Meet Lala the Koala.
This cute little fellow is, in some ways, as important as Seni’s Birds. Let me take down the memory lane (a very short one).
I was probably 8 months pregnant and I still haven’t found a plush toy for my unborn daughter. This was giving me such anxiety and sadness that I can only assume it was my pregnancy hormones working overtime.
One random day, on a random trip to the supermarket I saw this cute, fluffy koala. And it called to me like no other toy ever did. I took it. This would be my daughter's first friend.
Of course, for many weeks after my daughter was born, she could not care less about the koala. I kept showing her, but her vision was still quite limited and such low-contrast things would be almost impossible for her to see. But slowly she started paying more attention to it as I used the Koala for the puppet shows I would put on for her. And suddenly her eyes would light up when she saw it.
Meanwhile, I also decided to paint her diaper bag with a koala. Why? Because of the plush koala. That’s about it. But you can see that slowly I was starting to associate a koala to my daughter and not any bird. I would see koala “stuff” anywhere, and I immediately thought of her.
So when it was time for me to create a character for a new line of work, that would allow me to spend more time with my daughter and still work, a koala was an easy choice.
The more I drew koalas, the more I would associate it with my daughter, and the more I liked koalas. A vicious cycle.
So Lala the Koala was born and I’m incredibly happy with it. What do you think?
I hope you liked the backup story of our new friend.