Witch Hat Atelier, by Kamome Shirahama, is a manga that motivated me artistically. My career goal is to become a self-published mangaka, so I am always finding different methods to improve my ability to draw and tell stories. Shirahama has a unique art style. Her inking stands out among the several mangas I have read. The way she hatches and adds little details is inspiring, and I hope to achieve that someday. She also has a unique way of paneling. The panels of Witch Hat Atelier are not only for moving to the next shot, but it is part of the art itself. Shirahama is also incredible at worldbuilding. I love the rules of magic in Witch Hat Atelier. How she writes character relationships and how each character grows throughout the series is memorable. Witch Hat Atelier impacted the style I aspire my future manga, Yozakura's Purpose, to be.

"When do ya think a person dies? When a bullet from a pistol pierces his heart? No. When he is attacked by an incurable disease? No. When he eats a soup of deadly poisonous mushrooms? No! A man... dies when people forget 'em." Rest in peace, Dr. Hililuk. He is a character from my favorite anime, One Piece. He spoke these words in the final moments of his life. He took his own life so his pupil, Tony Tony Chopper, would not feel solely responsible for his death after accidentally feeding him a poisonous mushroom soup. Forever having a special place in his heart... Chopper goes out to sea with the Straw Hat Pirates to become a doctor capable of curing any disease...! This quote was part of an emotional and significant event in Chopper's life, but it holds a lot of weight to our world, too. Being forgotten is a painful experience. Even on accident, it hurts to know that I do not stand out enough to be remembered. Here is how Dr. Hililuk's words apply to my life. Ever since elementary school, I was the energetic girl addicted to chocolate and the sworn enemy of strawberries. This defining trait made me stand out to others. Because I have lived in the same area for all my life, classmates that I attended elementary and middle school with remembers who I am and what my favorite flavor of all time is to this day! Even at the height of my chocolate phase, I was not thinking about standing out of the crowd. It brings me comfort now that I made an impact on others so early in my life. On the flip side, I try to be invisible... or hope that some people do not remember me. My self-esteem does not want to feel like someone I met a few times would remember little ol' me, but I was wrong. I returned to work as a part-time Barista after my first year of college. I had hope that the regulars that visited the cafe did not remember me, but they did. I honestly thought they would forget me after being away for nine months, but some were even excited to see me back! I found myself second-guessing, for the billionth time, my impact on others. I do not feel alone. Even though I have not experienced a severe case of loneliness, I realized that the thought of being forgotten is detrimental to our society. People who feel like they are alone in this world are the ones that make headlines for doing horrific actions to others or themselves. Dr. Hililuk said that a person dies when people forget them, and that happens every day! Many people think that others have forgotten them. That is why it is fundamental to be kind to everyone and give back to those in need. This quote is something that I will always keep in mind for the rest of my life.

As an artist, I can express myself fully. Being an artist gives me individuality, freedom, and a safe place to be me. Art is something that no one can steal from me because it is part of who I am. What is fascinating about being an artist is that I can be around my creative peers and still be me. Every artist is unique. We all may have similarities, but we all have undergone different experiences in our lives; it shows through our art. I am an illustrator. I have never been good with expressing myself with words, especially when someone interrupts me. However, my drawings allow me to speak without having to scramble for words. My drawings are my safe space. Stressed or bored, if I have a paper and any writing tool, I will doodle. Many of my best works were my doodles on my school notes. I have even made a collage of them! Being an artist is not just a hobby or a career. It is something that I, as a person, was born to be. As an illustrator, I want to produce anything that I can and cannot imagine! That is what drives me. My main goal in life is to be a self-published graphic novelist. I want to create stories that my audience and I can feel included. It is my job to create a narrative that is clear and aesthetically pleasing. Which means I will have to continue to study art, history, society, and myself. As of now, I find myself analyzing graphic novels that I read, from the strokes of the lines to the message of the story. Art has given me the motivation to improve my knowledge so I can create more. Watching anime when I was younger is what introduced me to the art world. I love the style of Japanese 2d animation compared to the west. I eventually found myself drawing my Disney Fairies character in an anime style. Due to this love of anime art, I began learning anatomy and basic color theory. I began to attract artistic friends at school, too! One of my friends even asked me if I can draw their characters in a story they were writing with their friends. Those were the best days of my life! Anime was the push that formed that artist that I am today. I plan to use my art to bring more diversity and acceptance into the world. As a future self-published graphic novelist who is also a minority, I want to contribute to the improvement of society by doing what I love most. Comics and animation are something I grew up on, and it has affected me in both good and bad ways. It was not until I grew up that I realized how significant entertainment I have consumed contributed to how I view the world and myself. That is why I want to illustrate stories that include diversity and an important message, all while being magical!

