Bella: A Stylish Pair of Cleats

Bella comes from a family of artists. When her older sister, Daliza, started working at our Best Buy Teen Tech Center, funded by Best Buy in collaboration with The Clubhouse Network—a place where teens create, design, and build using innovative technology—Bella immediately signed up. Not wanting to miss out on any cool sessions, she enrolled in: 3D printing, comic art design, and jewelry making. “And I recently got into sewing,” Bella added.

Bella’s eye for design grabbed the attention of Best Buy, which reached out to her for a special collaboration. Three Best Buy Teen Tech Center members from across the country would compete in the #MyCauseMyCleats campaign to design cleats for Chicago Bears QB Caleb Williams that promoted empowerment and anti-bullying.

After a full week of preparing her design, the encouragement from her Teen Tech Center mentor and Chicago Bears fan Obeta, and a frantic late-night painting session, Bella finally finished the cleats. Her hard work paid off, and her cleats were worn by Caleb Williams on the field!

Bella loves that at the Teen Tech Center, all her fellow artists, designers, and engineers are constantly asking to see each other's projects and sharing their work. She emphasized how important Grand Street’s Teen Tech Center is for teens like her, “As a teenager, everyone’s always asking, ‘What do you wanna do after you graduate?’ and it’s not that simple. Being a member of the Tech Center sparks so much creativity, you get to meet so many new people, and you learn about yourself along the way.”