Lauren for leader by Keren David

There are so many reasons to feel sad and anxious, depressed and scared at the moment. 

So it was a great joy yesterday to celebrate the news that Lauren Child has been appointed the new Children's Laureate. 

Whenever I open a book by Lauren, it's as though I've been given some sort of a creativity pill, that makes me want to draw and cut things out and stick things onto bits of paper, and just have a lot of fun making things.  And when my kids were the right age to read her books that's what we did.   

Yesterday Lauren spoke about the need to allow children time to be bored, to give them time to be creative. She said:

“I will be talking a lot about the need for children to be allowed to be creative, without being micromanaged and directed,”

She also said that she would be campaigning about child poverty, and school dinners and working with artists and promoting the skill involved in being an illustrator.

And everything she said made me want to cheer and wave flags and generally go the full cheerleader. Emotions that I have been missing during this election campaign.

So, thank you Lauren for reminding me of the very best way to deal with dark times. I shall be getting out the art box, and getting creative, and trying to cheer myself for the future. Starting right now...