I need this scholarship because it would lessen the financial burden of my student debt and allow me to accomplish my career goals. I am learning the hard way that money is what makes the world go round. One of my career goals is to open my anime and manga-themed teahouse near my hometown. However, I know fulfilling such a task is difficult with a large amount of student debt. It will take several years for me to pay it off. I have not even begun my second year of college yet. That is why I need this scholarship. I am a first-generation college student; therefore, I did not have any family or family friends to help me with preparing for college. It was not until I started to apply for colleges and scholarships at the beginning of my senior year of high school that I began to learn about this whole new world after K-12. My mom, who is my primary caregiver, is not from the states. She did not know anything about the college process, and it was difficult for us to figure out everything we needed for me to attend. Another problem that contributed to the issue is that I started to think about college late. Going to college was never a topic until I decided late in my junior year of high school that pursuing higher education was for me. I remember going to my IB English class for the first time in my senior year. My teacher asked everyone how their summer was. The majority of my classmates either worked their summer job, applied to colleges, or both. I had no idea that you could start applying to colleges that early. Well, I never knew when to. I felt so behind, and I still feel the same way today. However, the last two years of working to enter college have been rewarding. I have learned a lot in a short amount of time. Most of it was during a time where the world was in a state of distress (the Coronavirus Pandemic), but my family and I got through it! Throughout my first year of college, I was applying to several scholarships monthly. I remained on the dean's list for satisfactory grades all year. I had a 3.6 GPA for most of the year and completed freshman year with a 3.7 GPA. I participated in community service events. For example, I helped to assemble art kits for elementary kids and distributed food to local neighborhoods. I also stay connected to my school through extracurricular activities by participating in online club meetings and watching special events presented by special guests. I have been working hard for someone who had no clue about college life and what a scholarship was two years ago. I will continue to work hard until this financial burden fades away into the void!

2020 was a crazy year for everyone, however, I was not negatively affected compared to others. Yeah, many of my high school plans as a senior was canceled, and I did not have the typical graduation and college orientation. I also had to stop working my part-time job for a few months, but I have the privilege to return once businesses started to open again. My family and I were also blessed not to catch the virus. Honestly, 2020 has given me some positive experiences, one of them is learning more about myself. In 2020, I learned how to pay more attention to myself and how I operate daily. I do not have a lot of self-awareness when it comes to myself and going to school and coming back home tired did not help me with learning how I operate. With the pandemic, graduating high school, and turning 18, I had a peaceful time of self-reflection and preparation for adulthood. I learned, well, paid attention to simple things like my sleep schedule, when I like to work, how I handle stress, etc. Also, with staying home and being away from my peers, I was able to prevent comparing myself to others and that helped me gain a bit more self-confidence that I lacked. It was not until I had the privilege of moving away to college where I continued my journey of discovering "me". I remember moving into my dorm room and having it all to myself. Since the pandemic was still going on, every student had the whole dorm to themselves. After dropping me off, when my parents left, I decorated it the way I want, and I had a lot of freedom. Being able to have a room to myself gave me more opportunities to learn more about myself without having anyone get in the way of that. From having a workspace designed for me to having an ultra-comfy bed for top-notch nights of rest, I am now on a quest to be independent and responsible. 2020 has contributed to this because I did it without any interference from my parents and peers. 2020 will always make me think "what if" for the future. I always have to think about what I will do to prepare myself in the future just in case a pandemic happens again. I remember having an interview with someone and I had a question about what I will do with my future business just in case a pandemic happens again. Everyone is preparing for the future, and as someone who wants to be an entrepreneur and live comfortably, it is crucial for me to always have backup plans. Not only for a pandemic but for everything in life. 2020 was not great, at all, but for me, it was not horrible. I spent a lot of time to myself as many people have, but I was able to contribute by having lots of alone time. I learned more about myself and what I should always keep in mind for the future.

