I recently received a creative writing assignment to write a mock pilot treatment for a TV show. I’ve decided I wanted to make it a cartoon aimed at girls under age 12 and have it star a courageous warrior queen from a jungle civilization, and this is my concept art for the protagonist in question. It’s my feeling that too much merchandise aimed at girls centers on princesses and their more “mundane” activities rather than women with actual power and strength. Plus little girls deserve to have action-packed adventure stories targeted at them too.

The character’s name is Ikaba, Queen of Mayombi, and as of now have already written that pilot treatment that includes information on the characters, setting, and a hypothetical first episode’s summary. To quote from it:

“[Ikaba] is the twentysomething Queen of Mayombi, having inherited the throne from her departed mother Mwala. She venerates her mother’s spirit as a role model and a source of guidance for her burdensome responsibility; she wants more than anything else to follow in her mother’s footsteps as Queen. On the other hand, she finds the day-to-day running of the kingdom and its bureaucracy to be tedious at best, and she would much rather hunt or go on adventures in the jungle with her younger brother Kengo.”