In Toon

Introduce yourself!
I’m Kaia, and I’m currently studying Animation and Illustration at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts. My hobbies are drawing—I do it every now and then—and hanging out with my friends, be it online or in person. I’ve also been really meaning to go outside more, around the downtown area.

Cool! How did you discover your love for drawing and illustration?
I guess it started from watching cartoons like Adventure Time and Steven Universe as a kid. I will say I always had an interest in the arts as a kid, so I figured that I should just pursue a career in it. But it wasn’t until secondary school when I seriously started to draw, and then I kind of just worked my way up from there, starting from pencil and paper then eventually moving into digital illustration. Kudos to my math teacher in secondary school who really encouraged me to get into drawing—he was the definition of a father figure (laughs). Now I mainly specialise in more of a Western cartoon style

On that note, what are some of your favourite cartoons of all time?
Oh! The Owl House, Amphibia, and a classic one is Adventure Time. Oh my goodness, I have so many that I lost count! But I love these ones because of the premise. They’re all very interesting, and they also have queer representation. They’ve spawned pretty good communities as well and inspire a lot of us like-minded people. I think that’s where I found my first community too. It’s introduced me to so many things.

So would you say cartoons were a way of exploring your identity?
Yeah! The community itself helped me find out who I really am. Back in my early secondary school days, lots of kids were just going through the flow and following each other. But when I was introduced to communities that were much more different than my own, it made me realise that I am my own person. I have my own interests and don’t have to go with the flow. I guess it really did help me find out about individuality and diversity.

Discovering ourselves and growing into our skin is really a whole journey, but happy to hear that it’s been a good experience for you! Finally, as we kick off the new year, what are some of your resolutions or goals for 2026?
I guess it would be to—and this sounds very silly but—get mad more often (laughs). Every now and then, when trouble happens, I feel mad, but I don’t do anything about it! So my New Year’s resolution is to be more motivated to take action more often, before shit hits the fan.