Andrea Pippins is a successful illustrator and author who didn't take any art classes until her senior year in high school. She applied three times to the Tyler School of Art at Temple University before being accepted. Today Andrea has clients around the world including the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Lincoln Center and Free People. Her work has been featured in O: The Oprah Magazine, Family Circle and The Huffington Post and she’s the author of three books including the coloring book, “I love my hair” and her newest book, Young, Gifted, and Black. This is Andrea’s story from just starting out to freelancer to living back on her mom’s couch to being a full-time successful artist living in Sweden with her husband and baby boy.

In this interview, we talk about

• The best thing to do when just getting started
• Exactly what she does to stay grounded and creative under tight deadlines
• Dealing with rejection (again and again and again)
• How going natural changed her idea of beauty
• The one question she wished she'd been asked as a teenager
• How to share your work (and then let it go)