meeraleepatel

I grew up telling stories with my words; eventually I learned to tell them silently, with scribbles, color, and feeling.

I'd always been a creative soul, writing and illustrating my own short stories and novels from a young age, using my imagination as fuel to create my own happiness.

The fear of being unable to support myself in a battered economy eventually led me to trade in my colored pencils for degrees in English and Journalism. After graduation, I immediately secured a job with a publishing company, where I edited papers and put my knowledge of the Oxford Style Manual to good use.

It was only a few months before I knew I'd slowly go insane if I didn't make a drastic change. With a slew of pent-up creative energy and strong desire for self-sustenance, I opened up my Etsy shop and began, once again, to let my imagination guide me.

Managing a full-time job and my freelance illustration career has been a difficult but invigorating journey. I've finally discovered a sense of community, purpose, and creative fulfillment. I've learned to embrace hard work, new challenges, and managed to tackle a lot of small (and large!) fears. Best of all, I've learned a lesson that it takes many people years to learn: that anything is possible, and that there is magic everywhere.

After six years, I finally quit my day job in February 2017. I packed up all of my things, sublet my apartment in Brooklyn, and hit the road, traveling alone for the next 8 months. With only my backpack and an open heart, I explored the unknown. I felt really scared and anxious about making this leap, but I did it anyway, and since then -- I haven't looked back once.

It was during my travels that I wrote and illustrated My Friend Fear: Finding Magic in the Unknown, my first book of essays. It was published by Penguin Random House in January 2018 (www.meeralee.com/books).

All of my work is inspired and infused with little pieces of me -- feelings, wishes, and stories that would otherwise go untold. I hope you're able to find a smile and small parts of yourself in each piece I make, too.