It’s just a T-shirt – and at the same time, it’s so much more than that. All the girls taking part in the ABURY Girls Gearing Up Academies in Berlin, Malawi and India wear the same shirt. It connects young women who live thousands of kilometres apart, speak different languages and come to the Academy with very different stories and experiences.
And what makes this year’s T-shirt particularly special is that it wasn’t designed by an agency or a professional design team, but by eight girls from Berlin who took part in the ABURY Girls Gearing Up Academy themselves. (And the best part. The t-shirt is available in our webshop)
There was only one guideline for their design workshop: THE TIME IS NOW.
Turning a Sentence into a Design
“The time is now” is more than just the claim of this year’s Academy. It stands for the idea of not waiting until someday to be braver, someday to raise your voice or someday to turn an idea into reality – but to start now and trust in your own possibilities. But how do you translate a thought like that into a T-shirt?
That was exactly what eight participants from Berlin were asked to figure out during a two-hour design workshop at the ifa-Galerie Berlin. They were joined by two very special mentors: Waridi Schrobsdorff and Buki Akomolafe. Waridi was born and raised in Kenya. She worked for many years as an international top model and today is committed, among other things, to making African fashion and designers more visible internationally. Buki Akomolafe has German-Nigerian roots, spent part of her childhood in Nigeria and now lives and works as a designer in Berlin. Through her own label, she brings together different cultural influences, traditional craftsmanship and contemporary design.
To give the girls as much freedom as possible to experiment, the team had prepared a whole range of materials. The ABURY GGU logo and individual elements from it, letters, words and graphic shapes had been printed in different colours and sizes. There were also T-shirts in lots of different colours to work with. No computers, no complicated design software – just paper, scissors, glue, T-shirts and plenty of possibilities.
“How Are We Supposed to Do This in Two Hours?”
The eight girls split into three groups and were given the task of developing one or two designs each. When we explained that the design for this year’s official Academy T-shirt would actually emerge from this workshop, at first hardly anyone could imagine how that was going to work. Design a T-shirt? Without any design experience? And do it all in just two hours?
That uncertainty lasted for about ten minutes.
Then someone picked up the first pair of scissors, someone else started arranging letters on a shirt, the logo was taken apart and put back together in a completely new way – and suddenly ideas were flying around the room. The girls discussed, experimented, cut elements apart, moved logos around, combined colours and discarded designs they had just created. One idea led to the next, one group looked over at what another was doing, thoughts were picked up and developed further, and the individual elements prepared beforehand began to take on entirely new forms.
Perhaps that was the most exciting part of the workshop. Very quickly, it was no longer just about designing a beautiful T-shirt, but about creating something together. Bringing your own idea to the table while being open to someone else changing it. Making your case, listening to others, making decisions and trying something without knowing beforehand whether it will work. And sometimes taking apart a design you had been completely convinced by just ten minutes earlier.
Four Designs and One Difficult Decision
After two intense hours, we had four completely different T-shirt designs in front of us – and choosing a favourite was anything but easy. Each design had its own character. Some were bold and playful, others more graphic and minimal. Some put the claim centre stage, while others played with the ABURY GGU logo and its individual elements.
We would have loved to produce all four. But one of the designs was going to become the official ABURY Girls Gearing Up Academy 2026 T-shirt – and therefore not simply remain a memory of a creative afternoon in Berlin, but become part of a much bigger story.
From Berlin to Malawi and India
And that is exactly what makes this T-shirt so special to us: an idea developed by eight girls during one afternoon in Berlin is now travelling around the world.
It becomes a symbol of an international sisterhood of young women who are learning to take their abilities seriously, use their voices, take responsibility and actively shape their own futures. The T-shirt makes this connection visible – and the story of how it came to life captures pretty much exactly what the ABURY Girls Gearing Up Academy is all about.
Because for us, empowerment doesn’t just mean telling young people, “You can do this.” Above all, it means creating spaces where they can experience for themselves that they really can. At the beginning of the workshop, hardly any of the girls could imagine designing a T-shirt in just two hours. A little while later, that question had long been forgotten and everyone was right in the middle of it: experimenting, discussing, changing things, making decisions and creating something new together.
Sometimes that takes a big step. And sometimes all it takes is a table covered in paper, a few pairs of scissors, T-shirts in different colours, two inspiring mentors and the freedom to simply begin. “I don’t know how we’re supposed to do this” turns into a first idea, that first idea turns into a shared design – and suddenly that design becomes a T-shirt that girls thousands of kilometres away will be wearing.
Perhaps that is the best translation of this year’s claim: THE TIME IS NOW. Not when you know how to do everything. Not when you finally feel completely ready. And not when someone else tells you that your idea is good enough.
We are incredibly proud of our eight young designers and grateful to Waridi Schrobsdorff and Buki Akomolafe for sharing their experience, creativity and time with them and for making this special afternoon possible.
And now, of course, we want to know: What do you think of our final T-shirt?
We certainly couldn’t be prouder of it. Because behind this T-shirt is not just a design, but the ideas, creativity and courage of eight young women.
And if you’d like to take a little piece of the Academy home with you: The T-shirt was locally produced in Berlin by our partner nur.Fabrik and is available in limited quantities in our webshop.
👉 Take home a piece of the ABURY Girls Gearing Up Academy 2026 – and wear the message: THE TIME IS NOW.
Discover the T-Shirt in the webshop →
