【Secret Tutoring (2018)】

Can fidgeting be Secret Tutoring (2018)sexy? Ask the self-proclaimed Didget Babes, and you can probably guess their answer.

Fidgeting is something we all do, but it's especially helpful for people with ADD, ADHD and autism. A new line of luxury devices from the Didget Babes, a design duo, goes beyond simply normalizing the action -- it destroys stigma by making fidgeting liberating, productive and, yes, even sexy.

The Didgets Collection was created by Belen Tenorio, a New York City-based product designer living with ADHD, and Rachael Elder, a creative writer and self-identified fidgeter living in New Zealand.

The gadgets include three marble and copper tools that stimulate fidgeting -- The Rollers, The Cubix and The Squishy. Tenorio and Elder are currently funding the devices on Kickstarter through Dec. 22.

The message of the Didget Babes is simple, yet radical: Embrace your fidgeting -- without apologies.

Fidgeting is often seen as something shameful, as if you can't possibly pay attention if you're playing with your bracelet, tracing the rim of your water glass or clicking your pen.

But fidgeting is something we all do in times of stress and focus -- and it could even be beneficial. Research shows that when we fidget, it actually enhances our focus by "distracting" the parts of our brain that become bored during times of concentration, like reading a book or writing an essay.

"Double-tasking is really good for people to be able to focus, specifically people with ADD and ADHD," Tenorio tells Mashable. "Fidgeting can be a secondary activity to complement the primary activity."

Both Tenorio and Elder are queer women who, aside from being business partners, are also romantic partners. The Didget Babes intentionally marketed the Didgets Collection to women like them -- queer women "fidgeters" who are often ignored by existing products on the market.

Though existing products help, they aren't aesthetically exciting. They're often toy-like and made of plastic, not sleek and sexy. Queer women, Tenorio says, want the latter.

To market to queer women and play off of the "stimulation" of fidgeting, the Didget Babes are embracing sexiness to sell their product. And it makes sense: queer women, after all, are often forced to get comfortable with thinking about attraction and sexuality.

Being queer means having to constantly confront that your experience with desire isn't the "norm," and that your expression of sexuality isn't entirely embraced by society. Having sex on the brain, then, isn't perverse -- it's inevitable.

Tenorio says this leads to comfort and identification with all things seemingly risqué.

But when Tenorio and Elder showed their Kickstarter campaign video to their advisers -- men who were mostly middle-aged, straight and white -- Tenorio says the "misogynistic" feedback started rolling in. The men didn't understand how marketing fidgeting with sexuality made sense, critical of the slightly sexual video the two planned to make the cornerstone of their marketing.

"In the product design market, it's really hard for two women -- especially if you're queer -- to make people understand what the [queer] community needs," Tenorio says. "They are used to a very specific sort of view, which is very heteronormal."

But with that feedback, Tenorio says the Didget Babes knew they had the right fit for queer women -- simply because their video and vocabulary didn't speak to the men.

"When I later showed the same video to queer women, they were like, 'This is great. This is awesome,'" Tentorio says. "It was very interesting to see them connect to it, while we were getting criticism for our video."

One potential drawback of the collection, the Didget Babes admit, is the cost. With each tool priced at $75, the devices are an investment. But the longevity and luxury of the product -- something missing in the current fidgeting device market -- is the point.

"These are high-end fidget tools with a price tag -- but we were unwavering about the importance of materiality, so they have come at a cost," Elder tells Mashablevia email. "However, they will last forever even in the most active hands. When you get bored of toys, and focusing means business, you need to invest."

You can also 3D-print the devices by donating $10 or more to the Kickstarter, which can help curb some of the cost. But 3D-printing does take some of the luxury out of the items, reverting back to plastic instead of high-quality materials.

Above all, the Didget Babes want to encourage those who fidget to drop the shame, and embrace the sexy. Doing that, they say, is an expression of unapologetic individuality.

"We are always modifying things about ourselves instead of trying to see how the weird things we do can be useful for us," Tenorio says.

"Do whatever feels best for you and do it your way. That's the only way you are going to thrive."