«The Girl Who Didn’t Know How To Be» is a project I feel really passionate about and hold very close to my heart. It is now time to bring this story into life through a high quality picture book. I really want to share this with the world and need your help to make it a reality.

Story:

Growing up is hard for everyone. Some individuals communicate with the world in their own way, but the world does not understand them. They find it particularly hard to transition into adulthood.

“The Girl Who Didn’t Know How To Be” is a picture book that tells the story about a girl who tries very hard to fit into society and her peer groups. She struggles to find a place in this world, but finally she rebels and creates her own rules.

Well…ok…it’s a bit more complicated than that. Basically it’s an allegory of someone who has Autism, but at the same time perfectly portrays anyone who feels different and struggles to fit in. Living in a world where there is so little understanding of neurodiversity, I find it crucially important to talk about these topics from a different perspective.

Book:

“The Girl Who Didn’t Know How To Be” will be a self published high quality picture book. All of the illustrations will be printed in a perfectly bound book.

The regular edition will be an 80 full-colour paged softcover book.

The hardcover book will be a 120 full-colour paged book. This will be a limited edition with only 42 copies made. Each book will be signed, numbered by hand and will include requested inscription or doodle.

Any money raised above and beyond the goal will go towards printing more books. Ideally if enough money is raised, copies of the books will be donated to libraries, community centres and schools.

What kind of message about autism does this book send:

This book supports autism rights, pro neurodiversity and is against any harmful views that autism needs to be cured, feared or fixed. We disassociate ourselves from any organisations or groups who search for the magical cure or promote unethical behaviour therapies.

In recent years awareness of autism has grown, at the same time there is a growing belief that  autistic people must conform to society’s expectations and perfectly fit into its conventional imaginary pattern created to control society. Autistic people are not the problem, society that wants to make everyone behave the same way is the real problem. By supporting this book you will be sending the message that it’s ok to just be the way you are!

Why Donate?

These days, picture book publishing is often only possible if all the costs are paid for. This is especially true if you want to make all the choices yourself. That is why I decided to reach out to the Kickstarter community. I really want this story to see the day light and be read and appreciated by others. Now I’m ready to self-publish this book as I did with my A Rat’s Talebook last year. I chose DIY (Do It Yourself or rather Do It Together) again, because it gives me a chance to tell the story exactly the way I want and lets me make all the decisions from design to print without any sacrifices. I see this book as a piece of art sending a strong message rather than just an ordinary picture book.

As Kickstarter is an all or nothing platform, I decided to ask for the minimal amount possible that would allow me to publish this book. All of the money raised by this project will be used to fund the publication of the “The Girl Who Didn’t Know How To Be”.

TEAM behind the project:

Firstly it is me, Milda aka AIWS. I am a strange invention – a creature with a brush, feather and camera in my hands. I wrote and illustrated The Girl Who Didn’t Know How To Be. My life revolves around making things up, and I am so good at it that most of the time they become reality…

There is also Maxi (aka Jake Maxwell) who plays in a band called Ligaments, creates videos and is extremely nice. He insisted to shoot, directed and filmed this awesome video for this Kickstarter project!

Others who made it happen:

My Muse and inspiration Laima, probably without her none of this would have ever happened. My partner in crime Pierre, who supported my creativity no matter what and always believed I could do what seemed impossible. My friend Diana who not only helped me edit the book, but also noticed things no one else did.

For help with subtitles a huge thank YOU goes to Daniela, Fátima, Grace, João, Kira, Manuala, Nel, Ranjan, Robertas, Santy and Sebnem

By funding this book you become an important team member too! I intend to continue talking about human rights through my works in the future. “The Girl Who Didn’t Know How To Be” is a way of educating society and helping others to understand and to accept everyone as they are.

Rewards:

Most importantly there will be the book! I’ve poured everything I’ve got into this book, and cried while working on it, so it’s even filled with real human emotions!

Even better, there will be two books! The hardcover book will include lots of extra illustrations and will be limited to only 42 copies. Once they are gone, they are gone forever!

This isn’t all, there are lots of other rewards as well.

• Limited-edition postcards featuring illustrations from the book. Five of them can be seen in the picture below and the sixth will be an extra one that does not appear in the book.

• A signed A3 poster featuring an illustration from the book. Hang it on the wall, on the door or wherever you like! You will be able to choose one from these three images.

• An original A5 size black&white doodle made specially for you. I’ll draw you, your friend, your cat or even a dodo and you’ll get to keep the original artwork.

• An original A4 drawing of you in the same style as the illustrations in the book. Yes! I’ll transform you into one of the comic characters from my stories, how cool is that?

• A book made only for you! I’ll transfer one of my existing short stories into a tailor made picture book for you. You’ll be able to choose the story you like the most from three different stories and even choose the style of illustrations. You will receive 6 copies of the book. The book will be no less than 30 pages including at least 20 full page illustrations.

If you feel like doing something really really nice, there is an option to buy the book for yourself as well as donate one, three or even six (if you feel like extra nice) copies to libraries, schools and community centres.

Thanks so much for your support! 

Only together can we break the stigma and change the world for the better.

I’m really excited to share this project with you all. Your contribution will bring this story to life, so you and many others can recognize the value of my work and consider supporting it.