Eric Robles has been drawing since childhood and always dreamed of a career in animation. Though he initially went into law enforcement due to financial constraints, he was discovered after showing his drawings to an instructor. He was offered an internship at an animation studio and is now a successful animator, having created the Nickelodeon series Fanboy and Chum Chum. His advice is to follow your dreams and take initiative. Karen Crawford left her career in marketing to pursue her passion for fashion design after moving to Los Angeles. She started a T-shirt line called KC Tees that celebrates Hispanic culture with uplifting messages. Her tees have become popular and she has expanded her mission to also support

1. Eric Robles
EIBarrio: Los Angeles, CA Trabaio: Animator
From the time Eric Robles could write he was drawing pictures, dreaming of one day pursuing
a career in animation. "I was totally immersed in the animation culture," says Robles. "Draw-
ing is how I express myself."
The son of Mexican and Salvadorian parents, Eric was born and raised in Los Angeles,
CA where he shared a room with his parents. In school he would draw pictures of his favorite
cartoon characters but instead of going to animation he went into law enforcement. "I couldn't
go to art school. There wasn't awareness of grants and the Internet like there is now," he ex-
plains. While taking tests pursuing a career in law enforcement, Eric would draw in the blank
pages in the tests. "I would be drawing in my tests; my instructor told me he looked forward
to my drawings," he recalls. "He said!I should be an artist and the drawings should be in a
sketchbook."
The artist filled up the sketchbook and he gave it to the instructor who passed along to
his sister in law who was head of an animation studio. After one week he was offered an
internship, which he accepted and went to night school. "All I did was make copies, sketch
anything that needed to be done," he says. "After a week and half, I would leave copies of my
drawings on the designer's chairs there was an opening. I went from an intern to character
designer and clean up artist."
Since then, the cartoonist has been in the animation business for 15 years. As creator and
executive producer, he has developed his own series called Fanboy and Chum Chum, which
will premiere on Nickelodeon in November. The show is about two kids with super imagina-
tions who don't have superpowers b~t are dressed up as superheroes getting into comical
adventures and misadventures. "I baJically want to bring fun and energy to the kids. I love
idiotic characters. Creating charactersi is the most enjoyable and hardest thing to do. My goal
•is for all the characters to become main characters" says Robles.
Eric wants to leave his stamp in Ni~kelodeon and grow with the company. He has dreams
of directing also but for now all his energy is devoted to Fanboy and Chum Chum. "If I do this
everything .will.fol)ow: say..§.Boblh. His advice to young people is to follow their dreams
and take initiative. "You can be a part of the world you are looking at," he explains. "Call that
person up, if you are hungry go and do it."- Lulaine Compere
Karen CrawfordEIBarrio: Los Angeles, CA Trabajo: Fashion Design
living in a country with a struggling economy, where jobs are few & far between, can be pretty
disheartening. However, facing the recession's ax in the world of the working doesn't indicate
an ending. For Karen Crawford, it was a beginning. Having spent an entire career moving up
the ranks in movie advertising at 20th Century Fox, the Spanish Harlem born designer decided
that she'd leave corporate America (and New York) behind & face her future in fashion. Karen
&her husband headed out west, to the laid back lifestyle of Los Angeles, where she recreated
herself from graphic designer to clothing designer.
"I tried to find another job, then I thought-'You know what? I'm going to put my energy into
my T-shirt line because it's so personally satisfying.' So I did," Karen admits of her blossoming
line of Latina-inspired tees. KC Tees are filling .in the gap of proud Latina clothing. "In the past,
lines that were geared towards Hispanics; I just found them to be stereotypical and that led
me to do this."
Growing tired of seeing shirts claiming, "Sexy," "Spicy," or "Hot'- Karen wanted to go deeper.
She started making shirts for her friends & family, detailing uplifting messages like, "Hope,"
"Peace" or "Faith" in Spanish. Karen's tees are always influenced by what she finds significant.
"I have a lot of friends that have been afflicted with breast cancer; m~ mother-in-law's a sur-
vivor," she explains." Right now, I'm doing a breast cancer shirt and d~nating to the Susan G.
Komen Foundation, and that's personal to me."
Not only do Karen's tees inspire and encourage but they give back! She founded the Para
Los Ni os Foundation last year. "We're a family service organization t+ t helps families & chil-
dren from underprivileged communities here in L.A. ," Karen says of ~er charity efforts. "The
first shirts that I did way back when for the Tsunami Relief Effort, they ~ere these baseball tees
and they said in Spanish, 'Love,' 'Beauty' and 'Unity. ' Now, I'm branching off into things that
inspire me-whether it be political-like the Sonia Sotomayor T-shirt [I ~id] back in June."
The popularity of the Supreme Court justice shirts brought Karen's purposeful duds with the
world. "I never really thought I would end up doing this," Karen explains, "but it means a lot
more to me than most of my professional career," Karen concludes with a smile in her voice.
What else can this ambitious designer tackle? Try, more causes. "I feel like every little bit that
you contribute, counts," Karen reveals. She plans to design shirts for Cinco de Mayo, Hispanic
Heritage Month, Earth Day and the Puerto Rican Day Parade, vowing to never stray from cele-
brating Hispanic culture. "The shirts will always go back to that," she says. "That's my mission,
my core, my theme!" Check out Karen's T-shirts at www.KCTees.com!- Danielle Young
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