Children
Before the feeling hardens.
The Monsters Inside Me gives children a visual language for fear, worry, courage, and the inner weather that can be hard to name out loud.
Emotionally honest stories across ages.
Melissa Bloodworth writes toward the feelings we meet early, and the ones that follow us. The Monsters Inside Me helps children name big feelings before they harden. frankly + human turns toward solitude, memory, and the difficult work of becoming whole.
Follow illustration updates, writing notes, and glimpses of both works on Instagram.
01 / Through line
One emotional question, two seasons of life.
Together, these projects explore what children learn to name and what adults are asked to face.
Adults
What adults learn to carry.
frankly + human follows a woman alone by choice on an abandoned Earth, until an unexpected presence forces her to face what silence could not heal.
02 / Current work
Two works, one emotional through line.
The Monsters Inside Me is moving through illustration. frankly + human is taking shape in early pages.
Illustration in progress
The Monsters Inside Me
A picture-book world about the creatures inside us: fear, worry, courage, and the first language of feeling. Now moving through illustration.
View process
Early drafting
frankly + human
Alone by choice on an abandoned Earth, a woman with a haunted past vows to live in silence, watching nature reclaim the planet. Her solitude gets disrupted by an unexpected presence and she is forced to confront her unhealed wounds and learn what it is to be fully human.
Follow updates03 / Process
Follow the process as the work takes shape.
Sketches, revision moments, illustration updates, and writing notes are shared as both books continue to develop.
04 / About
Melissa writes toward emotional truth without flattening it.
Her current work moves across two seasons of the same concern: what happens when feelings are named early, and what happens when adults begin to understand what they have carried.
The Monsters Inside Me is moving through illustration. frankly + human is in early drafting. Melissa shares updates, sketches, and process notes as both works continue to develop.
05 / Follow
Follow along as both works develop.
For illustration updates, process notes, and new notes from frankly + human, follow Melissa on Instagram.
@melissambloodworth
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