I love to draw. Scribbling is my "Zen." Gliding a pencil around a piece of paper to create something on my mind is my way of life. Thinking of a story and bringing it to life is so satisfying. This is a hobby that I have enjoyed doing since middle school, and I want to continue to do it forever, or for as long as I can use my hands! My main goal in life is to become a self-published mangaka. I desire to entertain others while expressing myself through my art. My love for drawing stories has grown into a dream career that I will achieve. Attending college has given me the resources to help me achieve a dream that is rarely discussed in Pre-K to 12th grade. I have been watching anime and reading manga ever since I was young, and it was what got me into creating art. During middle school, I started to draw my own stories, as well as my friends. It was the highlight of my middle school days. That was the first time I felt like I could do this for a living. However, it was not until the end of my junior year of high school where I believed I could go to college to pursue this dream. I now attend the Savannah College of Art & Design as a sequential art major and business management & entrepreneurship minor. The Spring quarter of 2021 is when I started taking my first sequential art class: "Introduction to Sequential Art." It goes over the basics of sequential art and it has been an amazing introductory course. The most important topic of this class is illustrating the story to be clear to the audience. We also learned about materials, both traditionally and digitally. I am preparing to take what I learned in this class with me into summer break and hone in on my skills on my own time. I am excited to attend more sequential art classes in the future. I also plan to take business management & entrepreneurship courses next year. I need to learn the business aspect of the world, especially since I want to go down an independent route. I do not know what I am in for when I start these classes, but I am excited to learn business management & entrepreneurship. As I take my classes, it is important for me to do my research on news regarding my industry, how to improve my skills, finance, jobs. I also have to research information about taking care of my new young adult life so I will know what decision I will have to make regarding my career if something does not work out. My dream career is not a promising one, so I have to continue to plan and be more diverse in my skills so I am not stuck in a bad situation in the future. However, I also have to take it one step at a time, or everything will come crashing down.

The woman in my life that I admire is someone that I do not know personally. She is someone that I have watched on a screen since early high school. Someone who does commentary on both goofy and serious topics. Someone who gives life advice to those old and young. Someone who has been through a lot herself. She is a YouTuber who has been doing her thing since 2009. She goes by "Lovelyti TV", but we followers call her "Ti" or "AuntieTi". I started watching her during early high school. At that time, she made several commentaries discussing national news and gossip. That was my first introduction to the world outside of my hometown. I learned about different states, cities, celebrities, and everything that fell into that realm. After she would finish showing her viewers the news clip, she would tell us what she thinks. As someone who does not know a lot about the real world, hearing her opinions on certain situations was enlightening. She is like my Youtube mom, always teaching me something whether it was intentional or not. I feel like I have been raised by another person after watching her videos for years. One thing that she has taught me and her audience was to always have integrity. I always knew that having integrity was important; the thought of being in a situation that I would not desire to be in because of my lack of morals gives me anxiety. However, Lovelyti's audience and I saw firsthand how having integrity can go a long way. We witnessed an undesirable situation that she was put in a few years back in a community on Youtube, but due to her integrity, she was able to come out on top and now she is doing better than ever. Due to this, I always try to remember what better actions I can take in situations, and I know that will lead me to success. Lovelyti has taught me a lot more, for example: doing your research, not taking information online and running with it, relationship advice, and more! She is like my second mom. I continue to watch her videos to this day, and she continues to give her audience amazing content. I do not think I will be as knowledgeable about the world now if it was not for her. She is a special person in my life, even if I do not know her personally.

