Celebrating Diversity: New Horizons Character Designing Event

[Bekaa]

Let’s include seniors in our celebration of inclusiveness!

I know I’m not the only one that has witnessed the sense of humor, patience, strength and flexibility shown by our older friends and family during the COVID pandemic. This disease hit older persons particularly hard. Not only were they particularly vulnerable to the devastating effects of the disease itself, but also to the associated isolation that came with it. For so many, devices such as smartphones, tablets and computers were the only way that they could stay connected with their loved ones. Many of this generation found themselves embracing apps like FaceTime or Google Meet for the first time!

I was inspired by the theme for the 2021 United Nations' International Day of Older Persons "Digital Equality for All Ages".

My character is shown wearing a suit coat and tie because we often see seniors dressed in more conventional and formal ways compared to younger persons. My character is also standing on a bridge. Older adulthood is often characterized as a transition, symbolized as a bridge or doorway. The use of the cell phone is obvious, I'm sure.

Additional information on the International Day of Older Persons and the importance of digital access for all can be found here.

Spoiler: Photo with name tag

 

[Stella-Io]

My entry! I made my character actually look like me (the most that I can atleast).

2-3 sentences-
On their cheeks is a tiny pan flag design and they're holding the non binary flag. I dressed my character in a stereotypical girly fashion cause non binary doesn't owe an androgynous look (thou that's fine too). Some people think non binary=androgynous which isn't always the case.

Spoiler: Username Pic

*pardon the empty basement

 

[Jeremy]

The first round of voting has finished, with characters by @Foreverfox, @Dunquixote, and @Koopadude100! Good job to everyone who has submitted a character design, they're all great! If you weren't selected in this round, remember that at the end of the event we'll be selecting the two that have the highest amount of likes out of the remaining entries.

 

[Xara]

xjksks i honestly forgot that the winners of round one would be displayed tonight, so just experienced a bit of a shock when logging in xD. looking good @Foreverfox , @Koopadude100 and @Dunquixote!!

everyone’s entries have been incredible to see - i’ve loved getting to know you guys a bit more, and seeing for myself just how diverse this community actually is has been amazing.

 

[Foreverfox]

Congratulations @Dunquixote and @Koopadude100 !! Your entries were both so amazing and I know it took a lot of courage to speak of something so personal to you! I'm so proud of both of you, and proud to join you both on the banner!

 

[Dunquixote]

Congratulations @Foreverfox & @Koopadude100! I loved both of your entries and hearing what you had to say about your personal experiences and your thoughts on the event. I am so proud of you both too — for finding the courage to post and design something for the event and proud that we’re on the banner together as well!

Thanks so much everyone for the votes .

xjksks i honestly forgot that the winners of round one would be displayed tonight, so just experienced a bit of a shock when logging in xD. looking good @Foreverfox , @Koopadude100 and @Dunquixote!! ☺

everyone’s entries have been incredible to see - i’ve loved getting to know you guys a bit more, and seeing for myself just how diverse this community actually is has been amazing. ❤

Thanks so much! I agree! I’ve been loving everyone’s entries and seeing how much thought were put into their designs, not to mention everyone’s perspective on diversity . I always have appreciated diversity but I still have much to learn and I feel this event has been a great help showing me more different perspectives and experiences.

 

[King koopa]

XJJK wow I'm happy my avatar is on the banner! Thanks everyone for supporting me for who I am! Even those who didn't get on the banner, I'm still proud of you that you had the courage to represent who you are!
But I do have a question, if you won round one can you participate in round 2? If not that's ok but just asking

 

[Bekaa]

It’s a delight seeing @Foreverfox, @Koopadude100 and @Dunquixote wonderful representations on the banner. Makes me so happy!

 

[.: Meri :.]

Congratulations to @Foreverfox, @Dunquixote, and @Koopadude100!! I loved your entries and your characters all look great on the site header!

 

[LadyDestani]

Congrats @Foreverfox, @Koopadude100, and @Dunquixote!

Your entries were amazing and look so beautiful on the banner!

I've loved seeing everyone's entries so far. Keep up the great work!

 

[Roxxy]

Huge congratulations to such amazing and inspirational winners!! @Foreverfox @Dunquixote and @Koopadude100. You are all so special and amazing. Thank you for being you

 

[prilla]

here's my entry!
i'm disabled, a wheelchair user, autistic, nonbinary, asexual, lesbian, and i have DID! i tried to include as much of that as i could in my photo: a wheelchair, a nonbinary + lesbian flag, an emote that looks like how i stim (unfortunately hard to see in the static photo), and my outfit was made with help from one of my alters (a three year old, hence the pacifier).
it's easy to feel ashamed of these things, but they deserve to be celebrated!!

 

[Rosch]

Body Positivity

I used to be obese. I have also experienced body-shaming. But I did not let those hurtful comments take me down. Instead, I used it to motivate myself to become a happier and healthier person. I have lost a lot of weight since then. It's a difficult journey, but I did it.

