Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls
In Year 9, I completed an independent project on ‘Covid Heroes’. I created a book which contained 12 portraits of inspirational people who had made a massive contribution to the UK during the global pandemic. My form tutor, Mr Vadhwana and Miss Shariff noticed my work and informed me of an opportunity to enter a competition to become an illustrator for the upcoming volume of the ‘Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls’ series.
I decided to submit my best portraits- among a few extra I had compiled- and submitted my application. It wasn’t until six months later (at this point I had almost forgotten about my submission) that I received an email informing me that Rebel Girls wanted to hire me!
I was commissioned to illustrate Milena Radoysteva- an anti-bullying activist who helped her team at SafeNet to come up with campaigns that reached out to online bullies. Using watercolour and coloured pencil was an extremely challenging task especially given the scale of the project both in terms of the sheer size of the portrait (A3) and the importance of the task. I also had to manage my revision for my upcoming Year 10 mocks with a deadline for the submission of my illustration looming. However, I managed to fit it all in!
When the book was finally published this month, it was so surreal to see my own drawing and name in the book. I still can’t believe it! Not only do I feel incredibly honoured to see my portrait in print but I also feel proud to be associated with such a fantastic publication. Rebel Girls is a hugely inclusive book series that celebrates inspirational women from all over the globe. What’s more, all of the illustrators are chosen from around the world too. I feel proud to be one of them!
Phoebe 11N
