When 26-year-old Carol Rossetti started drawing and writing about things that bothered her, she had no idea people on opposite corners of the world would feel the same.
Her sketches of women, with accompanying stories, have gone viral in 24 languages and attracted a following of more than 91,000 people on Facebook.
She originally posted the text in Portuguese, before translating them to English. She was then contacted by a group of women in Israel, who wanted to translate them into Hebrew. Versions of her work can now be found in Chinese, Japanese, Russian and German and more.
Speaking to SBS via Skype from her apartment in Belo Herizonte, Carol says it was as if the stories took on a life of their own.
“I really thought many of these situations were something very relevant in Brazil, in my town. But now I see it's relevant all over the world,” she said.
Carol admits the attention has been overwhelming, and says she has knocked back some media interviews because she’s not sure she’s ready ‘to be on camera for the world to see’.
"It's about personal choices - those ones we make that concern really just ourselves. And that's freedom, right? Being who we want to be and who we are.”
Considering the boldness of her drawings, Carol’s shyness may come as a surprise. But challenging expectations is what this series is all about.
"Silvia has white hair,” reads one. “People have been telling her to dye it, so she doesn't look old. Silvia, dying your hair is a choice, and never an obligation. If you like your white hair, nobody has anything to do with it…. Your hair is beautiful and the choice is yours.”
Carol says she wanted to say something important but in a way that was ‘non-aggressive’.
“People are less defensive when it’s art. They don’t automatically start arguing with it,” she said.
She says the message of her work is a simple one, and that could be why it’s translating so well across different languages and cultures.
"It's mostly about freedom and being who you are - your personal choices," she said.
"It’s not about doing whatever you want, regardless of everyone else, and doing harm to other people. It's about personal choices - those ones we make that concern really just ourselves. And that's freedom, right? Being who we want to be and who we are."
