Girls Like Math T-Shirts

CLIFTON, Va. (WUSA) -- Memorizing the Pythagorean theorem was no big deal for five year old Bobbi Patton, whose room is decorated with mathematical equations.

Her two year old sister Dillon can do simple subtraction and addition.

"What's five plus one? Six! Yeah!"

Their dad, former Redskins linebacker Marvcus Patton and his wife Ina believe in planting the seeds early. "If we teach them math is fun, then they grow up believing they can do anything boys can do, they can run circles around them, even on the football field, it doesn't matter," says Ina.

Ina, who's a psychologist, spends a lot of free time painting with her girls. One day last year, she created a picture of two stick-figure girls doing math problems on a chalkboard.

Marvcus looked at it and got a idea. Let's make it into a t-shirt, he said. Now, just six months later, Ina has created sixteen designs of girls doing all kinds of things from playing football to scuba diving, to becoming President of United States. (And she says she's no artist!)

They started Girlslikemath.com to sell the shirts and Marvcus is now writing a children's book to go along with each t-shirt.

"'Roar,' said the math monster... I'm going to eat you up if you don't tell me the answer!" Marvcus read his first draft to his attentive girls sitting in his lap.

Marvcus says he wanted to take his message to other parents to help them promote endless possibilities for their children.

"Who knows? They may grow up to be ballerinas, or astronauts. We want them to know the sky's the limit for them," says Ina.