To many, the name Cassandra Calin isn’t exactly new. Her long-standing career as a cartoonist began on the internet, and 10 years into her career as an artist, Calin is reintroducing herself with the middle grade graphic novel The New Girl (Graphix), her debut long-form endeavor, in which she highlights the parallel experiences of moving to a new country and the start of her first period.
A self-described “introverted kid who loved art and music” and drew on any surface she could find, Calin says she knew early on that art was her calling. But even during her time as a graphic design student at Dawson College, Calin didn’t share her work publicly beyond showing friends and family. Ready to stop “hiding her art,” she came to a decision: she would start posting her work online. Believing that Tumblr felt like the right place, she shared her first webcomic, which featured black-and-white panels depicting a young woman comparing the expectations and the reality of having curly hair. She had no way of knowing how that one moment in July 2014 would alter her life.
Her post went viral, and Calin—who had at one point called her parents in excitement over reaching 100 followers on Instagram (she currently has two million)—didn’t know how to handle the spotlight.
“It was happening so fast that I was still processing,” Calin says of the experience. “It was hard for me to grasp how big of a deal it was in that moment.”
Calin’s art, which she describes as “anime mixed with Tim Burton,” continued to gain popularity as she posted more comics highlighting relatable experiences in everyday life. Her social media following skyrocketed over the years. In 2019, she signed to the first agent she’d reached out to, “straight-to-the-point” Seth Fishman at the Gernert Company, whom she met via Sarah Anderson, a fellow digital comics creator. Shortly thereafter she earned a partnership with Tapas, a social publishing platform for webcomics and web novels, where she continues to share twice-weekly webcomics depicting moments in her own life. Her work had previously been published in the collections Still Just Kidding (2018) and I left the house today! (2020), and a long-form project wasn’t top of mind. Still, she never imagined that a publisher would come to her.
“When I saw that it was Scholastic, I was like, ‘Okay, that’s a pretty big deal!’ ” Calin says with a laugh. With editor Megan Peace, Calin says she “felt almost like I was talking to a friend, because she was just so enthusiastic about the project and so confident that it made me feel confident. I thought, if she really trusts my vision, then I think we have a great thing here.”
Calin’s graphic novel The New Girl focuses on 12-year-old Lia, who’s facing a lot of life changes at once: on the day her family emigrates from Romania to Canada, she gets her first period. And yes, this really did happen to Calin herself, though elements of the graphic novel are fictionalized. Readers follow Lia as she navigates a life in transition, including a new school, language barriers, and the many trials that come with managing menstruation for the first time. “For me as a person, not just as an artist, I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t go through that,” Calin says.
The parallel between Calin and Lia reminded her that many of her protagonists’ anxieties around big changes in life can be applicable to anyone—adults included. Art often reflects life, and just like Lia and her childhood self, Calin is once again the new girl—this time on the children’s publishing scene. Her days of “working in my cocoon at home, and not talking to anybody” are slowing as she prepares to share The New Girl with the world.
But being new isn’t so scary anymore. “I try to see it in a positive light, that change is not a bad thing,” Calin says. “It’s also a new beginning. It’s a way to grow and to become better at your craft. It is a big change, but it’s a positive change.”