I want something of my own. I want to create something that has "me" all over it. Something that I built from the ground up. I desire to have freedom, control, and security. I wish to have the ability to provide a place where people with similar interests as I do belong. These reasons are why I am interested in entrepreneurship. My main goal in life is to become a self-published mangaka. A mangaka is someone who creates manga. I want to publish my works because I have more freedom. There is no one telling me what I should do with my story, when I should release it, and how I should release it. I want to have control over what I produce, and I feel more secure in doing that. My second goal is to open an anime and manga cafe near my hometown. This dream is something very special to me because this is something I wished I had growing up. I love anime and manga, but I usually felt alone in my love for them. I only had a few friends over the years who shared my adoration for it, but once I left school, I was just left alone to myself. To be fair, I am an introvert, and I do not mind being alone. However, it would have been so nice to have a place I can go to hang out with my friends and possibly meet other anime and manga lovers. There are not many nerdy places like that where I live, and I want to have one of my own there. This cafe is important for my community because it would nice to have a place where you feel like you belong. There is something different about being in a physical place rather than on your phone. Just to know that there are a variety of different people who enjoy the same thing you do feels amazing, and I wish I had that when I was younger. Along with taking a sequential art major, I am also taking a business management and entrepreneurship minor to ensure that I know how having a business works. I want to have freedom, control, and security in what I produce and build. I want to do what not many people in America have done and have a safe local hang-out area, that is not a library, for nerds like me. Hopefully, with my aspirations, I can inspire someone else to go and achieve what they believe in as well.

At the moment, I am finishing up my first year of college. This leaves me with plans to master my craft during summer break. As of now, I plan to continue to practice using materials for comics, learning Japanese, and possibly helping my friends with creating a webtoon! Sequential Art is my major in college. I desire to become a self-publish mangaka and I have officially begun my studies on the subject this quarter. Now that I have learned more about techniques and specific materials, I plan to experiment with them more over the summer. I already have several supplies like ink, fountain pens, brushes, markers, fine liners, paper, etc. All I have to do is use them! I think I will experiment with them as I craft my stories. I cannot wait! I also want to continue teaching myself Japanese. I have had several attempts at teaching myself Japanese in the past, but I never had time for it. Hopefully, during this summer, I can commit myself to a schedule to learn Japanese. I have always wanted to learn Japanese, but doing so can also give me more opportunities. I have done some research on having an internship in Japan, or even teaching English in Japan. It's a thought, but I am doing this mostly for enjoyment! Lastly, helping my friends with creating a webtoon! One of my friends recently asked me if I would like to help her create a webtoon because I am a sequential arts major. With honor, I said yes and now we have other friends who would like to join! She is currently developing her story and I am excited. This could be great practice for collaborating with others on a fun out-of-school project! These are my plans for this summer break, on top of working. I hope to work on these plans because I want to become a self-published mangaka in the future. Practice makes perfect and just because I am not in school, that does not mean I cannot be working on my craft.

Picking an all-time favorite movie is one of the hardest decisions ever. So to make this easier, I will talk about a new movie I recently saw and adored! Demon Slayer: Mugen Train. This movie is part of the Demon Slayer series, an anime about a boy named Tanjiro Kamado traveling with his recently turned demon little sister, Nezuko Kamado, to turn her back into a human. What is different about this movie is that it is the next arc of the series and not a side story. I have already read the manga, so I know what has happened even before watching the movie. However, that did not affect my love for this masterpiece. The animation, music, and the Japanese voice acting... it was astonishing! It made this whole arc much more impactful. The animation was the best I have ever seen! There was not a single moment where it failed to impress me. The music and the voice acting made this arc of the story so much more emotional than just reading the manga. There were tears throughout the theatre, and I tried my best to hold them in! It is not often where film adaptions are better than the book, but the Demon Slayer: Mugen Train to step aside and let them handle it! It is the best movie I have seen in a while. Highly recommend!

