It's been said a million times, so saying it once more probably won't hurt—all girls are different. Why do I need to stress this? Well, there seem to be a lot of common, faux-universal expectations for women that stem from thinking that "all girls should be X," and more often than not, they're disappointed in how they can't meet these "expected" standards. But that doesn't mean that girls have to wallow in despair and eternally live in dread for it. Some girls, like Cassandra Calin, love to have a laugh at some of these problems, take these "girly lemons" and turn them into refreshing comical lemonade. And the internet loves her for it—she's one of the most successful artists in the virtual realm and has over 2.4m followers on her Instagram, plus tons more on her other socials.
And Bored Panda loves her too. This is the sixth part of her comics, and if you want to acquaint yourself with or revisit the previous comics, you may find them here: I, II, III, IV, V.
More info: Instagram | Facebook | cassandracalin.com | c-cassandra.tumblr.com | society6.com | tapas.io
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Cassandra always knew who she wanted to be, and she's lucky because she became who she always wanted to become. “From a very young age, I wanted to become an artist.” The parents too have helped her get the means to do that, of course. “When I was a toddler, I scribbled on my parents' furniture and, ever since that day, I just drew all the time. But of course, I had to quickly switch to drawing on paper, for my parents' own sanity.”
In her previous interview, she also told us the things she finds the most challenging and the most enjoyable. "The challenge is having to get out of my comfort zone. I used to only draw people and willingly avoid backgrounds, because they took too much time and dedication. But when you draw comics, unfortunately you can't always avoid them."
As for “the most enjoyable aspect? Drawing people. I love drawing faces, facial expressions, clothing and, as it probably shows, hair!"
Though Cassandra is past that fickle barrier of popularity and acclaim, she empathized with struggling artists, and gave some golden advice. "I think social media is a great way to build and connect to an audience. But don't stress on creating solely what's considered 'safe' or 'trending' (because trends change so quickly anyway), but instead do what you genuinely enjoy."
But Cassandra probably knows better than most how hard it is to attain the social media status that she was able to achieve. "I think it's nice to shift the focus from 'having x, y, z followers' to "taking this opportunity to build an online portfolio." Create for the simple purpose of creating, learning and improving. As cliché as this sounds, if you're having fun in the process and it doesn't feel like a chore, you're doing it right!"
As an introvert this happens every day in one situation or another and I just hate having to call or talk on the phone.
Though it's probably one of her most favorite things to do, the artist doesn't enclose herself within the four strips of a comic. She's also well-recognized in the creative industries, and had a chance to work as a freelancer with the likes of CollegeHumor, Simon & Schuster, Mattel, Les editions les Malins, BOOM! Studios and many other companies.