Issue 28: Illustration Callout for October 2025 Dystinct Magazine

Callouts for illustrations to be featured in the upcoming October 2025 issue of the Dystinct Magazine

Instructions to submit the illustrations are at the bottom. If you have any questions, please get in touch with me at hello@dystinct.org.

Callout 1 - Anxiety in everyday life

• Article Topic: The Interaction of Racism and Anxiety in Children
• Article Context: Dr Samantha Sweeney explores how racism and racial discrimination interact with childhood anxiety, showing how experiences of exclusion, microaggressions, and systemic bias can intensify anxiety symptoms, while offering families practical strategies to support children as victims, bystanders, or perpetrators in creating safer, more inclusive environments.

Illustration Guideline:

Children are welcome to create an illustration based on their own creativity and ideas. If you’d like a bit of guidance, you can choose to draw a picture based on one of the ideas below:

• Anxiety over a test: A child in bed with wide eyes before a test (a simple bed, pillow, and thought bubble with a test paper).
• Anxiety during play sessions: A child holding a soccer ball but standing away from a group of kids playing and having fun together.
• Anxiety during a social event: A birthday party scene with balloons, where one child is standing outside a group of kids who are playing together.

Callout 2 - Racism and Exclusion

• Article Topic: The Interaction of Racism and Anxiety in Children
• Article Context: Dr Samantha Sweeney explores how racism and racial discrimination interact with childhood anxiety, showing how experiences of exclusion, microaggressions, and systemic bias can intensify anxiety symptoms, while offering families practical strategies to support children as victims, bystanders, or perpetrators in creating safer, more inclusive environments.

Illustration Guideline:

Children are welcome to create an illustration based on their own creativity and ideas. If you’d like a bit of guidance, you can choose to draw a picture based on one of the ideas below:

• Two children in a playground. One of the children is drawn with a speech bubble that says, “You can’t play”, and the other child looks sad.
• A classroom door with “Welcome” written above, but one child is left outside.

Callout 3 - Action against bullying

• Article Topic: The Interaction of Racism and Anxiety in Children
• Article Context: Dr Samantha Sweeney explores how racism and racial discrimination interact with childhood anxiety, showing how experiences of exclusion, microaggressions, and systemic bias can intensify anxiety symptoms, while offering families practical strategies to support children as victims, bystanders, or perpetrators in creating safer, more inclusive environments.

Illustration Guideline:

Children are welcome to create an illustration based on their own creativity and ideas. If you’d like a bit of guidance, you can choose to draw a picture based on one of the ideas below:

• A group of children holding a banner that says, “Be Kind” or “Respect Everybody.”
• A child helping another up from the ground, showing a simple gesture of support.

Callout 4 - Choosing an evidence-based program

• Article Topic: What Counts as Evidence-Based? A Practical Guide for Parents Navigating Tier 2 and Tier 3 Interventions
• Article Context: Missy explains what “evidence-based” should mean in schools, clarifies the differences between Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 instruction, and offers parents clear questions to ask when advocating for their child.

Illustration Guideline:

Children are welcome to create an illustration based on their own creativity and ideas.

If you’d like a bit of guidance, you can choose to draw a picture of a parent at a table with lots of book-shaped boxes in front of them, each with big labels like “Science of Reading” and “Multisensory.” Give the parent a curious face and put a small magnifying glass or a checklist in their hand.

Callout 5 - Validating children’s emotions

• Article Topic: Validating the Feelings of a Child
• Article Context: Dr Steve Hoersting highlights the importance of validating a child's feelings, its significant psychological benefits, and offers practical strategies to build emotional awareness, resilience, and healthy relationships.

Illustration Guideline:

Children are welcome to create an illustration based on their own creativity and ideas.

If you’d like a bit of guidance, you can choose to draw a picture based on one of the ideas below:

• Listening Ear – A parent/ teacher kneeling at eye level with a child, showing open ears and a gentle smile, while the child speaks with visible emotion.
• Validation vs Invalidation – Create a split page illustration: on one side, draw a calm child speaking with an adult listening attentively; on the other side, draw an adult being dismissive of the child with crossed arms while the child looks upset.
• Bridge of Trust – A parent/teacher and child standing on opposite sides of a river, with validation forming a sturdy bridge connecting them.

INSTRUCTIONS

Instructions for creating illustrations:

• If your child can create digital drawings, that would be preferred. If not, illustrations on paper will suffice. (If your child can create a digital illustration, please let me know about the software/platform they will use to create the file).
• Please create/draw/colour on an A4 sheet of WHITE paper.
• Scan the image and send us a clear image of the illustration without shadows. Please do not take a photograph using flash on your mobile device.

Instructions for submitting your illustrations:

Please email me your submissions to hello@dystinct.org with the following info:

• Short bio- 25-50 words
• Name of Child
• Age
• Location (City/Country)
• Diagnosis/suspected diagnosis
• 1-2 high-resolution headshots/ photos of the child

Illustrations featured in previous issues of Dystinct Magazine

The below illustrations were featured in previous issues.