Decade in the Making | Even Yetis Get Colds

Ten years ago, I was working as a concept artist for games at Disney. 

It was a dream job, the kind of thing kids say 'I want to be when I grow up'.

But over time, I realized something about myself—I loved making art for children and families. I wanted to bring joy to kids through my work, and so, I began dreaming of becoming a children’s book illustrator.

Back in college, a professor told me that children’s book illustrators don’t make much money and that it’s extremely difficult to find work in the industry. It’s not a ‘practical’ plan. It's a passion project only if you had already made your money elsewhere.

Here's me with my final graduation portfolio! 

Being young, and knowing I wanted to have a family one day, I decided to hold off on chasing my dream, and went with the next closest thing instead. I took a job creating art for an in-house children's brand.

And it was a blast! I even got a practice-run of my long term goals, getting to illustrate a dozen books. Though they didn’t credit the artists or writers on these projects, I saw my time collaborating with the writers as a sort-of apprenticeship, a way to grow and prepare myself to eventually write my own stories.

But after several years of this work, I still felt an itch to create my own books. I was tired of drawing in someone else’s style, tired of pouring all my creative energy into other people’s visions. I wanted to finally see my own dreams come to life.

So, I started taking online illustration classes at SVSLearn and focused on building my social media presence from scratch. I grew my platform to 10,000 followers, a massive milestone I’m still so grateful for today.

During this time, I wrote, illustrated, and published what most of you probably know me for: How to Draw Adorable: Joyful Lessons for Creating Cute Art. I poured my everything into the project, but the truth is…most first time authors barely break even. Even 100 copies is considered ‘hoping high’. 

So you can imagine my surprise when How to Draw Adorable sold 20,000 copies in the first year, and even won several independent publishing book awards. I was, and still am, in shock. 

Still, there was one lingering hangup. Because I’d self-published it, it still didn’t count in the eyes of the traditional publishing world as a “published” book. And my dream—my ultimate dream—was to publish a ‘true’ children’s book.

Determined, I wrote a manuscript featuring a character very dear to my heart. Those of you who’ve followed me for a while on my socials may recognize Yeti.

Here's a post showing how much my design for Yeti had changed over the past year...in 2020.

As you can tell, Yeti the character has been around over half a decade, and Even Yetis Get Cold as a concept just about as long. Coco, the main character, has been featured in my tutorials since my first few months of posting. 

You can even find an earlier draft of the current inside cover page all the way back from 2020 towards the start of my Instagram timeline.

As you can see, the development of Yeti has been a long process. But even aside from character design; the process of getting a book traditionally published is far from easy.

Finding an agent, creating a book dummy, securing a publisher, and working with an editor and graphic designer to polish it up was a journey of nearly three years. 

But, in the end it was all worth it — because that hard work and patience have led me here.

This week, I’m celebrating the book birthday of Even Yetis Get Colds. More than that, I’m celebrating the fulfillment of a ten-year-long dream.

This book represents all the dedication, perseverance, and love I poured into making my dream a reality. Now, I can officially say I’m a traditionally published children’s book author and illustrator. 💛

A huge thank you goes out to my agent, Jemiscoe Chambers-Black, who was with me every step of the way and is truly the perfect agent. To my editor, Alison Weiss—thank you for trusting in me, for your amazing ideas, and for loving Yeti as much as I do. And to Pixel and Ink Books, for publishing this story and making it a reality!

Here’s to all the dreamers out there: May your hard work and perseverance bring your dreams to life too. ✨