"chil*hood mem**ies" By Sofia

ig: las0f tiktok: ssdoesart

I’m Sofia, a 16-year-old lesbian artist who began drawing five years ago, at the onset of puberty—a time that brought confusion, change, and anxiety. What started as a form of escapism quickly became a vital tool for processing emotions I couldn’t yet name. Drawing helped me navigate the isolation I felt, especially as I began to understand my identity and what it means to grow up as a girl—and a lesbian—in today’s world.

My art is deeply personal and often shaped by the isolation, self-hatred, and comphet I’ve experienced. Art helps me rebuild the way I see my body, my identity, and my womanhood. It’s how I make sense of myself, and how I connect with others who might be feeling the same way.

I often draw inspiration from words—quotes, lyrics, writing that makes me feel seen. That’s why this zine means so much to me: it’s a space where I can show not just what I create, but who I really am. I like to experiment with different styles and mediums, since I’m still learning and growing as both an artist and a person.

I’ve always explained myself better with images than with words. I hope my drawings speak clearly—of pain, of joy, of queerness, of becoming—and that they remind someone out there that they are not alone.

I made this piece after a long period of paranoia and isolation. I felt as if my existence had always been so disconnected from what is considered classic "girlhood" and thinking about my child-self amplified the whole thing because I'd always felt different as a child too. I loved being a girly girl, but what was "girly" to me never applied to the other girls. There's a theme in my pieces of self-portraits made with surreal colors, as to signify how out of place I feel sometimes, but here it signals caos. The thought bubble being whispered in my hear by my own "green" self is double: one with what is an insult and beneath lyrics to the Chappell Roan hit "Femininomenon". It's because those two realities exists within me all at once, endlessly fighting for my train of thought: acceptance and brutal censorship of who I really am. The word lesbian was never a thing growing up, and I felt as if it were locked away from me for the longest time. That's why I decided to censor, or "lock away", some letters in the title.