About Us

Sharks & Stims is a small business based in Omaha, Nebraska. It is owned and operated by a neurodivergent woman. We originally opened in 2023 as an Etsy store selling visual communication cards. The store eventually expanded to selling chewelry, keychains, stickers, apparel, and more! After some time, it was decided to expand from Etsy and start our own standalone online store. The store is accompanied by a blog of the same name that was started in mid-late 2022.

About the Family Behind Sharks & Stims

Hi! My name is Mae and I'm the owner of Sharks & Stims. Sharks & Stims was created to share products I was making for my own little neurodivergent family with other families that may need them.

In mid-2019, my husband Sam and I had our son. We call him E. For various reasons, we prefer to keep his name and identity private. When E was just 21 months old (so not even two!) he was diagnosed with moderate autism.

That's where our story really began. At the time E was nonverbal and did multiple years of speech and occupational therapy. Eventually, physical therapy and special education preschool classes were thrown in. As of the launch of this website, in April of 2024, E is almost five years old.

He is now considered minimally verbal, moderate to high support needs, and his preferred form of communication is a speech generating AAC device. E will be entering general education Kindergarten with an IEP and is just the most incredible kid.

Because of E's diagnosis, we had to learn a lot about neurodiversity, autism, and what life may look like for E as an adult. And through this, I discovered a few things about myself.

In 2023, I found out that I am both autistic and have OCD. So, I have two forms of neurodivergence. This discovery was an incredible thing for me. It made me feel less alone, it helped me start to truly love myself and my own brain, and it helped me start to understand E a little better. And, on top of being neurodivergent, I am also a member of the LGBT+ community. You might see some of these themes intersect in some of our products.

I am an artist, I have my Associate's in Fine Arts degree, majoring in studio art. I use this degree and these skills I've spent many years building to design our products and the graphics used on them.

My husband, Sam, is also neurodivergent. But he is a more private person and this is about as much as I'm going to share about him.

How Sharks & Stims Started

As stated before, Sharks & Stims started as an Etsy store selling just visual communication cards. And how did that happen?

It started with an Instagram account.

Like many parents of disabled and neurodivergent children, I had a hard time seeing typically developing children. And, well, they were everywhere. We can't exactly avoid being around typically developing children when in public, and I needed a safe little bubble I could escape to where I was surrounded by people who get it.

And that is how E's Autism Journey on Instagram was born. This started as my anonymous little bubble where I was able to interact with other parents and other neurodivergent people. This afforded me privacy to share my family's experiences without betraying my son's privacy.

Then, the next thing I know, I'm gaining followers and some of my reels are reaching half a million people! All I wanted was to share our experiences and some tips that may help other families. It definitely is not an account with a huge following by any means. As of April 2024, I have just under 8,000 followers. But this definitely isn't a small number either!

In the fall of 2022, E entered a special education preschool class. This was when we started noticing him really struggling with transitions, routines, and instructions. This was (and still is) directly tied to his language delay. At the time, while E was about 3.5, his communication skills were that of a 12 month old. This can be really frustrating for both the child and the family. All he wanted was to understand to be able to communicate, and we wanted the same thing.

I started seeing a lot of visual communication tools, but they just didn't seem right for E. So I ended up designing a handful of visual communication cards we could carry around with us.

And they changed everything for our family.

After a bit of time, E wasn't struggling with transitions and routines nearly as much. He was starting to be able to communicate things he needed and wanted with the adults caring for him - at school, at home, in therapies. This one little tool made all the difference.

I started sharing these cards on Instagram and got a ton of messages about them. I was asked how I made them, if I was going to sell them, or if I knew of any online store that sold anything similar.

And these cards truly aren't difficult to make. I will still gladly share how I make them with anyone who wants to know. But, they can be time consuming and a bit tedious. And expensive, if you don't already own everything to make them (printer, thermal laminator or self-sealing pouches, etc). I realized that there weren't any ready-made products out there quite like the cards I was making. So, I designed a set to sell on Etsy.

Then another set. And another set. And another one.

Before long, we were expanding to chewelry, stickers, keychains, and apparel. Our products are centered around being as neurodiversity affirming as possible - for both children and adults.

In early-mid 2024, I decided it was time to move on from just Etsy. We do still have our Etsy store, but I felt it was time for a standalone website. And that's where you are now!

Thank you so much for reading our story. We appreciate each and every one of you.

xoxo

Mae