To thine own self be true...
Lucy’s Self-Portrait, Winner, Individual (4-7 years)
WINNER of the individual entry 4-7 years
Who created it?
Lucy, age 7
Biography
"Hi! My name is Lucy, I am seven years-old and I have two little sisters called Elizabeth and Clara. I have lots of interests and love doing lots of different things like going to school (I love geography, history and science), doodling, hanging out with my older cousin (Lionel), playing the piano (I love my teacher Ana), playing Minecraft, dancing, swimming, reading and acting!”
“At the moment I love Zorro (the musical). I listen to Zorro every day when I’m brushing my teeth, when I’m having a bath and getting into my pyjamas.”
My creative response
Lucy’s Self-Portrait
About my creative response
“I decided to make a self-portrait with materials, origami paper and colours of felt-tipped pen and paint that I like because what I like is unique to me. In the portrait I have very long legs - one of my teachers used to call me ‘Lucy long-legs’ and then some of my friends started calling me that too! I liked that - it made me feel important to them. In the portrait I’ve got learning exploding out of my head because I love to learn and I want to share my learning with everyone. I’d prefer not to hide it.”
“Around the time that I made the picture, two of my teeth started wobbling for the first time ever. I’ve been longing for that to happen for years. It made me feel that finally my body was being true to the way I felt inside.”
When have you been ‘true to yourself’?
“One day at school my friend had this idea in her head that I might hurt myself if I played at break-time. So she told me that I wasn’t allowed to do a whole list of simple things like running and jumping! I like her and I didn’t want her to stop being my friend but I knew that what she was trying to do was wrong and so I did those things anyway, purposely, just to show her that I was not going to allow her to control me. It wasn’t long before we played together again and the next time we played she didn’t try to tell me what (not) to do!”
“Being true to yourself can be really difficult because you might be afraid that you could hurt someone’s feelings or that you could lose something really important to you (like friendship for example), but if you try really hard to be honest about your feelings and share them then it can make your relationships better and stronger.”
Who is your favourite Shakespeare character and why?
"Viola from Twelfth Night is my favourite Shakespeare character. She is brave and clever and I love her idea of disguising herself as a boy even though it leads to a lot of confusion! (Actually the confusion is what makes the play so good!)"