THE JOURNEY OF BELONGING
I was born and raised in the UK, a world of English words and local traditions where my Lithuanian heritage felt like a distant echo I didn’t yet understand. For a long time, I struggled with self esteem and a sense of belonging, at school, being “from somewhere else” made me a target for bullying. I felt caught between two worlds, not quite belonging to either.
When I turned 13, my world shifted. Our family moved back to Lithuania, and I was placed into a life where I didn’t know the language and had no friends to lean on. It was one of the hardest experiences of my life, a total reset that challenged everything I knew about myself.
While I struggled with traditional school subjects, drawing became my refuge. It was my superpower, a quiet language I could speak when words failed me. It became my way of managing anxiety and stress, transforming my feelings of isolation into something vibrant and visible.
For years, I worked exclusively in the digital realm, but my time studying for my Master’s at the Vilnius Academy of Arts changed everything. I rediscovered the magic of pencils, watercolour and paper. This newfound love for traditional techniques and the perfectly imperfect stroke of a pencil was exactly where Ace the Acorn was born.
I created these bilingual books for every child who feels like an outsider. My goal is to help those struggling with self worth and belonging to find their voice sooner than I did. By bringing English and Lithuanian together, I hope to show children that their heritage is not something to hide, it’s a story worth sharing.
