Apparel brand Mess in a Bottle selling t-shirts in bottles with positive messages

Click here for updates on this story

    Baltimore, MD (WJZ) — All across the country right now, people are amplifying their voices for what they believe in, and Baltimore’s homegrown activists are no exception.

One local business owner shared her messages with the world.

You may have heard the saying, “turn your mess into a message.” At a time where a lot of people have a lot to say, that is exactly what Kalilah Wright is doing through her Baltimore-based apparel brand. With more than 100,000 followers and counting on Instagram, Mess in a Bottle is honoring its mission one t-shirt at a time.

“So I started Mess in a Bottle in 2016, shortly after the Freddie Gray riots in Baltimore, the uprising in Baltimore, so, you know, I’m an architect at Under Armour and I really wanted to create a way for people to have messages and share a form of communication through such a difficult time,” Wright said.

Wright is from Brooklyn, New York, but proudly calls Baltimore home.

She was out lawfully protesting in Baltimore this week because she said it was important to her as a black woman, raising a black son to stand in solidarity.

“We are not rioting, being upset, mooding, just for no reason, like people are frustrated, we are tired, we want change, we want things to be better in our community,” Wright said.

Mess in a Bottle was inspired by the ancient practice of sending messages in a bottle.

It’s the same concept, in 2020 form. Bottles in t-shirts.

Wright said these messages are used to inspire confidence in everything from love, career, culture and current events. She’s also selling masks.

Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.