A Rhode Island teenager is using fashion to help people with Asperger’s syndrome — starting with his younger brother.
Jose Rodriguez said his younger brother Joel has always moved around, so to help with his fidgeting, he added a metal grommet to the bottom of Joel’s t-shirt and attached more gadgets at the bottom.
“I got his input on it. he said it was awesome,” Jose recalled. “And we got the first one, threw on him and it went well. He loved it.”
That shirt turned into a clothing brand Jose calls ‘Tasium’ — an anagram of ‘autism.’ He entered the idea in an entrepreneurship contest against 20,000 other contestants — and won first prize.”
“My mom cried. My dad cried everybody cried. Except me and my brother,” Jose said. “We were just so happy. Our smiles just couldn’t get wiped away though.”
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