Only Human

Hi, humans! I'm Bree Pear, jane of all trades and Founder of the global community organization for good - Only Human. An entrepreneurial thinker from the beginning, I've always thought outside of the box and explored the world of tech at a young age as an outlet from severe bullying. After working in branding and marketing, for tech companies and more, I decided to take the biggest leap of my life and quite my full-time job to travel the country for 8 mos. with my dog Mika and connect with humans, share their stories, and explore myself. That journey was the start of Only Human, which is now my heart and soul. I live in Phoenix, AZ with my beautiful family and get to wake up every day with one goal - "how can I help more humans?"

As a global community organization and platform for good, Only Human is a dynamic entity that is committed to fostering human connection, uniting communities around causes that will move humanity forward, and empowering individuals to become their best selves in hopes we can create a better world for all humans. Through a rotating monthly cause campaign, we drive revenue through apparel sales and international give back trips with 10% of all profits each month benefiting a different nonprofit who is making the world a better place in some way. We are committed to solving the loneliness and oppression many humans feel because of their identities and would use the funding from this initiative to provide free mental health resources, resources for LGBTQ+ humans, and resources for Black humans. We'd bring a physical human storytelling experiences to this world on topics that matter. 

One main focus of ours is to encourage humans to Stay; as I have along with my business partner and many humans I know have struggled with mental health at some points. We need more humans to choose to Stay; so they can unlock their talents and potentially change the world in a massive way. With COVID and everything going on in the world, mental health is at a high.

18.57% of adults are experiencing a mental health illness, equivalent to 45 million Americans.

Suicide is the 2nd leading cause of death among young people ages 10 to 24.

LGBT youth are almost five times as likely to have attempted suicide compared to heterosexual youth.

Every September, we launch an annual Stay; Suicide Awareness campaign that allows a safe space for story sharing, brings in health and wellness activities, offers free mental health resources, has mental health virtual events, in-person events, and more. I can't tell you how many humans have come up to me and told me our work has saved their life - we need to do more of this. 

A global platform and community organization for good that:

- donates 10% of all profits each month to a new nonprofit making the world a better place 

- has a free community of good humans who are OH Advocates for good who unlock prizes for doing good for themselves, the world, and their communities

- Designs and sells ethically-produced apparel that starts meaningful conversations

- provides virtual events and programming that bring humans together online

- provides international give back trips to work with nonprofits, offer self-development workshops, unite humans through live music/storysharing

- collaborates with like-minded companies and organizations to provide free resources related to identity, mental health, physical health, and more

- Hosts community cause events in tandem with our monthly cause topics (free community anti-bullying picnics etc)

- creates monthly cause campaigns around topics that impact humanity so we can drive awareness & education while encouraging community and give-back initatives

- Travels to 80+ events, including pride festivals and more, to meet LGBTQ+ humans and other oppressed individuals desperately seeking community 

- nonprofits: we support nonprofits through fundraising initiatives, online marketing campaigns, help with in-kind design/marketing needs and more

- humans struggling with mental health: we provide free resources, an incredible community where they can connect with others and feel like they belong, virtual events on mental health, annual stay; event and more

- LGBTQ+ humans: as queer-owned and run, we have ongoing initiatives supporting humans who identify as LGBTQ+ and run an annual impact campaign that runs 365 days a year

- Youth: We realize that we need to encourage, support, and empower the next generation as well and work with others to move education forward and inspire tiny humans

Our sole reason for being is to make the world a better place and I know from my own personal experience that through our impact model of empowering individuals to be their best selves > linking them into a safe community of good humans > working together to give back > and sharing our stories  that we can make drastic waves of change that will humanize the world and elevate humanity all-around. 

In 2016, I had recently been let go of at a job I loved, my relationship fell apart, I weighed more than I ever had and I was at my rock bottom. Over the course of 12 weeks I worked hard at my mental health, physical health, and understanding who I was as a human and started sharing that as a free blog online. Then, I quite my new full-time job and traveled the country for 8 months with a goal to connect with humans, hear their stories, and collaborate. I quickly realized as I was sharing my story that my story was everyone's story - at some point, every human struggles. Humans started asking if I could share their story as well and I built out the Only Human platform utilizing my tech, design, and coding skills. I continued to share, grow the platform, work in give back components and never looked back. <3

As someone who has ever entirely felt liked I "fit in" or belonged, as someone who was bullied as a kid, as an LGBTQ human, as someone who has struggled with my mental health and as someone who loves others, I know the incredible impact community, resources, and opportunities to give back can mean to someone. I built this platform to give humans a voice, to create community, and to remind everyone that we are better together and can overcome our struggles and make our communities stronger. We can unite to address social change issues, impact the world, and live our best lives. 

