# BUNANAS is the spelling, and the spelling is the record

> Five felt-tip grocery items spelled exactly as a child said them — BUNANAS, CHEEZ, SOSIJIS — because correcting the spelling deletes the only record of how they spoke.

August 19, 2026 · https://justog.club/stories/the-list-they-wrote

BUNANAS. CHEEZ. THE ROUND BREAD. SOSIJIS. And, longer than the rest, running out toward the edge and
underlined twice in red: NOT THE GREEN ONE.

Every one of those words is spelled exactly the way this particular child says it, on this
particular afternoon, and that is the entire point of printing it.

## Why does BUNANAS have to stay spelled BUNANAS?

Because that spelling is the only record of how this child actually says the word, and there is no
other system for capturing it.

A child sounding out "bananas" alone, with no memorised spelling to fall back on, writes down what
they hear themselves say — stress on the wrong syllable, a missing letter, a doubled one. Correct it
and the design still shows a list; it no longer shows anything about this particular child's speech.
[Autocorrect, and most image tools, fix spelling by
default](/stories/why-ai-cant-spell), which is exactly the setting that has to be turned off
for a piece like this one.

## What is "THE ROUND BREAD" actually doing on the list?

It's a child solving a naming problem on the spot, in real time, by describing the object instead of
knowing its name.

Somewhere between "bread" and whatever the actual word was — pitta, bagel, naan — there's a gap, and
rather than leave it blank the list fills it with a working description that gets the shopping done
perfectly well. It's arguably the strongest line on the whole page, because it shows the reasoning rather
than just the result.

## Why is the last line longer and underlined twice?

Because it's the item that mattered most, and the child wrote it that way to make sure it wasn't
missed.

NOT THE GREEN ONE runs further than any other line and gets underlined twice in red — visibly more
effort than BUNANAS or CHEEZ got. Length and emphasis on a child's own list aren't decorative; they
are the only tool available for saying "pay attention to this one especially," and they work.

## Does printing a child's own handwriting need anyone's permission?

No — it's the family's own material, nobody else's, and nothing here is licensed from anywhere.

The real question isn't permission, it's whether the child will want to see their own early spelling
kept exactly as they wrote it, once they're old enough to read it back. Some are pleased; some would
rather it had been tidied up. That's worth deciding once they can actually be asked, the same way it
is for [a signature still being worked out](/stories/the-way-they-sign-their-name).

## Isn't this just pointing out that a child can't spell yet?

No — the design isn't about what's missing, it's about a working system caught mid-use.

A shopping list an adult writes tends to get [rewritten
twice](/stories/shopping-list-on-an-envelope) — once rough, once fair copy — with the rough
version thrown away. A child's list has no fair copy to compare it against; the only version that
ever existed is the one on the page, and that's what makes it a record rather than a rough draft
waiting to be improved.

## Does it work for a list that isn't groceries?

Any list a child wrote for their own reasons — what to pack, who to invite, what the dog is allowed
to do — carries the same evidence, as long as the actual words survive unedited.

What the format needs is handwriting and spelling that are still the child's own working version,
not a fair copy made for the shirt. A list retyped from memory in adult spelling is a different, much
thinner object than the scrap it came from.

## Does it print well?

Yes — felt-tip is already a flat, hard-edged mark, and the red underline reads cleanly as a single
extra colour rather than a gradient.

Kept close to the original layout — the same line breaks, the same length difference on the last
line — [the letterforms hold their shape at garment
size](/stories/bold-shapes-survive-fabric) better than a tidied-up font ever would, because
the point is that a specific hand wrote it, not that the words are legible from across a room.

## How do I get one made?

Describe the list at [JustOG](/) — the words exactly as written, and which line got the emphasis.
Pick a direction, drag the crop frame, see it composited on the real garment, and it's made to
order and shipped.

Designs other people have published are in the [shop](/shop).

Nobody has bought a green one since, on strict written instruction.