taught about gendered fashion at a young age. The lesson felt deeply personal and Elizabeth knew there was no turning back.
From there, StereoType was born. Elizabeth launched StereoType as a way to share this joyful, blended vision of kids’ clothing and to advocate for self-expression of all humans, especially the small ones. Elizabeth believes that by breaking fashion rules and disregarding the boundaries we put around what boys and girls should wear, we encourage a more playful, creative, expressive sense of self for everyone.
In less than three sentences tell us about your company and what you do.
StereoType is a San Francisco-based gender-free kids clothing brand with the mission to empower kids to express themselves authentically through their clothing choices. Designed to celebrate kids’ individuality and freedom of expression by blending traditional ideas of boys and girls wear, StereoType’s capsule collection is gender-free (and a beautiful blend of both boys and girls pieces) seasonless, eco-conscious and features fun and comfortable daily staples for kids to wear and layer with year round.
What does BEING a FoundHer mean to you?
Being a FoundHER for me has been the journey of learning and "unlearning." I’m learning to show up and lead in many different ways that aren’t always comfortable or easy. It’s truly a ride like no other, and like parenting (I'm a mom of boy-girl twins) I’m in it for the long haul. I know there will be ups and downs and beautiful swells of chaos mixed with the quietness of the smallest of details. I’m here for all of it.
Also, for me, being a FoundHER has meant bringing to life a true calling that was inspired by my kids. I am a FoundHER because I stand for the freedom of self-expression for my kids and for all kids. I also have so many ideas that I want to see come to fruition that I have to keep going. It's exhilarating and exhausting all at the same time but it’s mine to create and that is the ultimate dream come true.
How do you support other female founders and women in business?
I love supporting female founders and women in business every opportunity I get! My small but mighty team is made up of all women who are inspired by our mission and vision for empowering authenticity. I love buying products from female-founded brands because I admire the courage that these women have to put themselves out there creatively and overcome anything in there way. I partner with other women in business on cross promoting each other's missions and products. I love going on female-run podcasts and having deep conversations with them about what it means to be a woman in business. I truly believe in the power of women supporting each other.
At what point did you make your company a full time gig? How did you know the time was right?
I founded my company to challenge and change stereotypes that no longer serve us, as parents and as individuals. StereoType is not just about designing and selling clothing, it’s about the idea of moving beyond a barrier that doesn’t really exist and being our true selves. That’s what my kids taught and continue to teach me about fashion and dressing beyond gender.
This evolving idea started to get me out of bed everyday and the company became my full time vision in 2020 during the beginning of COVID. It became the antidote to the heaviness of the outside world. I became entranced by my vision to bring my mission to fruition and so my drive became my reason for getting up each day to work at it.
What is something you do differently from the industry standard?
StereoType is one of the pioneering gender-free kids brands on the market. I got the inspiration for StereoType from watching my kids dress themselves from each other’s closets and create a style that was “free for all” and without any gender limits. When I started looking around the kids sections at the major retail stores, I realized that there were only “the girls” and “the boys” sections but nothing that was “gender-free” that gave kids the freedom to express themselves outside the confines of those two sections. If I could change one thing I would remove the label of the boys section and the girls section and just make it the “kids section.”
What are three strategies you use to market your business, grow brand awareness and generate bottom line growth?
Social Media: We focus heavily on creating social media content for our key platforms of Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn and now TikTok. We also partner with content creators and influencers that authentically resonate with the brand to help promote our brand’s mission and products.
Public Relations: We work with many writers to secure a variety of earned editorial opportunities that tell our target customers about the brand, its story, its founders and the items in the collection.
Thought Leadership: I speak as a guest on podcasts, participate in various Q&As, and write for the StereoType blog as an effort to get StereoType’s message across and share my learnings and experience gained from starting my brand.
What was an obstacle you overcame to get your business where it is today? Please share the story behind it.
One of the biggest obstacles I’ve overcome with launching StereoType is launching it during COVID. It was not ideal at all but my gut was telling me to just keep going. I had no product when I launched, only pictures. So I was taking a big leap of faith putting my brand out there without having physical product to sell. I understood that it was more important for me to get the mission out there and the business launched so I didn’t let anything stop me.
Do you want to share your story and advice with the Dear FoundHer… community? CLICK HERE to submit your information.
Follow us on Instagram @dearfoundher and join our Facebook community for more conversation.
Make sure you tune in to Dear FoundHer… for new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday.
