★ The Awakening ★
recently i was revising a part of my portfolio to include my blog in my bio. while reading my bio, what stood out to me was my message.
While this is the edited version of my bio (honestly im trying to simplify my writing style) it dawned on me that none of the work I was creating completely reflected aspects of girlhood while representing queer and disabled BIPOC in my art. It had aspects of it but not obvious to the eye.
It is time for a change.
With all honesty- it’s hard to even know how to tackle that as a black, queer, and disabled 24 year old because a lot of the perspective of girlhood is inherently tied to your relation of being white, especially growing up in the early 2000s.
I’ll say it again: black girlhood is not the same as white girlhood.
✶ The mirror ✶
Although when I was younger and ultimately decided that i was going to become an animator- I never even knew what my goal was in the first place. I just knew that I adored animating.
At the time I figured out the career aspect of my life relatively quickly than my relationship to my identity as a girl. I was denying aspects of femininity that I loved simply because I was dealing with internalized misogyny.
I HATED the portrayal of girls in cartoons and live action kid shows. they were always portrayed as the ‘love interest’ ,the ‘klutz’ or the ‘Regina George popular girl’ and nothing more. In that moment, it felt like girls could only be that which resulted in those dynamics being displayed on the school grounds.
It infuriated me! I was more than THAT. I was nerdy, strong, tomboyish (shocking!), and most importantly I wasn’t like any of those girls.
I associated femininity with weakness and absolutely despised everything girly because “all the other girls were like that”. of course I grew out of that towards the later half of middle school. I realized that it was wrong and that I actually loved being feminine and a girly girl i just hated being forced into something i didn’t like, but ill write about that another time
As a result, My art started to reflect that and I felt more connected to my inner self and everything around me. From that moment on, I just knew it was important to change the way girls were represented in media.
★ The Shift ★
In 2025, I will be shifting more of my art towards aspects of girlhood that I remember and think about fondly. I hope to delve deeper about what draws me to seeing black and brown girls live out their lives as kids and as well as reflecting on marketing towards girls in the early 2000s. It’ll be a challenge because there are topics that of course need to be addressed ,however; I need to find my voice first before tackling those issues.
While I’m pushing this new storyboard out- I hope to return to my previous projects that involved aspects of girlhood I enjoyed but couldn’t find the right words to say and spend more time with them.
BOOK TALK
book mentioned:
moomin midwinter by Tove jansson
Lost Days Emily the strange by Rob reger and Jessica Gruner
Good Witch Flunk
while still working on my roughs- I recognized that part of my story did not focus on Amora’s inability to make anything evil, Im glad i caught that early on because the whole point of the story is that her powers are funky.
I also wanted to include more moments of insecurity for her so the audience can see that how her powers affects her self confidence while also comparing herself to her classmates. Im craving out this story slowly but surely.
music time
