Rubbed the wrong way, mother invents solution

BY CHRIS GAETANO
Staff Writer

PHOTOS BY MIGUEL JUAREZ staff Jeannie Lit, of South Brunswick, demonstrates her “Smudge Guard” invention while writing. SOUTH BRUNSWICK — They live in a system not made for them, where items as innocuous as a pair of scissors can lead to awkward and frustrating experiences. They are left-handers.

While the world is well past the era when left-handers were burned at the stake along with sorcerers, literate women and other “agents of the devil,” the 10 percent of people who write with their left hand still face many problems.

One such problem is smudging, where, due to the left-hander having to drag his or her hand across the page while writing, the side of the left hand picks up ink and pencil lead. Meanwhile, the paper itself develops a slight haze over it as the materials are rubbed back onto the paper from the hand, making it look unsightly or unprofessional.

Jeannie Lit, of South Brunswick, decided to take a left-hands-on approach to the problem by inventing the Smudge Guard. She is currently seeking retailers who would want to sell her invention.

“The reason I came up with this is that I’m a lefty and when I went to college, I had that same problem all the time and it’s annoying,” Lit said.

The Smudge Guard, which currently has a patent pending and is trademarked, is a nylon and spandex glove with all the fingers and most of the hand cut out, save for the pinkie finger. What remains is a snug-fitting device that covers the part of the hand that typically becomes blue with ink, black with pencil lead, or brown from pastel crayons of various colors. Lit said that they currently are available in black and lavender.

When Lit was in college, she would wrap her hand in a napkin or paper towel in order to cope with smudging. But when her child, also a lefty, began coming home with the smudges as well, she knew that something needed to be done.

“He was all, ‘Mommy, my hands are all dirty,’ and, you know, I [told him] that’s part of being left-handed. That’s a problem, and he [wasn’t happy about this], because he’s a ‘clean freak’ like I am,” said Lit.

The invention, nearly two years in the making, involved a long process of trial and error. Since the device was originally for her son, she knew she needed something that could easily slip on and off, without having to fiddle with Velcro or buttons. At first she tried a rubber glove, which was effective but would irritate the skin when the wearer became sweaty. She finally settled on a nylon-spandex mesh material because it could stretch to accommodate many hands, and also because the material lets the skin breathe a little bit more than rubber would.

While doing research on the problem, Lit also discovered that there’s another group that knows the hardship of smudges: artists, both left- and right-handed. When people draw, they, too, often have to go over areas again, creating smudges.

“So, hey, if there’s so many people complaining about this, why not help them?” Lit said.

For Lit, who is currently a full-time parent, this is her first invention. She has already manufactured a handful of the devices and is selling them out of her Web site, www.smudgeguard.com. She has ordered 1,000 more from a factory in China and is currently seeing whether the schools in the area would like to use them as a fundraiser item. She said that they cost $9.99 each and come in black or lavender. At the moment, there is a 99-cent promotion to get people to try them out.

Looking toward the future, she said she does not know exactly how the venture will develop but is eagerly looking forward to seeing how it goes.

“It’s very scary and exciting at the same time,” said Lit.