Lois Van Baarle

“Be Yourself; Everyone Else Is Already Taken.” Oscar Wilde

- Jantine Zandbergen

From the voluptuous women portrayed by Peter Paul Rubens and his baroque colleagues, through the romantic, long haired muses of Alphonse Mucha, to the skinny models in the late eighties and early nineties, each era has its own standard of beauty. Today’s standard might be richer than ever before: the diversity that is found in society is finally showing itself in the media, making it easier for young girls to find a role model that suits them.

Dutch illustrator and animator Lois van Baarle, you may know her as Loish, had embraced that diversity years ago. Her work is known for showing strong female characters, all different and beautiful in their own way. “I love female characters that are a bit cynical and lack conventional charm. Those are hard to find - women are usually portrayed as quite perfect, with an optimistic and supportive attitude, which can get boring for a storydriven type of medium. I relate more to the women that have a bit of an edge to them, and are kind of ‘weird’.”