Willow Dawson is an illustrator and cartoonist working out of the RAID Comics studio in downtown Toronto. She is the creator of the brand new Lila and Ecco's Do-It-Yourself Comics Club (Kids Can Press) and illustrator of award-winning graphic novels: No Girls Allowed with Susan Hughes (Kids Can Press) and Violet Miranda: Girl Pirate with Emily Pohl-Weary (Kiss Machine).

Dawson is currently working on two upcoming graphic novels, Hyena in Petticoats: The Story of Suffragette Nellie McClung (Penguin Canada, ETA: 2011) and 100 Mile House (excerpts published at Top Shelf 2.0).

For more on Willow, please visit willowdawson.com

I started off making 'zines and little handmade artist multiples after high school. They were filled with really bad poetry, sketches and collages. I originally thought I'd be a fine artist by trade or an art therapist, but soon realized I had a fascination with storytelling, specifically the way words and images interact…I didn't make my first comic until I was 27! From there, I was hooked.

Those middle years where you're kind of stuck between still being a kid and growing up can be really painful--at least they were for me and many of my friends. I often wish I'd had more cool role models to look up to for guidance back then. Not necessarily authors, but cool, realistic characters in books or historical figures I could actually relate to.

Part of the problem was that I was terrified of books--reading long texts still scares me--and I couldn't easily ask for help because I was too shy and embarrassed. Schools were not very fond of heavily illustrated texts back then—you couldn't just happen upon them on the library shelf. It's different now, and I hope that I am contributing something good to this growing list of graphic novelists reaching out to young people who might be in the same boat I was in at the same age.

There isn't really anything typical about being a freelance author or illustrator because you're always juggling a million things and the deadlines can be pretty tight. I do go to my studio nearly every day and begin by answering e-mails. After that, the day can take any shape depending on what I have to get done for whom and when. Some days I'm drawing, painting or writing; other days, I'm teaching, attending book or comics festivals, preparing grant proposals, proposals for future books, negotiating contracts or doing general paperwork.

I went to school for illustration—no part of the program focused on sequential narrative (comics and graphic novels) or writing. School did give me the technical things (how to draw this or that, how to create a visual metaphor, etc) but did very little to prepare me for the reality of having to be self-motivated and bring work in for myself. I don't think any program can adequately prepare you for that, though--you have to do this on your own.

I self-published and attended book and comic book festivals on the side, which gave me a huge leg-up. Kids Can Press saw some of my self-published and small press comics and asked me to illustrate No Girls Allowed immediately upon graduation.

Some ideas come about after enlightening conversations with friends, listening to great music, an interesting podcast or audio book, from research, or from things I've experienced in my life. Other ideas seem to come from nowhere, crashing down, right out of the sky, like tiny confused baby birds.

In all cases, ideas and inspiration are the result of things I'm most passionate about. Artists (and I include musicians, writers...etc in this category) have a boundless and insatiable curiosity for the world. It's that curiosity, that willingness to open up to new experiences that gives ideas the space to step out into the day and take shape.

I never found those books / plays very interesting or helpful, which is probably why I never learned how to read properly. They've been terribly outdated—in some cases for, well, centuries! I understand that the underlying messages are what's important and perhaps still relevant today, but I think that's a poor excuse not to revise curriculum so that it is contemporary and reflects the needs of today's students.

I guess my best advice is if you have to read them, remember that it's ok not to like them! Tell your teachers why you think this or that text sucks and what is important for you in a story or character. It may take time, but school boards are listening. It's already changed a lot since I was in school!

Draw! Draw! Draw! and Write! Write! Write! and don't forget to publish your work. The web is an easy, very affordable place to start and editors will love watching your ideas and style grow over time.

Also, whatever it is, only write about it if you're truly, deeply obsessed. In other words, don't write a vampire, superhero, WWII story just because you think it's a popular subject to write about. If it doesn't come from the heart, it will seem forced and uninspired. It won't be your best writing.

Skim By Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki is very high up on the list. As is pretty much anything by Francesca Lia Block or Cecil Castellucci. Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis and Ho Che Anderson's King (for a bit older, but really great!) are both way up there, too.