About a year ago, Jordan Lee started a doodle. She wrote out her favorite inspirational quotes and some Bible versus that were meaningful to her using calligraphy. It all started as a form a Bible study; a way to keep her faith close to her heart and mind. Eventually, that doodle turned into a lifestyle and a business.
Lee, now a senior health care management and policies major at IU, has seen that doodle grow from a source of personal inspiration, into a thriving Etsy business with a huge social media following, and finally into what it is today: a blog which she named "Soulscripts."
Soulscripts is Lee's mission in digital form. It is her blog where she posts inspirational stories from real people who are going through a hard time, in order to inspire others facing a similar challenge. Although she no longer sells her calligraphy, she is still able to share her faith through her blog and social media. She gets these stories, which she has nicknamed “soulscripts” from friends, family, personal experience, students that she mentors, and even from strangers who reach out to her through email. Her mission is simple.
“I want to encourage young college students to remember that their worth is not in all these things that the world wants to stamp a label on like ‘pretty’ or ‘cool,’ but that our self-worth comes from within and from our creator,” Lee said.
Paige Masterson is one of the IU students who Lee mentors, and they met through a Christian ministry on campus. After Lee asked if Masterson would be interested in talking about the Bible together, the two started meeting once a week.
“She’s been there for a lot of stuff for me,” Masterson said. “We both have really similar family situations, and she taught me a lot about how to be a follower of Christ within a non-Christian family.”
Lee also shares her stories and advice with friends, family and strangers who come to her for guidance. However, her message is not always a religious one. Lee knows that on a campus as large as IU, not everyone believes in the same god, or follows a religion, so when she speaks at events such as those she performs for her sisters of Alpha Omicron Pi, she is able to relate to anyone.
“Her Instagram and blog are so relatable because she’s not shy,” said Melanie Zdanowicz,a close friend from Lee’s sorority. “She spreads the Gospel in a relatable context. People label Christians as upright and righteous, but that’s not Jordan. She doesn’t want to convert anyone, she’s just lovable.”
Shelby Hornback, another one of Lee’s sisters at Alpha Omicron Pi, along with many other sisters receive Lee’s advice from the Bible studies Lee holds after some chapter meetings.
“She’s that person that if you want to go talk to somebody, you go talk to her, like about boy issues or a money issue — anything you have you go talk to her,” Hornback said. “And I think that’s the best part about her and what she does."
In the Bible studies, Lee discusses relatable topics like romantic relationships, friendships and body image. She keeps in mind, however, the different beliefs of her sisters and makes the conversation relatable to everyone, rather than religious.
“I asked her last year if I could go to a Bible study," Zdanowicz said. "I was like, ‘I don’t have a bible, but can I stop by one of your bible studies?’ and she responded, ‘Girl you don’t need a bible, you just need an open heart.’”
Lee’s faith also helped her to meet her fiancé, Matt Dooley, who shares her love for Christ.
Zdanowicz witnessed the change in Lee after meeting Dooley.
“You look at the two of them and you think that ‘That’s a match that God intended,’” Zdanowicz said. “Matt is a big part of encouraging her in her faith and meeting him was kind of like a godsend for her.”
“She always said that meeting him just made her a better person, like they feed off each other,” Hornback said. “A couple of weeks ago they did together an Instagram post on Valentine's Day, and it said ‘Comment any questions you have about relationships and me and my fiancé will get back to you,’ and they answered everyone’s questions.”
Although religion is such a major part of her life, Lee did not discover her deep faith until her sophomore year of college. She describes those years before finding Christ as one of the most difficult hardships she has had to overcome. And after finding her faith, she did overcome it.
“I sold myself short those two years,” Lee said. “I tried so hard to fit in, but I finally realized just how unfulfilling that was and how it made me feel so alone.”
Hornback remembers hearing the stories about the dramatic change Lee went through. Lee’s freshman year was filled with attending fraternity parties and drinking, but that all changed her sophomore year.
“The last few years have been a different story,” Lee said. “My identity is something so much bigger, and that’s something I want to encourage women and people are who feel pressured to be something, to find in themselves.”
Lee also helped Zdanowicz to find the right faith for her. During spring break, the two of them went on a service trip to the South Side of Chicago where Lee supported Zdanowicz’s decision to become a nondenominational Christian. Both girls had come from Catholic families, so Lee had the experience to give Zdanowicz the courage and support she needed.
“Thursday night after the final service, I said to myself, ‘OK Melanie, commit and go for it,’" Zdanowicz said. "And that’s when I accepted Christ, and I attribute a lot of that to (Lee).”
Lee’s sorority sisters are not the only ones who have benefited from her faith and advice. When Lee began selling her calligraphy on Esty in the form of mugs, T-shirts and journals, she was able to spread what she had learned though her newfound faith to others going through difficult times of their own.
Lee’s products often connect on a personal level with those who bought them, and some of her customers have even reached out to her to tell them their story and how Lee’s product impacted their life. One of her customers, a cancer patient, wore a T-shirt with Lee’s calligraphy to her last round of chemotherapy.
Another of Lee’s customers, Mindy Gonzalez, was so moved by the message “Go, be love,” on the mugs that she had purchased for herself and for her sister, that she asked Lee for permission to use the phrase in the future.
“I absolutely connect with this meaning,” Gonzalez said. “It resonated so deeply with me and my personal beliefs and the kind of living Christian I want to be.”
Gonzalez is reminded each time she reaches for her mug of coffee that that she is “loved and serving a great God.”
For Lee, Soulscripts has given her a future she never dreamed she would have. Her major was leading her to a 9-to-5 office job, and her newfound love of writing saved her from that path. Her blog has also opened her up to exciting writing opportunities that she had never thought possible.
“All the things we worry about are so insignificant in the fate of our souls,” Lee said. “We’re so caught up in the digital world and it makes us tired. My faith gives a me sense of peace and impacts my relationships and my decisions.”
