Artist Alex Law believes kids know best what a superhero should look like.
So, in a new online project she calls “Little Girls Are Better At Designing Superheroes Than You,” she’s taken her inspiration from girls.
“I remember being a young girl myself and being unsatisfied with the female characters available to me,” she told TKN in an email. “Most female superheroes are designed and written by adult men, and I don’t think adult men know or even care about what girls like.”
So, when she saw some little girls dressed as their favourite superheroes, she started drawing them.
And she turned them into superheroes.
Two of the girls she “transformed” are John Marcotte’s daughters.
His oldest daughter had dressed up as Batman and Iron Man after seeing the movies.
“I decided that she needed to see that women could be heroes, too, so I showed her the Justice League cartoon,” says Marcotte.
His daughters would wind blue masking tape around their arms to make Wonder Woman bracelets.
One year, his oldest daughter decided to go out for Hallowe’en as “The Huntress,” from Batman. Her sister dressed up as The Huntress’s partner, Power Girl.
Later, they entered their costumes in some contests—and won. Pictures of the girls were posted on the Internet and soon “went viral in the nerd community,” says Marcotte. Alex Law saw the pictures and was inspired by them to start her art project.
The girls think the depictions of them as superheroes are “really cool.” The artist even sent the girls the illustration, which they printed and have tacked up in their room.
While it’s been a fun project for the girls and their parents, it’s also been therapeutic for Alex Law.
“I drew the pictures for my past self and for any other people who have shared my thoughts and experiences,” she said.
UPDATE, Jan. 2014: Buzzfeed posted a number of new photos and drawings. Check them out here.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS
By Jonathan Tilly
Writing/Discussion Prompt
Use your imagination to imagine and draw your own superhero. When creating your superhero, think about: what they look like, what they do, their characteristics etc.
Reading Prompt: Extending Understanding
Alex Law explains, “I remember being a young girl myself and being unsatisfied with the female characters available to me.” How do you feel female heroes are portrayed in comics, movies, and TV? How would you like to see female characters portrayed and why do you think change would be positive?
Primary
Extend understanding of texts by connecting the ideas in them to their own knowledge and experience, to other familiar texts, and to the world around them (OME, Reading: 1.6).
Junior
Extend understanding of texts by connecting the ideas in them to their own knowledge, experience, and insights, to other familiar texts, and to the world around them (OME, Reading: 1.6).
Intermediate
Extend understanding of texts, including increasingly complex or difficult texts, by connecting the ideas in them to their own knowledge, experience, and insights, to other familiar texts, and to the world around them (OME, Reading: 1.6).
Grammar Feature: Punctuation inside quotation marks
Quotation marks are punctuation marks that can be used to tell exact speech. However, many people often are uncertain about where final punctuation marks, like periods, exclamation marks, and question marks go when part of a quote. The rule to use is that final punctuation marks always go inside the final quotation mark. For example,
Jon asked his sister, “Would you like me to join you?“
Circle all the examples of this rule in today’s article and then be sure to remember it when writing on your own!
