A picture speaks a thousand words. Turn that picture into fashion, and it could change the world. Jaxon Burgess, a first-year Pepperdine law student and Seaver alumnus, has always been interested in clothes and making a difference. Drawing inspiration from TOMS shoes founder Blake Mycoskie, Burgess decided he wanted to pursue a similar path. “Creating a business that can be something cool but also help the world at the same time was just a really cool thing,” Burgess said. It wasn’t until a mission trip to the Dominican Republic that Burgess really found his calling. He said the trip opened his eyes to a way for him to combine his love for clothes and others. He also realized he could use photography as a part of his new idea. “When we were there, I kind of just noticed the simplicity of
how it’s so universal to take a picture with a camera,” Burgess said. This sparked his idea for his clothing brand Living In Frame. The company sends cameras to different communities where someone takes a picture and sends those photos back. Then the photos are printed on sweatshirts and T-shirts. Living in Frame sells the clothes online, and 25% of profits go back to the community where the photos came from. Cameras have already been sent to cities in the U.S., Kenya and Nicaragua. Burgess said he hopes the company can continue expanding to become global. “We are really just looking to reach out to empowering causes that really create change in the world,” Burgess said. For Burgess, clothes are more than a fashion statement; they are a creative way for him to leave his mark on the world.
Franki Hooks Tweets What’s on Her Mind by Kaelin Mendez
Photo courtesy of Franki Hooks
45
Jaxon Burgess Changes the World One Thread at A time by Lydia duPerier
Photo courtesy of Jaxon Burgess
Though people may not always know her face, people know her Twitter account and her name: Franki Hooks. “Someone was like, ‘I thought this was a burner account, and Franki Hooks was a fake name,’” Hooks said. The senior psychology major has been on Twitter since August 2014. “People would tweet stupid things,” Hooks said about being on the social networking platform in high school. “And I feel like everyone kind of grew out of it. Except, I didn’t.” She said she spends her free time on Twitter, tweeting about five times a day. Hooks fills her account with posts about Pepperdine, the jobs she’s worked — now at a doctor’s office and before at a grocery store — and many of her spur of the moment thoughts. She especially enjoys being on Twitter when something new happens at Pepperdine — like when a controversial incident occurs or administrators share new information.
“Twitter’s the future ‘cause I learned that Pepperdine was closing campus on Twitter,” Hooks said about the decision to not return to campus in Fall 2020. “But that’s because I’m always on Twitter, so I saw it when it was tweeted like 18 seconds ago.” After the campus closure announcements, several students, including Hooks, took to Twitter to voice their thoughts on the matter. She said with every Pepperdine decision and incident, people go to Twitter to put out their feelings and opinions and see what others are saying, creating a virtual community some are calling ‘Pepperdine Twitter.’ “I feel like we just came together out of all the soreness of all this,” Hooks said. And next time, she will be right there along with them, posting just what she’s thinking. “Every time Pepperdine sends an email, it’s like, you need to get on Twitter,” Hooks said.
