A Donegal schoolgirl won a national business contest after creating a gender neutral clothing range aimed at transgender and gender neutral shoppers.

Katie McGloin, 16, beat thousands of other pupils to win Foróige Young Entrepreneur of the Year award. The young entrepreneur and Magh Ene college pupil came out tops in the competition with a forward-thinking fashion line which celebrates diversity.

We caught up with Katie to discover the story behind the KT Clothing brand.

M: Why a gender neutral range?

K: I do not have any first-hand experience with being transgender. I am not myself and in fact, do not know anyone personally who is.

I definitely think there is a stigma around being transgender and there seems to be a disrespect towards the transgender community. We are told from a young age to be who you want to be but those people who dare to be different are constantly discriminated against.

Being made to suppress your true identity because you are different and in the minority is unfair. I think it’s not safe for everyone to come out and be transgender or be themselves.

Research shows that there is a high suicide and harassment (physical & verbal) rate in the transgender community in Ireland, so clearly, there is not a full acceptance here. In saying that we have successfully passed The Gender Recognition Act in 2015, allowing Transgender people to obtain full legal recognition of their preferred gender.

M: How did the idea come about?

K: The idea came about when I was shopping for clothes and I noticed that the majority of them were very girly. That’s not the way I personally like to dress and I realised that there were little to no gender neutral clothing in the stores. It was a bit of a eureka moment because I thought if I’m feeling this way – others must be too. Gender neutral clothing was the only answer for me

M: How are you developing the line?

K: At the moment we’re doing mostly hoodies and sweatshirts but I’d love to expand the range to include a smart -casual offering. I’m in talks with a number of factories and would hope to be in a position to roll that out in the near future.”

M: How did your interest in business come about? Was there a business background in your family?

K: I don’t exactly come from a ‘traditional’ business background but my Mum is a reflexologist and she works for herself. But I’d say my real business mentoring came from my school Magh Ene college in Bundoran. It’s a very small school but that’s an advantage because we get a lot of attention from the teachers and it’s also got a strong business focus.

M: What was the very first business you set up?

K: When I was about 12 because we had an assignment to set up a mini company. I was, and still am, a big fan of One Direction fan – so I brought in about 100 One Direction bracelets – to sell at the Christmas market.everyone had cakes and hand-crafts but the bracelets sold out very quickly. I suppose that’s where it started for me.

M: When did the clothing line launch?

K: The site launches with the website in December. The sales are good and we’re moving out of the red so that’s been a real motivation to keep going.

M: What was winning the Foróige Young Entrepreneur of the Year award like?

K: I went to the Mansion House where there was about 6 other business set up and we each had to complete a 20-minute presentation for the judges. My presentation ended up lasting about 45 minutes; I couldn’t stop talking!
Later that afternoon we had a short ceremony and I was announced Youth Entrepreneur of the Year. It’s the first time the school has ever won that award, so it was great to bring it home. I have a great teacher who is very supportive.

M: What’s next for you and KT Clothing?

K: I’ll be presenting Ireland in November in Bulgaria at the youth level, so that’s very exciting! In terms of the brand, there are so many areas I’d love to expand into but for the moment I am definitely trying to get into more shops locally and nationally. I would love to have my own shop and to break into the American market.
There’s so much to do – but I love every second of it.

Check out KT clothing here: www.ktclothingco.com