In 4 years, I've built a core team and a global platform for good that I wish I had when I was in my rock bottom or as a kid. We've shared thousands of human stories, have travelled to over 150+ events, have raised close to a $100,000 for nonprofit causes, and have saved lives. I have the vision to continue to create a human development platform with various growth tracks, an app, and continue to deliver in-person experiences that foster human growth and connection. Every single life we impact could unlock something in that person that could change our entire world as we know it.

When I first started selling apparel, I literally lived on a mattress on the floor of a 900 sq foot unit surrounded by shelving units and a packing station. We've run into financial challenges, growth challenges, operational challenges and more and every single time I've worked with my team, mentors, and those I trust to quickly develop solutions that not only remove the obstacles but create stronger paths forward. Every failure is a learning lesson to do better, improve a process, create a standard etc. 

In June of this year (last month) we were set to launch our biggest cause campaign yet in support of pride and LGBTQ+ humans. We had worked tirelessly to bring this vision to life, to collaborate with partners in good, etc. Not two days into the month, the Black Lives Matter movement erupted in the face of racial inequity. After a few hours of uncertainty of how this would impact our work, our team huddled together and developed a new plan that would honor the fight for racial inequity, highlight the intersectionality of human identities, pull in leaders and partners in good working in the space, raise over $20k in funds in less than a month, and offer our platform and reach to oppressed voices of Black humans. It was an incredible pivot and I have never been so proud of our team, our values, and our ability to deliver on what resonates with this world and what humans needed. 

If you were to combine the virtual community aspects of facebook; the philosophies of those like Brene Brown, Simon Sinek, and Glennon Doyle; and the give back models of companies like Toms and Warby Parker - you'd get something like what we've created here at Only Human. We defy every expectation of what the general public believes an entity that sells apparel can be. We are social entrepreneurs, marketers, fundraisers, ecommerce, a global community, and an incredible tech platform all-in-one. We share genuine human stories and create safe spaces that save lives and inspire humans to make the world better. We've not seen anything like us.

- By donating 10% of our profits to a different nonprofit each month, we are creating a multi-channel vehicle for change that can systemically reduce homelessness, save lives, support oppressed humans, respond to global emergencies like COVID and more

- By creating a safe space for storysharing and a global community, we are uniting humanity and erasing fear/judgements/and other components that hinder our ability to collaborate and move humanity forward

- By our annual Stay; Suicide Awareness campaigns we are saving lives, strengthening the mental health of thousands, and offering critical support. 

- By selling ethically-produced goods, we are creating jobs, supporting economies, and sending positive reminders out into the world by the thousands each month

- By providing free resources, we are helping those who may not have financial access to tools they need

- By collaborating with other like-minded companies we are amplifying impact in various verticals that impact humans and communities and multiplying our resources to do so

- By creating an online platform for good we are able to call on humanity as a whole to look at social issues and other issues that effect the world and get involved in making a difference with us

Current people serving: 2m+ per month

In one year: 5m+ per month

In 5 years: 40m+ per month

1. Launch a proprietary app that invited nonprofits, citizens, and socially-responsible humans into one space to collaborate via volunteerism, fundraising, human development, and more (in-progress)

2. Launch a human development LMS (in-progress)

3. Expand our chapters beyond the 10 we currently have in the US by developing a global plan to scale 

4. Create brick and mortar community centers for good where humans can strengthen their local communities (launch the first and develop a plan to scale/raise funds)

5. Launch more interactive experiences rooted in storysharing and causes that focus on how we can move humanity forward (collaborate with like-minded partners to create pop-up experiences in various cities and online) 

Limitations that exist are:

- Capacity/bandwidth (we need more human power!)

- Funding 

1. Capacity - we plan to solve by calling on global commerce and working with those who are part of our OH Advocate Community 

2. Funding - scaling our operations, bringing in like-minded companies for collaboration

- Marsha P Johnson Institute (nonprofit) - pledged 100% of profits from a "We Stand With You Tee" to be donated to their work to support Black Trans humans for the lifetime of our existence

- Givsly - collaborate on give back initiatives, campaigns, and virtual events around various topics

- California Cryobank - Collaborate with them on family formation accessibility for those facing challenges with starting a family 

- Gateway Bank - local bank collaborating with on mental health initiatives and upcoming Stay; Suicide Awareness Campaign

- Sounds of Saving - nonprofit working with in September for Stay; Suicide Awareness campaign

(and many more)

We measure the success of our organization in two ways: human impact and revenue. 

More than ever, humans are seeking meaningful connection, community, and opportunities to do stuff in their lifetime that makes an impact. We are seeing our education systems shift, racial equity issues peak, and more and humans are looking for ways they can actively do something that makes a difference. We are those opportunities, that community, the platform, and the way humans can become empowered to drive social change on all levels. 

We are a rapidly growing ecommerce platform, tech platform, community resource, and social change agent.

$1M