Ever struggled to settle children at bedtime? Aucklander Tobie Erceg found herself looking for a little more calm at the end of the day when an optometrist mentioned blue-light glasses. She bought some inexpensive pairs to try at home. “In our family, they made a noticeable difference,” she says. “My children settled more easily in the evenings when they wore them while using their devices, and they’ve kept wearing them ever since.”
A keen bedtime reader herself, she found that wearing the glasses made the Kindle app on her phone feel closer to the experience of reading a book.
It was this turning point that led Tobie to conduct more research into children’s vision, blue light, UV exposure and lens technology. “I wanted to understand what genuinely mattered,” she says. “Children’s developing eyes are particularly vulnerable to UV exposure, and living in New Zealand and Australia, where UV levels can be extremely high, I realised protecting their eyes should feel just as normal as protecting their skin from the sun.”
Those observations set her thinking about the possibilities of eyewear and eventually led to Square Eyes Vision, a new New Zealand start-up with a distinctly personal beginning.
As her research into lenses and children’s vision deepened, Tobie’s attention moved beyond screens to UV exposure and the thought that protecting young eyes ought to feel as natural as applying sunscreen. She wanted UV400 protection and blue-light filtering in every pair, along with the kind of design considerations that make us choose one frame over another.
For many of us, glasses are part of our identity, and children develop opinions about them considerably earlier than adults tend to allow.
Getting her own children involved early helped to shape the collection. They tried samples, offering the kind of candid, forthright feedback only a child can give a mother.
The telling moment came when they began choosing different frames to go with different outfits, treating the glasses as part of their wardrobes. Tobie had wondered whether people would understand the idea, but her children genuinely wanted to wear the glasses.
For Tobie, Square Eyes glasses are simply part of her family’s routine. “In the evenings, especially around screens, they put them on without being asked. During the day, they’ll often keep wearing them because they genuinely love how they look.”
The 11 unisex styles are designed for children aged approximately five to 13, with classic tortoiseshell and clear frames sitting alongside more colourful options. Milan’s rectangular silhouette comes in cherry red, while Seoul offers combinations including pink with orange and tortoiseshell with blue. There is enough personality to make choosing glasses feel like choosing a favourite pair of trainers, with all the conviction children bring to decisions about how they dress.
Priced at an accessible $78 a pair, the collection combines lightweight frames and flexible spring hinges with clear, non-prescription lenses incorporating UV400 protection and blue-light filtering.
Built around the family who inspired it, the business gives 5% of every sale through Pledge to children’s and environmental causes, including Cure Kids and Forest & Bird. For Tobie, the wish to help children feel comfortable expressing themselves is equally personal. “Square Eyes is the kind of brand I would have wanted to have growing up, so seeing my kids and their friends loving them so much feels like we’ve actually created something significant.”
