2025 Round-Up
The good things from 2024 had spilled into 2025, and I find myself cautiously optimistic about 2026...
Whew!
The past few years felt like a frenzy to establish new foundations: illustration portfolio, literary agent, book deal(s). It was amazing that it all happened in such close sequence. I’m chugging along! I’m staying the course!
2025 Was A Quieter Year, And That’s Okay
This year has given me more time to sit with my own thoughts. These thoughts were rather boring, but I’m just glad that I haven’t ended up on the floor, rocking myself and singing “Beauty School Dropout” while sobbing into a gingerbread cookie. But who knows? It’s only mid-December.
While I work on illustrating my third picture book and developing stronger dummy books to pitch to my agent, I thought about the other parts of myself that I wanted to work on too.
What things have I ignored or put in the back burner to get to where I am now?
Personal development. What does that look like for me today? In my 20s, I’d have written “rock hard abs” but now I think I need to dig deeper as I enter my 40s.
In the spirit of self-improvement and treating oneself this December, I signed up for in-person French classes at a language school nearby. It’s an intensive class, meeting three times a week for three hours each night. And since I am in an incredibly clingy and co-dependent relationship with my husband, he joined too. He wanted to be my classmate. 🤓
We walk together holding hands with our little backpacks and then we take notes in our little notebooks and do the homework together the next morning. 🤭 Mon mari est mon BFF!
More importantly, could I finally bother and insult my francophone friends in their own language? Mon dieu, the possibilities really open up! I’ve said it before, but I love bothering Europeans. It is my personal hobby. I might now be able to add the French Canadians to my list.
That being said, my goals for the coming year have transitioned out of the “Hot Mess Phase” and into a more subdued and focused list of intentions. For that, I am grateful.
I Am A Many-Trick Pony
This was also the year my financial sabbatical ran out. I had given myself 2 years to rise from the ashes like a flaming phoenix—using a portion of my savings to keep afloat. With some adjustments to our household budget and more careful spending (RIP expensive internet underwear that I loved buying!), I realized that I didn’t need to be making as much as I did with the software company. But if I wanted a more secure financial future, I couldn’t quite coast along just yet.
Fortunately, my fellow kidlit author and friend Karla got in touch and asked if I knew anything about InDesign and print production. She worked for a small school over in East Vancouver and needed a hand with the upcoming school year’s collateral.
I had some initial reservations about it, but it turned out to be really fun! I mean, I got to illustrate and design this choo-choo train backdrop!
I realized this year that I didn’t need to give up all of my past skills and abilities. That might sound really obvious to many, but I think the drama queen in me just wanted to forget the past and rebuild anew, like some kind of fugitive or runaway witness for the prosecution.
The emotional tears and wounds from my previous job titles have somewhat healed. It’s like meeting an old girlfriend from a long time ago, and not feeling like strangling them on the spot. Now that I opened up more opportunities in illustration and the kidlit space, I wasn’t trapped in feeling that graphic design was my only choice.
With that pressure taken off, it was a genuine treat to go back to communication and print design. Now, I don’t know if I would say the same about the tech, web, and software spaces, but I’ll get back to you on than after fifty years.
Plot Twist!
What surprised me the most about 2025, however, was… I couldn’t fill up this graphic!
While there is so much to be mad about in the world today, I am incredibly grateful to have very few regrets in 2025. Even the ones I put on there were really stretching it. And instead of pretending I had more grievances than I really do, I am choosing to leave it and accept my happiness!
If anything, I’m more aware of all the things I do have right now, today, at this moment. My health, my partner, my home, my family.
Twelve months is an arbitrary amount of time to measure our successes. Even if I didn’t accomplish any of these things, it doesn’t mean it’s too late. It just means I need more time or re-calibrate my expectations.
KidLitArtPostcard
To end this newsletter, I’ll share a few of my favourite KidLitArtPostcard posts from the past year. This was started by kidlit illustrator Gina Perry.
Every first Thursday of the month, kidlit illustrators go on social media to post under the hashtag #kidlitartpostcard for art directors and editors and publishers to look through. It’s such a fun thing to take part in, and I’ve discovered so many new illustrators to follow because of this.
So to my dear friends, I hope you all have a lovely December holiday. Please do send me your end-of-year updates if you have any. I’d love to catch up and hear all about it!
Onward to 2026!
It was so fun to read your 2025 in review! You've made some awesome portfolio pieces this year. <3