LOS ANGELES — For 38-year-old designer Emily McDowell, the worst part about having cancer wasn’t losing her hair or feeling sick from chemotherapy and radiation treatments. It was the loneliness she felt as friends and families pulled away because they didn’t know how to accept her illness.
Even worse, some people said the exact wrong thing, even if they meant well.
Her experience inspired McDowell to create a bold line of “Empathy Cards” that are anything but the typical sympathy card filled with trite inspirational messages.
McDowell told Slate that she used Instagram as an informal focus group to test out some of her ideas.
McDowell wants recipients of her card line to “feel seen, understood, and loved.”
See the whole set of 'empathy cards'. http://t.co/dyILqfTXBB pic.twitter.com/p883ercugc
— PostSecret (@postsecret) May 5, 2015
"more authentic ways to communicate about sickness & suffering" http://t.co/JuzF1HM29f #emilymcdowell #empathycards pic.twitter.com/zyLBkKvUqJ
— Chris Grayson (@cgrayson) May 6, 2015
I love these @emilymcdowell_ empathy cards SO MUCH. Illness may not be a gift, but these are: http://t.co/VZFzleWJRe pic.twitter.com/waEYZFyipr
— Suleika Jaouad (@suleikajaouad) May 6, 2015