An Extraterrestrial Exchange

The preteen phase is filled with enough change as it is—try discovering that your gender doesn’t match your body and moving to a new school full of people you don’t know, who certainly don’t want to know you because you’re strange and weird. At such an age where your reputation is everything, appearing different is by far the worst thing imaginable. Though despite feeling like all hope is lost, just one single connection can make all the difference. These are triumphs and pitfalls that I have faced during my own youth that reflect themselves in my work. I have always felt myself drawn to stories of internal struggle that utilize fictional characters and animated worlds. Animation to me is a wholesome, heart-warming reprieve from a harsh reality, where I can lose myself in the characters' lives and empathize with their stories as a way of dealing with my own struggles. In my work, I reflect on important yet difficult topics of self-identity and connection through a fun, lighthearted lens that still manages to resonate emotionally.