Average Girl, known in real life as Laura, told Bored Panda how she got into art: "It may be a clichè, but I started drawing when I was very little. My babysitter used to read mangas to me and my dad read comics to me as well, so comics have always been a big part of my life! I drew my first comic when I was 6 and I never really stopped. After high school, I started posting my comics online and since then webcomics have been my way to tell stories."
"My comics are about daily life and experiences, closely following Average Girl, the main protagonist. As you can tell by the name, she's a pretty average girl who struggles through life just like everyone else. My stories are usually funny and exaggerated because what fun would life be without something to laugh about?" Laura said.
She says her inspirations come from everyday life situations such as hitting your toe, burning the cookies, or shampoo in your eye: "I take those seemingly banal and irrelevant everyday experiences and turn them into something funny and relatable."
Average Girl stands out for her hilarious art style. She's able to draw characters with expressions like no other and it adds charm to the comics. The artist told us about the evolution of her unique art style.
"My art style started off with Pokèmon when I was a kid and passed through many stages before getting to what it is now: I had a Winx-style phase, a Naruto-style phase, a D.Gray-man phase, but only when I started my webcomic did I find my very own style, which is a mix of all the comics and mangas I read, simplified in a cleaner, a not-so-realistic style that kinda resembles chibis. A simpler drawing style can make the difference when you have to make a lot of comics in a short amount of time!
"Even though I'm a comic artist, I look up to any kind of artist, really. I love seeing how other artists illustrate the world in their own unique style and I try to take from them anything I can. A couple of artists I really look up to are Gigi Cavenago, Olimpia Zagnoli, and Emiliano Ponzi," Laura named the artists she draws inspiration from.
Besides light-hearted laughter, Average Girl comics have a meaningful mission of making people around the world feel better and less alone.
"With my comics, I hope that people can learn and accept themselves a little bit more. We all can feel like the underdog sometimes, or like losers, so with my stories, I'd like to make my readers feel understood and less alone. We are all special in our own way, and life can be beautiful despite all the misadventures we may have!"
We asked Laura what's the most challenging and the most rewarding about creating comics and posting them online:
"The most challenging for sure is having new ideas. Average Girl webcomic has been going on for more than 6 years now with a new episode each week (mostly) so sometimes, when I'm not in the best creative mood, it can be difficult to create something new. The most rewarding is reading my readers' comments on how they feel understood and can relate to my work."
She also continued about the feedback she gets online:
"Feedback is extremely important for a webcomic artist as our comics go directly to the readers without any editor. Comments, shares, and likes let us know that what we are doing is on the right track and comments can help improve ourselves and our work, so those are always welcome. It can happen, sadly, that you receive some pretty nasty and offensive comments just because someone is in a bad mood, but the remedy is to delete and block."
Negativity and trolling is a big and unavoidable part of sharing your artwork on the internet, but wholesome comments and constructive criticism are what's going to help your favorite artist to strive for the better. There is no need to spread hateful comments just because you can or you don't particularly like the artwork or find it relatable. The internet is amazing because of the variety of content you can find.
Laura shared the proudest moment of her career as a comic artist:
"I'd probably say my soon-to-be three printed publications! That's absolutely amazing, but nothing feels good like meeting my readers at conventions and talking with them—that's the real reward! The next goal is working on comics full-time. Ever since I started, I've always had school or other jobs while making comics, so I'd like to make it a full-time job."
Laura answered the question that sums up the experience, "so what is it like to be an average girl?":
"What it means for me is that I can be whoever I want, that I don't have to pressure myself to be what others want me to be. It means, even if sometimes it's hard to remember, that who I am is the right way to be myself and that it's ok to grow and change."
Finally, the artist shared some advice from her personal experience that can help you kick off your own career or start something you've wanted for a while:
"Just do it (quote not intended). It may be scary, but it's the right thing to do. I can be rather impulsive in making some choices, but diving headfirst into the comic world is the best thing I've ever done, even if I didn't feel ready or good enough. You never know what will happen! Stay positive, and positive things will come to you."
