Adobe x Qai Qai coloring book: Encouraging young girls to explore their limitless potential
Image source: Invisible Universe.
In celebration of International Daughter’s Day (Sunday, Sept. 26), Adobe is collaborating with social media stars and world-renowned doll, Qai Qai — belonging to Alexis Ohanian’s daughter, and developed in partnership with Invisible Universe — to create a free, educational digital coloring book designed to inspire and empower girls to explore career paths that harness their creative potential.
While women make up nearly half of the workforce, they are still vastly underrepresented in some of the highest paying jobs. For young girls in particular, social stigma and gender associations can play a powerful role in the careers they ultimately pursue. Exposing girls to diverse career opportunities at an early age can help expand their aspirations and motivate them to explore jobs they may otherwise feel are unachievable.
Since her creation, Qai Qai has been used as a teaching tool to showcase representation and equality to children. The Adobe x Qai Qai coloring book is another example of this, giving young girls exposure to some of the many careers driven by creativity. Illustrator and storyboard artist, Winsome Reid designed each page of the coloring book to feature Qai Qai using her creativity to imagine herself in five career roles including, Fashion Designer, Film Editor, Game Developer, Structural Engineer, and Small Business Owner.
As part of the launch, Adobe teamed up with former executive chair of Reddit and founder of Seven Seven Six, Alexis Ohanian on the coloring book’s dedication page to encourage girls to pursue any career they set their mind to. As the father to his 4-year-old daughter, Alexis is passionate about supporting resources that make the world a better place for future generations of women.
“Qai Qai has made quite a career for herself. She got her start as my daughter Olympia’s favorite doll and quite literally came to life thanks to the amazing team at Invisible Universe, gaining over 3.2 M followers on social media. The New York Times dubbed her ‘America's most important doll,’ and she even launched her own line of dolls. Yes, a doll with her own doll… wrap your head around that. As a father, I believe it’s important that we encourage our kids to try new things and find role models they can identify with. That’s why this International Daughter’s Day I couldn’t think of a better partner than Qai Qai, to help inspire young girls, like my daughter, to pursue their dreams.”
Former executive chair of Reddit and founder of Seven Seven Six, Alexis Ohanian.
From a young age, illustrator and storyboard artist, Reid grew up enamored with the world of animation and storytelling. Her work on the Adobe x Qai Qai coloring book was designed to help girls, like her past self, spark their imagination and let creativity flow.
"It's hard growing up in a world where Black girls in the media often only exist as sassy sidekicks to their usually more developed white leads (if we are even portrayed at all). When stories do center us they often favor narratives of struggle and discrimination. And those stories are important of course, but I think we deserve more than that. We deserve stories that show us in all our many forms. Silly and serious. Smart and ditsy. Cool and nerdy. Tomboyish and girly and all that exists in between. We deserve action, adventure, romance and fun! That's what I want to do with my art. To let Black characters, especially Black girls, take the lead and show the spectrum of personalities, talents and interests we can have as well as the diverse range of stories we can be in. I'm so glad characters like Qai Qai exist to be an inspiration to a generation of kids who get to see themselves front and center and not on the sidelines. And I love that this book will let kids imagine themselves in a variety of roles we are rarely shown we can fill."
Illustrator and Storyboard Artist, Winsome Reid.
You can download the digital coloring book here, (follow the Library or copy to your assets to gain download access) or try bringing the pages to life using Creative Cloud apps like Fresco, Photoshop and Illustrator. You can also follow Qai Qai’s latest adventures on TikTok and Instagram.
The Adobe x Qai Qai coloring book is the latest in Adobe’s Coloring Book series, which kicked off in 2020 and was designed to inspire creativity. To see more coloring book pages created by some of our favorite artists, click here.