Susanna Morari
23, Graphic Designer
Susanna Morari
23, Graphic Designer
My name is Susanna, I'm 23 years old and I'm an illustrator. Generally, as soon as I say this, 99% of the people ask me: What? So what do you do? As simple as that: I draw for a living. I studied Graphic Design for eight years, and then, in my second year of university, I discovered a crazy love for drawing and illustration.
Even before graduating I enrolled to a Master's program in Illustration, in the worst year possible, and now, a year later, here I am: more convinced than ever of my choice, despite the difficulties of this profession. Difficulties not due to being a woman, but more to being young and at the beginning of this career. It takes a while to get going, to "get your name out there", as they say.
Even being a woman, however, especially a young feminist woman, brings its own difficulties:
how many times do I find myself having discussions with family members, friends, sometimes even strangers online, in order to defend our rights. Especially the Italian culture is so full of ways of saying, doing and thinking that are sexist or do not respect or take into consideration women or the LGBTQ+ community. Even a "simple sexist joke", for me, in 2021, should no longer be told, and above all: it was never funny and especially today it should not make people laugh.
Since I am a person with low self-esteem and very critical of myself,
I believe that the most important lesson - which I am still trying to learn and put into practice - is to believe in myself and in my abilities.
Unfortunately, I often tend to look at other people, compare myself to them, and inevitably feel worse. In fact, before I thought about this aspect of my personality, as soon as I met a new girl I would put this pattern into practice: comparing myself to her, feeling worse than her, and then criticizing her as a "self-defense." After years of practice I learned to do the opposite, not to be distrustful of a woman I just met, but rather, I learned to be welcoming and team player. This to me is sisterhood: knowing that even though we just met, we can already count on each other.
