33 Honest Comics About The Difficulties Every Girl Deals With By Bella Sriwantana

Bella’s comics are basically a diary of her personal life that people all over the world can actually relate to. As she told Bored Panda, “My comics are based on my personal encounters in my daily life. In the beginning, I wanted to create diary comics for myself to remember things in a fun and special way. I also draw about women’s struggles such as ‘that time of the month’ or how we deal with things in our lives that some women can relate to.”

A self-taught Belgium-based artist, she proves that ambition, hard work, and a positive attitude can do wonders. “I started drawing probably since I learned to hold a pencil. Back then, my childhood heroes were Sailor Moon and Disney princesses. I love their cute costumes and long beautiful hair so I would spend hours and hours trying to draw them in my sketchbook,” Bella said. “However, I never took any art lessons but I spent a lot of time watching animations, reading picture books, and practicing on my own. I think that’s how I grew my passion for art and design and continue to draw and make art until today.”

Born in Thailand, raised in Los Angeles, and having studied and worked in Japan as an Art & English teacher, Bella most definitely has interesting experiences in her pocket. However, she started sharing her work on Instagram not so long ago after she felt confident and happy with her own style. “My style is more like doodles that you draw on scrap papers,” Bella explains. “I’m not using a lot of techniques or tools to draw so my style always looks messy and imperfect. I was struggling to find my own style for a long time and it got stressful for me because I was trying to aim for perfection. Now that I found my own style, drawing and creating comics have become something that I can do more often to relieve stress and fulfill my passion.”

Bella often writes down funny situations that happen in her daily life so that she can later put them into comics. “I start with creating a sketch and then I can make a new line art and give some colors to it. I stick with the colorful color pallets so that my audience can get positive and cheerful vibes,” – says Bella as she describes her creative process.

Bella invites her audiences to the honest behind-the-scenes of her romantic relationship. She openly shares the intimate and truthful part of the relationship that is often left behind closed doors. And the best part – her Belgian boyfriend actually doesn’t mind when she shares snippets of their personal life. “Luckily, my boyfriend is very supportive of me and my passion. He knows how much creating art means to me so he’s totally cool about it. We are very happy that other couples can also relate to some of our fun moments.”

Currently almost at 4k followers, Bella has been quickly charming people and drawing smiles on their faces by sharing true and often hilarious events. It’s becoming a supportive community that can share daily challenges and experiences.

“I personally feel that when I know my comics can make someone smile, it makes it all worth it. I want to share the joy with other people and social media is a great platform to do it. In the beginning, I never expected that anybody would enjoy my comics at all because they are personal to me. But now it’s overwhelming to receive a lot of wonderful feedback from the audience who can relate to my comics and I really appreciate this positive energy they gave me. I cannot thank them enough,” – says the artist.