We tend compare ourselves to others and be insecure about our looks. That's why I have decided to customize a round dress into a naked torso and to represent plus-size people. I also used the confident reaction to show that I wholly accept and appreciate my body despite its imperfections.

Spoiler: Username

 

[S.J.]

You guys are all so special. Thank you so much for sharing your stories. ❤

I wanted to address socioeconomic disadvantage with my picture, because it’s important to me that everyone has an equal opportunity to thrive and succeed. However, it was also important for me to avoid any generalisations or stigma about what socioeconomic disadvantage looks like, and how it presents in society.

So instead, I decided to do something that would be more all-encompassing. I call this the patchwork dress, and to me it signifies something that should be obvious to all of us. It doesn't matter how much money you have, what colour skin you have, what you look like, where you're from, what abilities or disabilities you have, or how you love, all people are equal, and deserve to be treated fairly, and experience love and kindness.

I purposefully didn't use any particular colours, and instead used a mish-mash of different colours.

 

[TheSillyPuppy]

The short version: this is me in my traditional ethnic clothing. In the background, I've set up items that represent key moments/events in my life that have helped me become the individual I am today and more broadly are meant to represent the Model Minority concept -- "the perception of universal success among Asian [immigrants...] to downplay the role of racism in the persistent struggles of minority groups."

Outfit:

The sleeveless silk dress, or qipao, is a type of body-hugging dress of Manchu origin, later modernized by by Chinese societies and upper-class women in Shanghai. Both my maternal and paternal grandparents fled to the Republic of China (Taiwan), where I was born, from China. I usually say I'm Chinese to avoid uncomfortable conversations about "one country, two systems." I don't know what the right solution is; I just want everyone to be able to hold their head up in society.

The purple prom sash I'm wearing represents my journey through an undergraduate degree in engineering. I've met people from so many different walks of life in my five-year program, and I'm so thankful to have been touched by every single individual. It was also a very humbling experience. A lot of us were at the top of our graduating classes before coming in, and I came out of it realizing how much I don't know about the world (and that's okay).

Background items, from left to right:

The piano and bench represent my near-decade journey of learning piano. It taught me the importance of hard work, persistence, what I now know is called deliberate practice, and patience. We are all born with our unique strengths and weaknesses, but we ought to strive to better ourselves a little bit everyday. Did you know that if you improve 1% each day, within a year, you will be 37 times better than where you started?

The nova lights represent meeting my S/O of almost five years. He is a devout Muslim, and to some shame, it wasn't until I met him that I realized how deeply ingrained Islamophobia is in our minds and hearts, especially in North America. I've read the Qu'ran for the past two years with him during the month of Ramadan, and it has helped ground me when feelings of hopelessness for humanity overwhelm me.

The office desk, desktop computer, and microscope represent my job and love of learning. For a lot of my undergrad, I interned at software companies and came to love the fast pace of things. I feel like I'm learning something new every day, and after work hours, I also enjoy going down rabbit holes of my own -- at the moment, it's skincare products!

The anatomical model and barbell represent my (ongoing) journey with body positivity. Back in high school, I was surrounded with other Asian ladies who were all thinner and smaller framed than I was. I developed an unhealthy relationship with food and would feel shame for eating unhealthy foods once or twice a week. I tried multiple fad diets, counting calories, and eliminating entire food groups in desperate attempts to see the number on the scale go down, even though I didn't need to lose much weight from a pure health perspective. It wasn't until I met my S/O, and especially after he took me to a gym to use free weights and machines, until I started to come to terms with how I looked. Now, I lift weights at home four days a week and do some form of cardio once or twice a week and listen to my body to guide my eating.

The whiteboard represents my mind. It wasn't until I learned about Ayurveda in traditional Indian medicine to figure out my cognitive footprint. Like the wind, my mind is dynamic and is all over the place, hence why I need to constantly have multiple activities available to do, so I can move from one to another as soon as my mind gets bored of the first. It also explains why I'm prone to anxious thoughts, and like my interest in activities, my mind eventually gets bored of wallowing in anxious thoughts, too.

 

[Shellzilla_515]

Congratulations to @Foreverfox, @Dunquixote, and @Koopadude100! When I came to the forums earlier this morning, it brought a huge smile to my face. The three of you should be proud of having the courage to submit your entries and making it to the banner!

 

[DaCoSim]

Congrats guys! Y’all look amazing!

 

[WaileaNoRei]

Hello! I am a bit late to this party, but I have loved seeing everyone’s entries! Congrats to @Dunquixote , @Koopadude100 , and @Foreverfox !

mine came out looking more patriotic than intended (meant to try and blend Japanese and American styles):

(design by me - the hat says Nikkei haafu - half-Japanese ethniticty)

Here’s my thoughts (somewhat similar to the post I made on the ‘what race are you?’ thread):

What I want to celebrate is the complexity of identity and diversity.


