For this project, I decided I wanted to handwrite, photograph, illustrate, print and sew my own book from scratch. It's aimed at children and focuses on overcoming anxiety as this is something I've struggled with my whole life. I also believe it's an important topic to educate young people on.
Anxiety is something that can make you feel so small and so I felt that I could replicate this in a way by telling a story through miniatures. For miniatures, everything surrounding them would seem so big and intimidating and this is a lot like what anxiety feels like.
The purpose of my book is to inspire kids to believe in themselves, to be brave and to go see the world.
The aim of my books is it's going to be for those who just need that little push and vote of confidence. I know from personal experience that sometimes you just have to take the leap, and I want to try and inspire this.
It’s from the point of view of an animal as I believe identifying with more fictional characters feels ‘less real’ and therefore not as scary . Because of this, the moral may therefore go straight over a young child’s head as they see the story in it’s literal sense. However, an older child or parent would be able to spot the metaphor and therefore read the book in a different light.
In relation to the miniatures, the first idea I had was to have broccoli for trees. I then began thinking. If I, a human, am small compared to a tree, then what is small to broccoli in the same way. What is to broccoli as I am to tree? Something very small, like a spider, an ant, a fly etc. I knew this was the type of character I needed my story to be told through in order for the metaphor to work.
