In my teenage years and early twenties, growing up in Ukraine, I was especially interested in femininity vs academic prowess, which felt culturally at odds — almost as though I needed to hide in a baggy grey hoodie to avoid being perceived as foolish. There was a common belief, a Soviet legacy of sorts, that a woman had to choose between being smart but ugly or attractive but intellectually constrained.

For a while, I explored the idea of a confident yet feminine woman. Where does she begin, and where does she end?

This illustration was born from a need to combine thin and bold, tender and strict, flimsy and stocky, fragile and confident in one image. To show someone who fits the mould but isn't quite comfortable in it, barely escaping its edges, perched on heels that are both a stable base and a crumbling foundation.

Learn more here