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A thought occurred to me at work on Friday.  When I was a kid I was always the “artistic one.” I always enjoyed drawing, to the point where some of my earliest memories are of showing my mother things I had drawn.  Adults often fawned over how talented I was.

But when they asked “what do you want to be when you grow up?” like adults inevitably ask all children. They’d balk when I responded that I wanted to be an artist (I didn’t decide on comics specifically until I was 13 or so).  ”Very few people are able to make it as professional artists” or “artists don’t make any money” was nearly always the response.  I heard it my entire life, from parents, teachers, and various other authority figures.  The message was pretty clear, my dream was unattainable and I should find a different one.

Do they tell this to kids with other difficult to obtain dreams? Such as the kid who wants to be a musician, or a professional athlete, or a movie star?  Becoming a doctor or a scientist is hard, what about that kid? What about the kid who wants to be a spaceman or a robot?    Why is it usually only the artistic kids who get the pessimistic reactions from adults?  Shoot for the moon little Billy, unless you want to be an artist.

I was reminded of this very strongly at one of the webcomics panels at Katsucon, a girl who looked to be in her teens (and happened to be there with an older man who I presume was her father) asked about what to do when people tell you you’ll never make any money at drawing comics.  One of the panellists told her just to be prepared to keep hearing that.  I don’t remember which panelist is was, so I’m not sure how financially successful he was, but apparently even when you’re successful enough to be invited to a place like Katsucon as a guest you’ll still “never make any money at it.”

I think this is bullshit. True, most artists don’t become fabulously wealthy but most people in general don’t. And there are plenty of people who do art professionally in some capacity.  I think it’s morally wrong to tell anyone, especially a child, that their dreams are less good than anyone elses.  I don’t really have any children in my life, except for Jawa’s daughter and she’s too young to have formed any life goals yet. But if you do: encourage them to follow their dreams, whatever they happen to be, even if it’s a difficult goal or seems impossible to you, and if anyone ever tells them different you should call that person out on it. Yes, even if the kid in question wants to be a robot.

My name is Kytri and I want to be an artist when I grow up.