Today we’d like to introduce you to Larissa Marantz.
Larissa, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
As a child, my parents identified me as artistic. They were wonderfully supportive of that by providing me with ample opportunities to create and draw. Growing up, I wanted to be an art teacher and went to Cal State University, Fullerton to earn a BFA degree in Drawing and Painting.
During my last years at the university, I became interested in the animation industry. I studied storyboarding, character design and animation at the Animation Academy in Burbank, and then got hired as a Character Designer on the Rugrats television show.
I had recently gotten married and was starting a family, raising my own little Rugrats at home. I was fortunate to have women supervisors who allowed me to work from home a few days a week so that I could care for my children. But after a few years, I was sad to be missing some of my child’s major milestones, like their first steps.
Although my husband and mother-in-law were caring for my kids while I was away at work, I wanted to be home for my children all the time. I knew that I was easier to replace as a Character Designer than I was to replace as the mother to my children.
I had to make a hard decision. I had worked very hard to get into the industry and didn’t want to let my skills atrophy. An opportunity had opened up to illustrate picture books for The Rugrats, and I took it. I was also offered an opportunity to teach at the Animation Academy where I studied, and as the stars aligned, I left the animation studio and began teaching and illustrating picture books. It was difficult, juggling everything while nursing babies and holding playdates. But as the kids got older, it got easier.
Eventually, I started teaching art to small groups of children in my garage and turned that into a business where I was teaching after-school enrichment classes to hundreds of children across Orange County and South County. I started OC Art Studios and hired dozens of teachers so I could reach even more students. I began tutoring high school students to prepare their portfolios for college admissions and helped over a dozen students get accepted to their top choice colleges.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
The biggest challenge for me has been overcoming a strong tendency to procrastinate and instead learn to cherish my time as an unrenewable resource. Once I began to prioritize my most important goals and focus on the tasks required to make those goals happen, things started to fall into place.
I don’t feel bad that I utilize apps like Freedom or Offtime to assist me with focusing more on my work. Living with a slight attention deficiency disorder, I need to ban myself from distracting elements during my workday, and by using Freedom, I’m able to set up my laptop so I cannot access social media and other sites that lure me away from my work and keep me preoccupied with unnecessary distractions. Offtime does the same thing for my smartphone.
The other biggest challenge I had was a lack of faith in my own abilities. Although I had studied hard and worked diligently at my craft, I was never quite confident in my own work. After being approached by a very respectable and award-winning author to collaborate on a project, my self-confidence jumped and I suddenly had the faith I needed in myself.
For young women who are starting on their own journey, I strongly believe that getting involved in a supportive community can aide in a greater chance of success. Women can help each other out by lifting up one another and providing nurturing feedback or safe spaces to vent. Don’t be afraid to shine and don’t blow out the flame of another just to make yours brighter. That’s not how it works. When one of us shines, we all shine. Be a source of inspiration. I look to be that type of inspiration to others in my own circle of people and I am drawn towards people who inspire me.
Please tell us more about what you do, what you are currently focused on and most proud of.
Now, I illustrate picture books full time and have a picture book series, Clyde The Hippo, debuting in 2020 with my husband and collaborator, Keith Marantz. The stories will feature an adorable but anxious young hippo who experiences many childhood milestones with an overactive imagination and a lot of worries. Keith and I are also developing a graphic novel about a 24th Century biracial family who must save the earth from imminent doom.
As an illustrator of color, I wanted to make sure I was representing children who looked like me and who came from families like my own. I was born to biracial parents and I’m raising multiracial children. I am dedicated to bringing my own uniqueness into the stories that I illustrate so that there is a greater representation for children of color in the kidlit industry.
For good reason, society often focuses more on the problems rather than the opportunities that exist, because the problems need to be solved. However, we’d probably also benefit from looking for and recognizing the opportunities that women are better positioned to capitalize on. Have you discovered such opportunities?
For me, as a woman of color, the need is even greater to see people like myself represented in the publishing industry. Over the past few years, the lack of diversity in authors and illustrators has been changing ever so slightly and we are now seeing a greater amount of stories that represent people of color. With recent imprints being launched by major publishing houses like Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Simon & Schuster, women of color have more opportunities to be published by a major publishing house than before. That will do wonders for the upcoming generation of creative storytellers and it will make a huge difference for underrepresented children to see themselves in books.
Contact Info:
- Website: larissamarantz.com
- Instagram: @larissadrawsstuff
- Twitter: @larissamarantz
Image Credit:
Larissa Marantz
Suggest a story: SDVoyager is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
