“When I was three and a half years old, I developed a bad cough which caused my parents to take me to the pediatrician,” expressed Senior Jordan Matalon on his Shared love site, found on “Our Story,” “The doctor was concerned after finding that my spleen was enlarged, so he ordered a scan. The following day, my parents got the phone call that no parent ever wants to receive. I was diagnosed with Stage 1 Wilms Tumor Kidney Cancer.”
Shared Love, an online clothing store founded by Matalon donates 25% off all proceeds to support kids with cancer. Selling clothes ranging from hoodies to PJ pants to blankets to head wear.
Matalon further explains how his diagnosis impacted him and why that evolved to the creation of “Shared Love”.
“After going through 20 weeks of Chemotherapy and the removal of my left kidney, I was finally cancer free,” said Matalon. “It wasn’t long until I felt drawn to give back to other kids going through the same thing I did. Fast Forward to my creation of Shared Love. I’m so grateful for my life and health … and I want to do my small part to share the love with pediatric cancer patients around the world. Thus, 25% of all profits are being donated to St. Jude Children’s Hospital.”
Matalon explains how he launched “Shared Love” as his business with specific items and the steps he took to accomplish this.
“I talked to my moms about starting a business around five to seven years ago,” said Matalon. “She was going to help me create a beanie line for kids with cancer with the same mission behind this. Then we added different clothing items like hoodies and tee shirts, expanding from beanies. The steps that we took to get [Shared Love] launched started my freshman year. I created a website, and bought a domain name that captured the whole message of sharing the love around the globe to all the pediatric cancer patients. And then I had to create logos and design the clothing myself, so that took a big amount of time.”
With a big support system from his friends and family, Matalon never gave up through the hardships he faced.
“True Fisher-Duddy really helped with the social media aspect of the brand, taking the role of Social Media Manager,” explained Matalon. “My parents obviously helped fund certain things when I needed help. Some stuff was quite expensive like the domain name. So that was my support system.”
Matalon offers advice for fellow students who attend school while trying to follow their passions.
“I think that it’s important to not fully take school out of the picture and you have to balance everything out because you still need your education,” said Matalon. “And I kind of figured that out as I was going. You need to create time for school, and your homework, and then you need to create time for your passion and your business. You can’t put one over the other or you just won’t be successful.”
Sharing love with friends, family, and strangers around the world is important in ways that Matalon has captured through his clothing brand with an essential message behind it.
“Thank you for joining me in sharing the love,” said Jordan Matalon.