I always felt like I was sheltered for most of my life. Even though I have traveled out of state a couple of times, as well as travel out of the country two times, I do not feel like I have acquired anything significant out of those trips, other than a vacation. The reason being is because I was always with my family. 95% of the time we traveled was because we were visiting family or family friends. I either stayed cooped up where we were lodging or went to familiar places, like grocery stores and Asian buffets. I have never had the opportunity to get to learn about the new city that I was in. Just looking at new scenery is not enough for me; I want to see and know more about the town. Now that I am older, I have more freedom to discover more places and the ability to learn about them. Traveling will help me learn about the world! There are so many different destinations filled with so many diverse people. As someone who does not know a lot about what is outside my hometown, I lack knowledge of the outside world. Even just moving to another town for college, I felt like I have learned so much now than I have ever done in all four years of high school. There has always been one place overseas that I have wanted to travel to for most of my life: Japan. Japan has been the homeplace for plenty of my inspirations. From anime and manga to the culture of Japan, I adore the country and wish to travel there one day. The best way to get to know a place better is to see it in your own eyes, and I feel like I will get an authentic perspective being there in person. My college has a study abroad program to go to Japan for my major, Sequential Art. We can take courses and learn about the industry over in Japan. It would be such a great opportunity to take because of not only the fact that I love Japan, but I get to learn more about the field I want to go to from the place where it all started, for me. I can take pictures, sit and draw, or I can talk to other people about how they approach their style of art. That is something I do here at college, so it would be beneficial to do it on the other side of the world! Traveling is something that is important to me. I want to learn about my world without always having to resort to Google images and what people tell me. I would benefit from personally experiencing different locations around the world so I can see them through my own eyes and come up with my own perspective, as I do in my art. It is easy to create art through experience, because art is what we feel and want to express. I want to have more to tell and the only way I can do that is to increase my knowledge and gain more experience.

I want to create comics. More specifically, I want to create manga, Japanese comics. I have been reading manga for many years now, and it has come to the point where I want to create my own, so I can bring joy to others the way they do for me. But bringing joy to others is not the only goal I want to accomplish; I also want to express my thoughts through visual storytelling. I’m someone who doesn’t verbally express themselves that easily; it’s very hard for me to explain how I feel. However, art is one outlet that holds a lot of meaning, in such a simple way. I believe it is important for the world to see my art is because I have a voice too, and want to express how I feel as well. Even though there are a lot of people in the world, I believe everyone’s voice matters, including mines. Especially since I feel I am a bit different among fellow young adults around my age because of how I was raised, I can bring a totally different perspective to certain situations. I want to be someone that can at least make one person see and understand how I feel.

During my senior year of high school, I began searching for colleges. Even though I wanted to go to a college that can provide me with the opportunity to study abroad in Japan, my main goal was to find a college with an interesting art major that was relevant to what I want to do in the future, be a mangaka. A mangaka is someone who creates manga. I also factored in the fact that I wanted to be close to home. Conveniently, I happened to live 45 minutes away from one of the most well-known art schools in the U.S. The Savannah College of Art and Design, also known as SCAD, has a major that I am convinced was made for me! Sequential art. Sequential art involves storyboarding, character designing, publishing, and even more! I am currently enrolled, and I will begin taking classes for my major in the Spring of 2021. I have heard that the sequential art program is one of the most popular at this school and I can understand why. Taking this program is very essential for me because it will teach me about the field I want to go to as well as introduce me to other parts of the sequential art world that would prove interesting to me. I have already joined the Sequential Art Society club at SCAD, so it has been very helpful to slowly learn about what SCAD has to offer with this program. Along with declaring sequential art as my major, I also declared business management and entrepreneurship as my minor. It is going to be especially important to know the business aspect of my career since I want to go the more solo route, as well as open my own café in the future. I do not know much about this program, but I was told that this minor is the most popular minor at SCAD. A teacher in the sequential art department said that the business minor is a great minor to have with a sequential art major, and he even continued to say that he wishes it were required when taking this major. I am overly excited to start my business classes next year. SCAD itself provides a lot of resources even outside of my classes. They have many workshops to teach us a variety of different skills, taught to us by the teachers themselves. They also give us information about job-related details, like how to make a resume, cover letter, and pitches, information on different companies, and even more! I have learned more in one quarter about the job world than I did in all four years of high school, but that was also because I made the effort to search for every piece of information that can help me with my future. I have no regrets about attending SCAD.

