Fun stories about two teens with small town dreams.
Emily and Lindsay tackle the problems of their young lives on Quell Street, with a giant dose of grace, patience, and mayhem.
Emily and Lindsay tackle the problems of their young lives on Quell Street, with a giant dose of grace, patience, and mayhem.
Emily and Lindsay constantly plunge into adventures that help each other and their community. They have a strong bond founded on ambitions, challenges, and love of outdoors and technology. Unable to hold back their impulses, they learn about life while taking on responsibilities. One has diabetes and both try not to fight it. They learn to respect the things they can't change, and examine deeper the things they can change.
Emily doesn't let teen problems stand in her way. She's just heading into her teens and has a can-do attitude. Sometimes her dreams are a little too big. Some say she's a thinker. She loves brainstorming and solving problems, and diagramming ideas on paper. She's got type 1 diabetes and you might never notice it while she's busy playing sports, keeping up in school, and spending time with family and best friend Lindsay.
Lindsay is immersed in style and motion. She's also a beginner at being a teenager, and shares all her problems and desires with Emily. She is ambitious and dedicated to dance classes. She has a brother close to her age to deal with. Lindsay is laid back and not especially thrilled by homework and chores, except for helping her mom and dad with cooking. She lives a few houses down from Emily. They both live in a quiet part of town on Quell Street near a park and a mall.
The characters emerged from a 20-year quest to share diabetes in stories in a realistic manner that is uplifting and not distressing. Movies and other influential media rarely include a serious character with diabetes. Or do they ever? If mentioned at all, it's only a light dusting of a concern for off-screen characters at risk of blood sugar woes and health complications.
Characters don't have to be limited to these stereotypes, so these stories just aim to put the cards on the table from the perspective of diabetics through believable characters.
Stories and illustrations are created by Heidi Bada in Victoria, British Columbia. She coaches social media and builds websites for ambitious purpose-driven digital and arts projects. She's a frequent volunteer in marketing and service improvement at health organizations. Visit Heidi's volunteer page to see what she's done lately at Catch A Fire.
