Beyond the fairy tale: local artist's colouring book showcases a range of career options for young girls

Posted Feb 16, 2012 By Hollie Pratt-Campbell

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EMC Events - A chef. A unicorn rider. A pirate captain. A cat. Sure, some of these professions may not sound like the most available career options around, but a girl can dream, can't she?

Such is the subject of local artist Nick Csernak's new colouring book, Essential Dream Jobs for Girls Who Can, which will officially be launched Feb. 25 at Minotaur Games and Gifts.

The inspiration for the book came from Csernak's own daughters, five-year-old Sophia and three-year-old Natalia. He remarks that he began to observe changes in the girls' interests once they entered a school setting and were exposed more to other children their own age.

"Instead of dreaming about dinosaurs, dragons, race cars, that sort of thing, (Sophia) started thinking about princesses and waiting for the prince to come save her," he says.

Csernak wanted to find a way to make it clear to his daughters that this is far from their only option in life.

"I know that at that age there's not a lot to differentiate the girls from the boys, so they start to find ways to distinguish themselves," he says. "I wanted to try and give them more of a feeling that they didn't have to find a way to differentiate themselves insofar as pigeonholing what their future aspirations might be."

The first step to creating the book was brainstorming possible career choices with friends, co-workers and of course Sophia and Natalia.

"I tried to get a large range of different types of careers that kids might be interested in," says Csernak. "With some of them there's obviously some fantasy there - although I suppose if you went to certain areas of the world you might find some pirate captains."

The whole idea, he says, is to allow girls to stretch their imaginations and feel empowered at the idea that anything is possible.

"I wouldn't necessarily want my kids to be miners or something I would consider to be dangerous, but I don't want them to feel like they're constricted, even by their parents...And if they want to be a dog when they grow up, I'm not going to tell them 'no'."

Csernak's daughters were the first to test out Essential Dream Jobs.

"They flipped through the entire thing, and I was told by Sophia that it was an 'okay book,'" he recalls with a laugh.

"But they actually made it all the way to the back, where I put horse-rider as a career choice and that is their absolute favourite. I'm going to have to make some more copies of that one."

Csernak says that making art for his children is an extremely rewarding process.

"(Before) I was doing a lot more editorial work for magazines and so forth...but right now they are my art directors...I get feedback much faster, and to be honest - maybe this will change in the future - but their interests do dovetail with mine, so they're a lot of fun to hang out with."

Csernak is excited for the Feb. 25 launch, which he notes will be very kid-friendly, complete with thematically appropriate crafts.

"We want to make it as closely related to the spirit of the book as possible, but still have it be easy for kids to come in, pick up (a craft) and potentially finish it at home," he says.

And this likely won't be the last you hear of the project. Csernak says he hopes to illustrate further volumes of the colouring book, and that the organization Girls Inc. has recently expressed interest in working with him on a similarly-themed journal aimed at girls who are a little bit older.

Essential Dream Jobs for Girls who Can is currently available online at lulu.com, and can be picked up at Minotaur, Novel Idea and Frameworks following the launch.

The book launch takes place from 2 - 4 p.m. on Feb. 25 at Minotaur Games and Gifts, located at 165 Princess St.




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