Our Story

Rare A-wear was started and is run by Brianna Hoffman.

Who is Brianna?

Brianna is a 20-year-old girl from Kansas who battles multiple chronic illnesses. Her main diagnoses include Gastroparesis, Intestinal Dysmotility, Carcinoid Syndrome, Dysautonomia, an Atonic Bladder and Hypermobile Ehlers Danlos Syndrome. Even after having her colon removed, Brianna struggles with frequent pseudo-obstructions of her small intestine. Because of this, she is on long term TPN, which stands for Total Parenteral Nutrition. Brianna infuses TPN through her central line for 16 hours each day. To help the severe nausea she experiences as well as to reduce the amount of bile and liquid her body must propel through her system, doctors surgically placed a Gastric Drainage tube in her stomach. She also has a surgically placed Jejunal tube for her medications that cannot be intravenous. Brianna loves the term “Disabled and” as being a young disabled female is a part of her identity, but there is also so much more to her and other disabled people. Brianna has two dogs, Palmer and Tucker, who cuddle with her on the bad health days and love to have little adventures with her on the good health days.  

Where did the idea of Rare A-wear come from?

Brianna has dreams of becoming a doctor. After graduating from high school in 2016, she started college at The University of Kansas majoring in Human Biology, minoring in Psychology and following the Pre-Med track. As her health deteriorated, she had to stop schooling and move back to her hometown to be closer to her family and to her primary care doctor. Without schooling in her life, she was feeling a little lost, so she decided to focus on her hobbies. Brianna has always been artistic, but she used this opportunity to get into hand-lettering and focus more on drawing and painting to fuel her creative side. That’s when she realized she could combine two passions: creating designs and raising awareness for rare conditions. This is where the name Rare A-wear was born. Rare for the conditions she and others fight and A-wear as a play on aware since we make wearable items such as shirts, hats, socks and aprons.