LEBANON, Indiana — Last year, Hannah Buchanan started a business, CozyCollectives, from her living room. She makes blankets, hats, sweaters, and decorative items by hand, on top of having a full-time job.
Buchanan has sold her items in five states and hopes to donate some of her profits to children in protective services — a situation she is very familiar with.
"When I was younger, I grew up with six sisters and unfortunately, it was a broken home, so we ended up getting taken by CPS," Buchanan said. "We ended up even getting separated, so I like to say I didn't have a home for a long time and now I'm adding special touches to many people's homes."
She hopes to make enough money to buy presents around the holidays for as many children in Child Protective Services as possible. When she was in CPS, Buchanan counted on the kindness of strangers around Christmas.
"Sometimes all I got for Christmas was what strangers bought me," said Buchanan. "That's a goal that I want from this is to do well enough where I can buy kids Christmas gifts this year, because I know how much that meant to me.”
She offers blankets, scarves, pillows, sweaters, beanies and is working on making scrunchies and stockings for the holidays. She hopes to take something negative — like her experience bouncing around homes as a child — and turning it into a positive.
"I had a friend tell me one time, 'Don't turn trauma into a personality trait because it's not,'" Buchanan said. "It's a wound that can be healed, so the healing process is the key to overpowering things that I went through as a kid and making my own business. Healing is the key to everything."
Buchanan doesn't have a website yet but sells her merchandise through Facebook and other social media sites.
To learn more, visit her Facebook page here: CozyCollectives.