Hair Brain Jane is a young girl with a unique talent, to say the least. Whatever she thinks of comes out of her hair.
Jane is the title character of a recently published children's book by Hilton Head Island resident Andrea Studenc.
Studenc has spent the past several years on the island working with children. She has been a teacher's aide and even started a kids cooking school. But "Hair Brain Jane" is the first time the mother of two has ventured into children's literature.
Studenc explains how Hair Brain Jane popped into existence.
Question. Where did this character come from?
Answer. I woke up at like 5 a.m. one day. You know when you wake up and you're a bit groggy? It's like I was half in a dream. This little girl was beside my bed. She was bright and shiny and had all this stuff in her hair. It was just like a vision. I don't know where it really came from exactly. So I got up and came back and my brain was going a mile a minute. By the time my husband got up I said, "I'm writing a book and it's called 'Hair Brain Jane.' " He probably thought, "Oh boy, here we go another project."
Q. What was it like to write?
A. I wrote most of it in a day. It's all in a rhyming fashion. But the text was basically done in a day. I went back for a few days and tweaked it after, but the writing just came out. Then I started drawing.
Q. What's your background as an artist?
A. I always took art classes in school. I was the cartoonist for my high school newspaper. I've always just drawn and painted. I come from an artistic family; my mother was always very creative.
Q. What's next?
A. We've been brainstorming about the next book. It will be called "Tame Mane Jane." It'll be about when she's learned to stay focused.
Of course, I've got gobs of ideas to go along with the book -- make a doll, do a stickerbook. I don't know. We'll see what happens.
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