When I started working my first part-time job at the Barnes and Nobles café, I never imagined that it would inspire me to want to open up my own café in the future. However, being an owner of a café is not my #1 goal. I inspire to be a self-published mangaka (manga author), writing and illustrating my own manga, but along with that career, I really want to open up my own anime and manga themed café near my hometown in the future. I want to have a place where people who are nerdy like me have a place to hang out and possibly meet new people with similar interests. I started working at the Barnes and Noble café during the summer before my senior year in high school and I loved it! Making different drinks was so fun and learning more about what people prefer was interesting as well. I also loved getting into short conversations with customers and meeting others with similar interests as I do. People would often come to the café to just sit and read books and that looks like the most relaxing thing to do. The atmosphere of the café was something I wanted to be part of daily, especially since I rarely hung out anywhere prior to working at Barnes and Noble. Along with the Barnes and Noble café, I also watched a lot of different themed cafes in Japan, and I fell in love. Just imagine walking through a door and you are suddenly in a different world! From the interior design to the items on the menu, every single detail in their cafes is relevant to the theme and customers look like they are having the best time of their lives. I would love to have a place like that to go to often! That is why I would want my dream café to be near my hometown because there are not a lot of places for teens or people interested in anime and manga there. I hope that one day I will be able to create a comfortable and safe environment where anime and manga lovers can hang out and be themselves. I also would like to sell my own manga there and get local artists who do not create “traditional” art to sell their work as well if they would like. I want to have tv’s playing anime, a bookcase of manga to rent out, an area to play games (arcade or board games), and even a tiny stage for karaoke on special days. I also want to have many events that will bring cosplayers to show off their skills, or artists to discover each other's works. I also cannot wait to make different themed food and drinks and seeing the customer’s reaction! Along with pursuing a career in being a self-published mangaka, I also will open my own anime and manga café in the future. In order to make this dream come true, I decided to minor in Business Management and Entrepreneurship. I am also starting to learn more about cafes by visiting many different local cafes in the town I currently reside in. I know for sure that this dream will become reality! Thank you for your time.

Hey there! My name is Shav’ae Johnson and I want to be a self-published mangaka as well as own my own anime café near my hometown in the future! What inspired me to start creating art from a young age was anime. I have been watching anime since I was very young, and it feels so different than cartoons. Cartoons are usually one-shot episodes while anime has storylines. It is basically watching a book, which technically I am doing since most anime come from their manga! I wanted to do the exact same thing and middle school was the beginning of my mangaka journey. Back then, I had no clue what a mangaka was, but as a Disney Fairies fangirl, I created my own fairy and occupied my mind with several scenarios of my character interacting with the fairies of Pixie Hollow. It was so much fun teaching myself how to draw the human body as well as outlining with ink and coloring with colored pencils. In middle school, Shav’ae did not have time to worry about schoolwork, which she eventually did get done, there was a fairy that had to be born! Along with creating my own characters, I had a friend who asked me to draw her characters for a story that she was making with her friends, and it was so fun! I enjoyed learning about her characters and story and that really motivated me to make stories of my own. Now that I’m going to the Savannah College of Art and Design and majoring in Sequential Art as well as minoring in Business Management and Entrepreneurship, I finally have the opportunity to practice my craft as well learn many new things not only from my teachers but from fellow classmates from around the world. The “Elevate Minorities in the Arts” Scholarship will help me lessen the burden of the financial needs I require to get an education, as well as show others that I am determined to achieve my dream of becoming a self-published mangaka and an entrepreneur. I will entertain others with the stories I illustrate like how other mangaka have done for me all my life.