My face did not come with an instruction manual for beauty

I wrote this phrase years ago in an attempt to describe this sense of my inability to conform to the neat boxes we tend to use to define things like race.

What are you? - Throughout my life I have been asked this question or similar questions many times. I am half- white and half-Japanese American (my mother was born in the US). Growing up in a mostly white area, I was always seen as ‘the Asian girl’, and it became a big part of my identity, and also set me apart as someone other - children made slant eyed faces at me, adults asked my father if I was adopted, or if he brought my mother back from Vietnam. I hated my flat little nose by 5th grade - I wanted a cute, pointy, ‘Jane Austen heroine’ nose.

Then I went to college at a school that was majority Asian American, thinking I would fit in, and suddenly people were asking if I was ‘really’ Asian - I didn't grow up speaking the language, which many see as a sign of inauthenticity, (my grandparents were interned during world war 2 and therefore did not want to teach their children Japanese), I ‘grew up white’, didn’t I? In reality the idea of how culture is passed down is so much more complex, but is didn’t know that then and it hurt to think this identity I had held for years might be something that didn’t legitimately belong to me.

It was a big shock, and I spent years feeling like I had to pick which side to be and establish my authenticity as an Asian person in order to ‘count,’ or else ‘give up’ on being Asian and be white.

To make a long story short, over the years, I’ve had to redefine myself and my sense of my race and what it means to belong to a culture or a race. Nowadays, what I find beautiful is the idea that there is not a split in my personality, it’s not one side or the other. I’m mixed race, I’m white, I’m Japanese -American, and so much more beyond my race, and none of these are in conflict or the sum of what defines me. And, to bring it back to the accidental patriotism, as much as some people want to claim the United States only belongs to a certain group and paint people who don’t fit that narrow mold as a threat, I’m very much an American (for better and worse).

Identity isn’t a zero sum game, and I think we all have overlapping layers of identity (as many others are pointing out), which combine in each of us in a variety of ways to create something beautiful and absolutely unique.

 

[CylieDanny]

This... Was kinda hard to submit, and it made me very nervous to reveal lots about myself, some stuff I prefer not to tell online... But there have been many brave people here, so I'll be brave too...

I'm here to acknowledge epilepsy..

Hopefully I'm not the only person here who has it. The first day of grade 12, was when I had my first episode (Seizure) I was getting ready to leave when it happened... I ended up at a hospital, instead of a classroom. It's really changed my life. It made many obstacle at the time, and even now its not great. I told my boyfriend that I had it, and he left me because I couldnt go to clubs. One of my worst ones was at work, where I got a black eye, nasty bruise, and a giant scratch from falling on the podium's sharp edge. Then I couldnt work for nearly two weeks. When I was told I couldn't be the two things I've always wanted to be: a flight attendant, and a scuba diver. I'll also never be able to drive, because if I have an episode, I cant drive for ten months. I was in tears.

But, as hard as it is to face, and scared I am, The only way I have it under control, is how heavily medicated I am, and I'm nervous to change it. I'm told its messing with my brain.

I've had lots of support from family, and friends. Its something no one should have to face alone. I'm trying to be the best person I can be, even with all the obstacles. I still wont let it hold me back. Not from standing tall, and being who I am.

I send my support to anyone, and everyone who had to face it, and hope they arnt alone, and have someone by their side ♡
--
My outfit is mainly purple, because that's the color that symbolizes Epilepsy. This jacket was fun to make. I have a little emblem on the right, with the epilepsy symbol. I'm nonbinary, my tie is actually the colors of the nonbinary flag, originally I was going to wear pants, but decided not to, showing that even though you don't identify with a single gender, you can still wear the clothes you want to. My bow is blue to symbolize the male aspect. I have a little bisexual flag on my jacket sleeve, because I'm bi. Coming out to my family about being bi, was hard. I lost some of my family, and even then only my friends, and mom know how I identify. Because I'm nervous about loosing more family

But I'll have to be strong, and be brave. I'm scared, but I'm still going to face these obstacles head on. I wont change myself for others approval:

*Isn't it great to be different. Isnt it wonderful to be exactly who you are. When you learn to start accepting yourself, you'll become a shinning star*
-Quoted From Forest Rain's song

I am who I am. An epileptic, bisexual, nonbinary, fighter.

I wasn't planning on Static being there, but he's purple, so kinda fitting My little gay squirrel 🐿

Spoiler: Close up

Spoiler: Username

 

[Bluebellie]

This is my entry!
I wanted to show some representation to my hispanic roots. I decided to have my character wear a traditional Mexican dress, the China Poblana. The flowers in the background and the drum are representing the festivity and happinesses in the culture.
Dancing and festivities are something that is very common in my family and culture, and it really brings everyone together to pass a good time. Celebration, music, and parties are a great way to celebrate diversity by embracing everyone’s individual differences.

To me celebrating diversity means celebrating each and everyone and all of our unique differences. Not one individual is the same. We are all different, and we are all beautiful.