Girlfriend’s Got a New Dress!

That’s right —- “Girlfriend’s got a new dress!” Be sure to say it with a lot of attitude.

Costume Redesign

I am so pleased to announce that JenJen, the girl Guinea pig, has gotten a costume redesign. She now looks awesome! Not only does she wear her own colorful, play jewelry, she also wears her mother’s real jewelry. The new dress is bright and young and fits her personality.

I have to say that it’s been a long haul for this one character. No other Ninjanimals Kidz character has caused even a fraction of the problems which JenJen has caused. I trace the problems to the fact that the Original girl Guinea pig – JenJen – was very amorphous and undefined in facial characteristics and in her clothing style. So when Hatem was given JenJen to work with — somehow she didn’t come together as easily as all the other characters did. It is the result of an unformed character from the beginning that I had mixed feelings about. So here is her story, and timeline.

JenJen’s Saga

Okay, how do I even begin telling this story?

The Original JenJen – and I mean the “original” Original, from the beginning JenJen – was actually a Pig Character. She just sort of “happened” during the early character development phase. I realized later that I had never been all keen about having a pig character as part of the N-Kidz character set. On top of that, the fact that she was “chubby” and a “pig” created a negative stereotype in my mind. But I couldn’t just get rid of JenJen the Pig either, as Jen’s personality is important to me – she loves science, is very smart, and loves girl stuff.

I also had some girl fans who had two Guinea pigs named Pretty and Cutie. So I started toying with the idea of turning Jen into a Guinea pig.

Around the time that I had hired Hatem to become the Ninjanimals Kidz artist, I became convinced that I truly preferred Guinea Pigs over Pigs. They just are cuter in my mind. And the photographs and videos which are part of the Animal Info section are loads cuter for Guineas. So before Hatem began redesigning the characters for the story illustrations I finalized my decision – as you can see here:

This is the result of giving Pete an entire hour to change JenJen from a pig to a Guinea pig. I remember that evening well. Pete complied and went along with my “urgent request”. In the end it was obvious to both of us that the quickly updated pig was a very so-so Guinea pig. I felt such a strong need to change JenJen that I didn’t care what the results would be. NOTE: the same chubby dress and worried eyes of the redesigned JenJen.

Based on the character he was given, Hatem did a good rendition of the illustrated character. The same “worried eyes” and chubby physique play out in JenJen’s illustration with the globe.

Of all the 20 original characters shown in the first two stories – JenJen was the only one who didn’t work for me… The others really knocked my socks off, and I wanted JenJen to be as good as the rest.

After tons of back and forth between Hatem and me, and a number of versions, JenJen became a more complex character with a very pretty dress. Hatem came up with this wonderful butterfly fabric. He also decorated Jen with bracelets and pearls. I asked him to change the real jewelry into bright plastic jewelry. JenJen, in her blue dress, was like this for over a year. Then this past the summer, I asked Hatem for a redesigned dress which would be brighter and younger. Also a taller version JenJen wearing pink Crocs. I’m really pleased with the final character. But what a saga this has been!