“In my free time, I really like to draw and write. It’s really interesting for me to create character designs; I like to design costumes, hair, and choose color schemes. And then after a while, I noticed that I liked drawing this one, particular character over and over again, so I began designing her more. As she became more consistent in my drawings, I thought that maybe I should make a series based off of her. At first, I had no clue what I was supposed to do. I didn’t think far enough into the future like ‘oh, this going to become a story.’ I just went with the flow and wrote.

From my character and background designs, I got inspiration for novels. I started writing online around 5-6 years ago. I wrote fanfiction at first, and one of my stories got really popular, so I thought maybe I should write an actual novel. During that time, I noticed a lot of online writers were starting to get their books published, so I also wanted to publish mine — that was my inspiration. I mainly write fantasy and sci-fi novels, and I’m currently working on a series called ‘Phantomlord.’ I’ve published two books so far: the first book I ever published was called ‘Saving Rose,’ which I published during 8th grade, and the year after that, I wrote another novel called ‘Emily Was.’ They’re currently only available as eBooks, but I hope sometime in the future, I’ll be able to publish them into paper format. I also want to make a webcomic because I have enough character designs and drawings that I can compile.

When I first started this one important character design, I felt really attached to her because she reflects how I want to look. Before, I was really insecure about my appearance, but the imperfections of my characters motive me to become stronger.  When I draw these characters, they become my role models. Initially, I gave my characters somewhat tragic backstories because I was going through a depressive period. During that time, I just felt really bad about myself. I felt like I was the dumbest, ugliest girl ever, so that’s why I gave my characters those backstories. But now that I go back and think about it, it’s more realistic than giving them a cliche, happy story. I think my characters are starting to become more realistic, and now I can relate to them more. It’s like I keep my characters in a little pocket. When I’m feeling bad, I pull them out, and it feels like I have a friend. It feels like I’m able to share my feelings with them — I know they’ll understand because I loosely base them off myself.

Becoming confident in myself was a wild journey, but now that I’ve overcome my fears and insecurities, I hope to continue creating new content. I want to be able to see my novels and comics on bookstore shelves one day.”