Invisible Emmie

Terri Libenson is the author of the Emmie & Friends series. She started drawing comics as a child, when she would recreate her favorite Peanuts characters on everything that she could draw on. Professionally, Libenson started out writing humorous greeting cards. Libenson published her first comic strip called Got a Life in 2000 with King Features Weekly Service. The opportunity led to her most famous and longest-running comic strip, The Pajama Diaries, which ran under the same publication for 14 years. The Pajama Diaries featured the daily observations of a mother who works from home and watches her children grow up. While she enjoys the solitude of home life, she also feels isolated, much like Emmie in Invisible Emmie. Libenson’s comics have always carried themes of everyday life and relatable, humorous situations that are geared toward ordinary people who have all been there before.

Libenson’s inspiration for the character of Emmie, who is introverted and socially anxious, came from her own experiences at age 13. Like Emmie, Libenson spent more time drawing in her sketchbook than interacting with her peers. She includes a picture of herself at 13 on the graphic novel’s first page (“About Terri.” Terri Libenson).