I was born on 4 June 1984 in Dülmen, a small town with 47,000 inhabitants in North Rhine Westphalia, near Münster. My star sign is Gemini (Virgo rising) and my blood group is O positive.
When I was in primary school (1990 – 1994), I sold my first drawings to other pupils in my school. Princess Jasmine from Aladdin was very popular, and for every A4 drawing I got 10 pfenning (about 5 euro cents).
I went to secondary school when I was 10 years old and starting writing my first stories, still in school books back then. One story, for example, was about a school trip when the students in my class disappeared, one after the other. I enjoyed making up stories, so I carried on writing. The stories were even read out in front of my class.
It was only when Sailor Moon came on television, when I was about 12, that I became a fan of anime and I watched the series with a passion. I also collected the manga comics and tried to copy the individual characters.
At first I was really miserable, because the characters didn’t look exactly how I thought they should look, so I tried even harder and invented my first story, called Manjana (Call Me Mañana was a hit by the band Scooter at the time). Admittedly, the story was really similar to Sailor Moon.
At 15 I made up two more stories which I came up with myself and illustrated as comic book pages. I sent one of these to a publishing house, but received a swift rejection.
From then on, I set my heart on becoming a comic artist/manga-ka.
I still didn’t have the faintest idea about watercolours, anatomy or panelling, however.
At the age of 15 I got my secondary school leaving certificate and went to a vocational college for graphics and design for 2 years, but didn’t complete the course. I had the chance to take up an apprenticeship training position and so at the age of 18 I moved into my own flat for the first time and started my training to become a qualified nurse for the elderly. During this time I practised drawing more and more, continued to send off applications and continued to receive one rejection after another.
I only began to concentrate seriously on illustration when I was 21. That was when I passed my state exams with a good grade and entered full-time work. I practised panelling, I practised watercolours and I worked on my narratives and storytelling.
When I was 22, at the Leipzig Book Festival in 2006 I was approached and asked whether I would like to illustrate a manga comic based on a successful romantic novel. That’s how I got my first contract from Plaisir d’Amour.
While I was working full-time, I sent off my thirteenth application, but it just received another rejection. I thought about what more I could do if it didn't work out with the publishers in Germany. So I sent an application to Bravo (Europe’s biggest magazine for young people) and it was accepted the very next day! From then on my career really took off.
My work was accepted by other publishers and magazines in Germany and abroad and the offers keep on coming. I registered as a self-employed comic illustrator on 2 February 2009 and I can now say that I am able to make a living from my work. The journey isn’t always easy, but if you don’t give up and remain fixed on your goal, then you can achieve it!
