Emma Hayes

Your brand new uniform doesn’t quite fit right. You still can’t get your head around the timetable. In a maze of corridors crowded with unfamiliar faces, all you want to do is blend in.

The transition from primary to secondary education is rarely smooth sailing – but for some children, the sudden shift in established social dynamics can compel them to turn inwards.

Inspired by her own shyness as a teenager, Emma Hayes’ I’ll Be Brave Tomorrow meets shy adolescents where they are right now. Feelings of shyness are imagined through a tender, tactile lens, utilising traditional hand-drawn animation and sequential narrative to provide comfort and encouragement that this friction is normal, but will not swallow you whole.