CoP 3// Artists, Lauren Faust

'' I have been a lifelong feminist, and as an artist working in the animation industry for more than 16 years I have striven to do right by women and girls in the animated projects I have been part of. '' - Lauren Faust 

Lauren Faust is a self identified feminist, animation on a string of popular shows featuring strong female characters and themes such as Cats don't dance, The Powerpuff Girls, Foster's home for Imaginary friends, Wander Over Younder and creator of the reboot of my little pony 'Friendship is Magic' (first three seasons). I listened to the full Nickelodeon Podcast featuring Lauren Faust and found the interview very inspirational. The interview goes in depth about the creators experiences, inspirations and beliefs. Lauren talks about in the interview about more women getting jobs in animation, talking about how female creators getting stuck in 'clean up' roles within animation studios and missing out on higher up jobs. She also goes very in depth about strong leading girl characters in cartoons and that it's important to represent a range of emotions within characters, regardless of that characters gender. Within her career she also mentions in the interview that she took a break from animation to develop into the toy making industry, because at the time 'no one wanted girls shows'. Yet in the toys industry she felt suffocated because she was being constantly told to make her designs more pink because her toys were aimed at girls and within that industry, if you're making girls toys - it has to be pink. Overall the interview reflects on her experiences as a female animator within the animation industry, wanting to make shows representing diverse female characters.  Towards the end of the interview Lauren herself gives advice to artists wanting to get into the animation industry, talking about how important it is to get your foot in the door and really push for a better role and always look for responses to your work - which she mentioned is incredibally important for women in the industry. Outside of getting a job, she gives advice to live cheap when you're young and make sure to save money. 

Lauren Faust also mentioned Steven universe in her podcast interview, praising it for it's female representation and it's audience of both male and female, much like the audience for her creation My little pony: Friendship is Magic (although she does mock the 'bros' secretly liking the shows before coming out about enjoying a 'girls show'). Lauren Faust is the creator of many strong female characters full of diversity and not just female characters that (in her words) 'Behave like the male ones do'.