Education has always been something that is not only required, but something I wanted my whole life, whether I realized it or not. I always loved going to school, not just because of my friends and clubs, but I get an opportunity to be exposed to something new and my curiosity allows me to discover things. I just started going to an art college recently, and I am just in love, because this is a chance to focus on what I want to learn and basically be free to expand my horizons. I am around people who I can relate to and lean on when it comes to learning something new and vice-versa. It is also very nice to now have classes where I can learn something, remember it, and apply it to my daily life rather than just temporarily remember it to just get a good grade. Right now, more than ever, I realized getting an education is super important, because I do not know a lot and I feel behind when I compare myself to my peers, which I should not be doing in the first place! I want to learn as much as I can now so I can be able to live a comfortable life and have a successful career, and be able to help and take care of my family. I attend college at the Savannah College of Art and Design and I am majoring in sequential art and minoring in business management and entrepreneurship. I plan on becoming a self-published mangaka and opening my own anime and manga café in the future. I am currently teaching myself Japanese and I plan on studying abroad with my school or using other programs one day. I want to continue having the opportunity to learn new things to better myself and to help others around me, and it has always been like that for me.

I am obsessed with anime and manga, so much so that I want to open up my own café dedicated to it! My name is Shav’ae Johnson and my main goal in life is to become a self-published mangaka, but that is not the only career path I want to go down. I want to open my own anime and manga café near my hometown, Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, so there can be a place where people interested in anime and manga can hangout and meet new people who have similar interests. I decided to have the café near my hometown because there is not a place around there where I can go to indulged myself in my nerdy ways. I would have to travel far just to go to a store dedicated to things I am into. My café would include themed foods and drinks, music, televisions streaming anime, a place where you can borrow manga, and maybe even a place where people can sell their own art! There will also be days or weeks of certain themes, cosplay, and events. I have many different inspirations for this café idea, one being when I started to work at the Barnes and Noble café. I worked at the Barnes and Noble café in my senior year of high school and I loved working there so much. I enjoyed making different kinds of drinks for people as well as having short conversations with them. I am not a social butterfly, but it was always nice to have a short conversation with someone new. What made me very happy is when I would see somebody walk into Barnes and Noble wearing cosplay, or carrying manga to the register, or just simply wearing an anime T-shirt, and that would be very rare in good ol’ Hilton Head Island. Something else that inspired me in terms of one of the features in the café was a store in Savanah, Georgia called Planet Fun. Planet Fun is a store that sells many nerdy items, new and old, from comic books to video games, and they sell fan art. Local artist can bring prints of their artwork to sell at Planet Fun and I would love to do something like that at my café. However, one of the biggest inspirations that I have to opening my own anime and manga café is the wide range of themed cafes in Japan. I have seen videos of different varieties of cafes in Japan and they look so cool and I would love to go to one...or a few in the future. I can count on one hand how many otaku-themed cafes I have seen in the states, and they are either on the other side of the country or they are not around anymore. So, with the plans I have for my café, I hope to have a safe place for people with similar interests as I to hang out for years to come! I have just begun my studies at SCAD, Savannah College of Art and Design, with a major in Sequential Art and a minor in Business and Management. As of right now, I will start taking my Business classes at the end of my sophomore year or the beginning of my junior year, so right now I am thinking about what I want my café to be like, as well as telling my friends about my dream. My friends have told me that they are willing to help me with this café idea when the time comes. Also, my mom and my elder sister have owned their own restaurant in the past so I am a bit aware of how they conduct their own business, they are people I can go to for help. Eleanor Roosevelt once said “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams”, and I know my dream for this café will come to pass. I am excited to open up my own anime and manga café in the future!