Ocean-loving, creative, talented, witty and funny are words that Ava Stebbins’ (11) friends would describe her. Stebbins has been taking part of the Ayala Bulldogs yearbook program for 2 years, and now she is the next in line to be head editor.

“I joined yearbook because I wanted to bring in some creative elements and work with others on creating a book that will last years to come,” said Stebbins. 

Stebbins’ two personal favorite mediums of art are drawing and painting. Her creative visuals and explanations of the events show us the word through her eyes.

“I enjoy painting and drawing, they relax me and allow me to think about something else besides the worries of the day,” said Stebbins.

Through this form of meditation and time to herself, she makes beautiful creative pieces of art. “I was always interested in art. All of my elementary school teachers knew me as the art kid. I had been doodling since I was old enough to hold a pencil. I took classes outside of school for working with pastels and I learned a lot from that, but I didn’t like how we had to have a set thing to draw. When I joined Mr. Robleto’s class he taught us important things like values and color theory, but he also would let us loose to be creative and display what we can do.”

Stebbins began watching Youtube videos on how to draw certain things and just practiced a lot. Though Stebbins enjoys drawing and painting, her other favorite medium is nail art.

“I saw a lot of people doing nail art on Instagram and I was thinking how cool it is that you could do stuff like that at home so I bought a kit to start off with and just started going at it and eventually it got easier.”

Stebbins, expressing her art through her nail channels, need not need to worry about what anyone else would think and expresses herself freely. Ava’s favorite piece of art is her octopus piece: “I made it last year in Robleto’s class but it is the painting that made me fall in love with the ocean.”

Stebbins found her love for the ocean animal, and it blew her away when she did her research on how beautiful the creature is.

“I have always loved the sea. I always felt a special connection to it and the creatures inside are so interesting,” said Stebbins. “Some of my favorites are the octopus, sea turtle, jellyfish, and the cnidarian jellyfish.” 

Besides the gorgeous ocean and its creatures, she finds freedom roller-skating. “It’s like a release where I get to dance and listen to some of my favorite music on wheels,” said Stebbins. “I like practicing things like going backward and riding in one leg and the coffin drop. It combines some of my favorite things like dancing and going fast.”

Stebbins is an amazing woman with both artistic personality with brains, wit, and brawn. As one of her friends, Jolie Yang (11) said, “Ava is really understanding and funny. I love how caring she is. At the beginning of junior year, my old friends ditched me to eat together somewhere else and Ava said I could eat with her.”

Ava’s moral qualities of making sure everyone feels included around her has fostered new friendships. Yang also loves Ava’s creativity, “Her paintings are beautiful. She makes it look realistic or uses her imagination to create drawings that are special to her. 

One thing we can all take from Stebbins is including everyone and being creatively you is important in your everyday life to connect with others and knowing your inner talent.