Ashley Evans on the new Hairiette of Harlem series and Growing Up in NYC

Hairiette of Harlem: The Great Birthday Surprise, the first book in the new picture-book series written by Tanya Wright and illustrated by Ashley Evans, is out now! Exclusively published by Target. The series follows a young-girl with galactic hair named Hairiette, who goes on various learning adventures with her friends Charlie the Comb and Barbara the Barette.

Since this series takes place in Harlem, we had Bright artist Ashley sit down with us to share about her own NYC up-bringing. We chatted what it was like growing up in Southside Queens, memorable childhood birthdays, and a little about illustrating the first book in the Hairiette series.

Share a little about what it was like growing up in Queens, New York. How long did you live there?

Growing up in Queens was equal parts crazy and fun. I grew up on a relatively sleepy block in South Jamaica, the LIRR basically ran through my backyard and I could hear planes going into JFK. I loved riding my bike all around the neighborhood even though I’m directionally challenged and got lost whenever I went out without my older brother and I was within walking distance of my elementary and junior high school. I lived in Southside until I was 18 when I moved away with my family after my dad retired.

Were you inspired by your surroundings growing up? Have your surroundings translated into any of your illustrations over the years?

I was very much inspired by my surroundings growing up. I spent a lot of time in Brooklyn and Manhattan as a kid because of my mom’s job and her family. I still love looking at brownstones because of the time I spent in Bed-Stuy visiting my auntie! I also vividly remember how different the house styles were in my neighborhood and all over Queens.
I used to love that when I went to a friend’s house I never knew what their backyard would look like until I got there. I had a friend who’s backyard had a trellis with grapes growing on it, another who had a giant tree and bushes everywhere that were great for playing manhunt! They reminded me of stories like The Secret Garden because it was like I was entering a brand new world without ever leaving New York.

In this book, Hairiette celebrates her seventh birthday. Are there any birthday parties from your childhood that you remember fondly?

Yes! There are two birthdays, when I was maybe 6 and then 8 that I remember very fondly. Both of those birthday’s were vacations. We visited family in Savannah, Georgia and I got to swim in a river and climb trees to my heart’s content. My family threw me a surprise party and I had a Little Mermaid cake with Charlotte Hornets (my favorite basketball team at the time) ice cream. The other one was at Holden Beach in North Carolina, we rented a house and I got to swim in a canal, visit an aquarium, we were within walking distance of the beach and I ate THE BEST handmade black cherry ice cream!

You now live and work out of North Carolina. Is there anything you miss about the city?

I miss the city so much! Even though I’ve been gone for so long NYC is the only place I truly feel like home and I immediately fall back into the rhythm of it whenever I visit. I also miss the option to walk places, I have to drive everywhere in NC and everything is so spread out and far away and they don’t have consistent sidewalks here.

How did you determine the artistic style for the HAIRIETTE series? Did you come up on any roadblocks when illustrating?

The only conscious style choice I made with HAIRIETTE was trying to loosen up my usual drawing style, especially in the backgrounds since this series required more drawings than the usual 32-page picture book. The main roadblock I hit was all the tiny details, usually I love them but this time they almost did me in, again because of the higher number of images required for this project!

What do you want young readers to take away from HAIRIETTE?

I would like young readers to take away a sense that anything is possible and that their imaginations are an important tool that can help them solve just about any problem they come across in their lives.

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Ashley is represented by Alex Gehringer. To work with Ashley, get in touch with Alex here.