Laila Miller, left, lent her artistic talents to the children’s book Strong Enough? written by another Birmingham resident, Ashlé Colston. (Amarr Croskey, For The Birmingham Times)
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By Sym Posey | The Birmingham Times
When Ramsay IB High School senior Laila Miller was given the chance to illustrate for a children’s book, she did not hesitate. Art has always been a part of her life.
Miller, 18, lent her artistic talents to the children’s book Strong Enough? written by another Birmingham resident, Ashlé Colston, which was released last year by Evolve Publishing.
Colston said she came up with the idea for Strong Enough? when she gave birth to her daughter Ahlani in 2020. The series is called Ahlani Love which means “Beautiful Love.”
“I started evaluating how I had been living my life. I lived my life like my mom and my grandmother. Trying to do everything for everybody at all times. I was over being called ‘strong,’” Colston said.
Being called strong “is not a compliment,” Colston continued. For her “it’s a badge of endearment, a badge of perseverance … I wanted to create a book for my daughter that rewrote the narrative about who she needs to be in order to be valuable. She doesn’t have to pour out everything she has to add value to people’s lives,” said the author.
The book highlights what it means to be Strong Enough? in a society where ambition is cherished. This story follows young Imani as she questions the meaning of strong, and goes on a journey to determine what that looks like.
Colston said Strong Enough? was written “to free our daughters from the belief that being a strong woman is measured by how much you put out instead of how much you pour in.”
Miller said she first heard about the opportunity to illustrate the book through her mom, Nekeisha Miller, and recalled the moment her mother told her Colton was searching for an illustrator.
“I went to school one day and after I came home, my mom said [someone was looking for an illustrator for a book]. … I thought it was cool, so we set up a meeting with the [Colston]. We met at Mellow Mushroom one afternoon and the rest is history.”
“Laila was dropped in my lap at the perfect time,” Colston said. “She is absolutely amazing. She’s super talented and she’s just stepping into all that she can be. If you see her, grab her for projects.”
Miller said she was, “nervous at first.”
“I was scared that I would not be up to standard, even though this was her first project as well. The more I got to know her, the more I got comfortable with the project itself. She really let me take the creative reins on the illustrative process.”
A lot of the inspiration [Miller] used for her drawings for the story come from a combination of Colston’s visions and Miller’s real life.
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Miller’s love for art started from drawing pictures as a child. “Since I was four or so, illustrating has always been a part of me and a part of my life,” said Miller.
“Since about second grade, my grandmother, (Sandra Page), and I would print books for fun and use a program to make comics. We would print those out until I had the thought to draw them. My grandma was a little artistic as well. I would copy off her or copy off the pictures that would go in the book”, Miller recalled.
When her grandmother found out that she would be illustrating a children’s book, “she was smiling a lot,” Miller recalled.
She did not start taking art seriously until she reached the fifth grade by writing her own stories and “imagining the characters to go with the stories. Up until that point, art was a fun activity. I started looking at references, how to draw people and animals. Art has always fascinated me. It’s just the way you can put your imagination on paper. “
As a product of the Birmingham City Schools, Miller attended Glen Iris Elementary School and John Herbert Phillips Academy.
Miller said she has not decided what she will do after she graduates in May, but hopes to, “continue to develop her art after high school.”
“I was thinking about majoring in character design or character storyboarding … I might end up just becoming an independent commissioned artist.”
For more on the book visit AhlaniloveSeries.com and on IG at Ahlanilovebooks.