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Esther Kim is a freelance illustrator that draws pretty girls.
These look as whimsical beautiful as Fafi’s drawings, but more realistic.

i am a single young woman and like most people my age i am fascinated with being a young woman, who i am, who i want to be and how the world sees me.

when i came back to the united states after living in japan for seven years in 1999 i was bewildered and utterly disappointed. it was the beginning of britney spears/christina aguilera mania and what some have begun to call a “girls gone wild” culture. it was my first introduction to the mtv-watching, pizza eating, pepsi-cola drinking college culture. i couldn’t understand why wild, rule-breaking, club-going girls with breast implants seemed to reign on my college campus. in contrast although from a western point of view japan comes across as a very provocative and edgy culture there is still a strong sense of propriety. in terms of college students a majority commute to school from their homes, which makes for a quite a different collegiate experience. in japan the girls that are idolized are high school girls or young looking girls with a naive, innocent look. there seems to be a lolita aspect to what is considered attractive.

i wanted to draw unattainably attractive women and i had two different messages. i wanted the male viewer to sense that these beautiful women would never talk to them. it was my attempt to belittle them for wanting only attractive females and worshipping the surface over the inner. as for females i wanted them to enjoy the images for the fashion, color and unapologetic girlishness. i wanted to convey a sense of camaderie and celebration. but i also wanted to show the dichotomy of elation and emptiness of the sense of empowerment young woman get from being considered attractive.

(credit: Knight Cat)