first glimpse into 2026: new girlfringe era, more zines & my artsy plans for this year <3

First, let me tell you a bit of a backstory:

The last months of 2025 have felt creatively heavy, heavy in a way I hadn’t really experienced before. I started feeling this constant pressure to create, to make content, to design shop products, to film reels… and somewhere along the way, everything began to feel a little suffocating. I know a big part of it is how Instagram’s algorithm works right now. It’s not always artist-friendly and it’s so easy to get lost in visibility, numbers, trends, new formats, new expectations… there’s always something more you *should* be doing. And suddenly you’re spending more time thinking about how to create than actually creating.

At the same time, I kept hearing people say that 2026 feels like the new 2016 & that idea made me think about how my relationship with art looked like 10 years ago vs how it started to feel over the last months. Back then I was 17 and created just for fun. No strategy, no pressure, just me & my sketchbook against the world.

So, with that in mind, I decided to return to that feeling by creating a new Instagram account: same username, but a new space. A space to grow without pressure, a space to experiment again, a place to create just for the fun of it.

This is how my new insta page was born: somewhere I can post whatever I love, from illustrations, occasional shop products, mini reels of my creative process, cute little photoshoots and mixtapes, to behind-the-scenes snippets like I share here on the blog. A fresh page where I can simply have fun with my art again. <3

you can browse it here:

Beyond creating a new space for myself, I also found myself thinking more deeply about what I actually want to make this year. Not what would perform well, not what would fit into a format, not what could turn into a product, but what feels the most *me*.

When I looked back at everything I’ve experimented with since I started drawing digitally, all the little phases, style shifts and project ideas, one thing became very clear. At my core, the thing I love the most and the thing that excites me every single time is mixing illustration with storytelling. I don’t just want to draw pretty images, I want them to hold a narrative, a mood, a small universe inside them.

So for 2026, especially with this fresh start energy in the air, I want to lean fully into that <3

That being said, every year I naturally start some kind of illustration project that I end up documenting here on the blog. In 2024 it was my “October Art Diary”, where I created illustrations based on prompt words, then in 2025 it was the “Girlhood Fairytales” series, which unexpectedly grew into something bigger and eventually turned into a calendar by the end of the year. Looking at those projects now, what I love most about them isn’t just the visuals, but the world-building, the continuity, the feeling that each piece was part of something larger.

snippets of my new era

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about zines and short comics, about how much I’ve always loved them, how natural they feel to me & how often I’ve pushed them aside because other projects felt more “urgent” or more “shareable.” But the truth is, nothing feels more aligned than sitting down and building a small story through drawings, page by page, letting it unfold slowly. That’s why this year I want to commit to creating one zine every month. Not in a rigid, productivity-obsessed way, but in a way that feels intentional, like giving myself a space each month to explore one idea properly, to let it breathe and evolve into something tangible. And as I create them, I’ll share everything here on the blog: the initial spark, the messy drafts, the doubts, the changes, the final result. I want this space to feel like an open studio <3

And because my love for stationery is honestly endless + I crave making something physical, something you can hold and flip through and maybe tuck into a drawer to rediscover later, I’ve also been dreaming about turning each zine into a little monthly zine mail package in my shop!

I love seeing how this art mail culture is growing right now. There’s something so intimate and nostalgic about it. Some artists focus on sticker packs and illustrated prints, others include handwritten letters or tiny handmade jewelry pieces, badges, little surprises. It feels very scrapbook-coded, very DIY, very community-based, like a soft rebellion against everything being purely digital.

So of course, I want to create my own version of it, shaped around what I naturally gravitate toward.

Right now I’m imagining each month’s package including the zine itself, a few mini prints or postcards, an “about” card explaining the theme or concept behind that month’s story, and obviously !! a mixtape card !! I really can’t separate my art from music, matching drawings to songs has become one of my favorite creative rituals, almost like building a soundtrack for my visual universe. Music inspires so much of what I create, so it only feels right that each zine lives in both a visual and a sonic world.

So that’s where my head and heart are at for 2026. Less pressure, more story. Less chasing, more building. I have no idea exactly how this year will unfold, but I feel genuinely excited in a way that feels lighter and more honest !!

I’ll leave you with the first mixtape of 2026 (a little 2016 nostalgia mixed with some new bangers, obviously) & I’ll see you soon with some new art <3