A dad just wants his daughter to know she’s a regular teenager — and that’s okay.
Fred Wills Sr. uses an iPad app to create a new cartoon drawing of his 15-year-old daughter, Jessica, almost every day. The drawings show her doing life’s everyday tasks, like loading the dishwasher and tapping away on her cell phone.
Wills calls the cartoon “Just Jessica” because he wants the rest of the world to know that’s who his daughter is — just Jessica, not just a girl with Down syndrome.
“That’s really the message behind it,” Wills, of Stratford, Conn., told The Mighty of his cartoon. “She’s just Jessica. She’s not ‘Jessica with Down syndrome.’ She’s just Jessica.”
Jessica is a high school sophomore who loves to sing, cook and play soccer. Her dad wants Jessica to be seen as part of the group and be treated like everyone else.
He adds captions and a little artistic flair to the cartoons to make them funny.
“We use it now as a tool to help her in high school, as she’s learning life skills,” Wills said. “That opens it up to talk about learning how to do things, and how it’s not easy for her, but she can do it just like everybody else.”
Wills prints out the cartoons each morning and hangs them in the kitchen for his daughter to see as she starts the day.
“Every morning, it’s the first thing she looks for,” Wills said. “She loves them.”
Fred Wills Sr.
