Leilani Sills
Leilani Sills
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8.8.22
“Aloha Mai Kakou. My name is Leilani Sills and I was born and raised on Oahu. I graduated from Kamehameha Schools Kapalama and I have my Masters Degree in Education. After the birth of my son, I started the Keiki Dept. in 2016. It was just a side hustle/passion project. I taught myself how to sew and learned the ropes of owning a business along the way. It wasn’t until 2019 that I left my teaching position at Mid-Pacific Institute to stay home with my Keiki and run the Keiki Dept. full time! I now have 4 Keiki (ages 7, 4, 2, and 1) and if you see me at an in-person event, I usually have at least one of them with me! My favorite Polynesian food is some ahi poke and poi!”
“Having Keiki helped reignite my fire to reconnect with my Hawaiian culture. I wanted to raise my Keiki in a home that celebrated and put our Hawaiian culture at the forefront. This fire is also the reason for our shop mission, which is to share knowledge of Hawaiian culture through our products and give back to our local community. This year, The Keiki Dept. will continue to donate to organizations that provide services to both keiki and ohana across the islands.”
“As a Native Hawaiian, my goal is to encourage others to learn more about their roots and not to be afraid or shame to learn. It’s never too late to learn more about your culture or learn to speak the language. I hope that through example, I can show my Keiki (and others) that if you are willing to take risks and work hard for something you are passionate about, that you can find a future that is rewarding on many different levels. As I told my students, we all have different talents and strengths together we make a strong community.
A favorite olelo noeau of mines is this, "Aohe put kiekie ke hoao e pii"…No problem is too great when one tries hard to solve it. I hope the upcoming generation takes this to heart and has used the last few years to learn resilience. If there is something you are passionate about, try it, even if it seems difficult. You’ll never know if you don’t try.”
"No problem is too great when one tries hard to solve it."
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