Hello, I'm Lilly Higgs, and I'm a Lolita! I'm currently a student at the Savannah College of Art and Design, and am studying Sequential Art. Confessions of an American Lolita was initially created and published in the Shojo Phonebook Anthology project in 2008, hosted by SCAD. Like many Lolita, I discovered the fashion through manga. I have always loved fairytales and the delicate aesthetic associated with them. I grew up with CLAMP's legendary Cardcaptor Sakura and Naoko Taekuchi's groundbreaking Sailor Moon series. The joke among my peers is that I'm so Shojo(girly comics) that I bleed lace and ooze sparkles. Nowadays I read short manga stories such as Yumiko Kawahara's Dolls series, and pretty much anything Ai Yazawa scribbles down. The amazingly talented Svetlana Chmakova of Dramacon and Aimee Major, animator and author of Japan Ai are my Western role models. Look where I am! BABY, the Stars Shine Bright in Tokyo! I'd been an avid watcher and admirer of Lolita for years, but it wasn't until I went to Japan in June 2007 that I went full-scale into Lolita. I wanted to start right, where the fashion began! Visiting the shops and chatting with the charming, beautiful lolita in Japan really enhanced my appreciation for the art that goes into Lolita- these girls don't roll into the closet, roll back out and look beautiful and enchanting. It takes effort, especially the skilled Lolita I met who sewed their gowns themselves. Beyond that, the girls were so kind and polite, I was amazed. Some darling Lolita in Harajuku on a Sunday in June! I returned to the US and became involved with the Western Lolita communities online, where all of the inspiration for Confessions would fall into place. In some ways, these are my OWN Confessions, but I feel like any Lolita in Western culture can identify with them on some level! Want to contact me? Email me at lhiggs20 @ student . scad . edu , (With the spaces removed, of course.) Thank you for reading!! XOXOXOXO ~Lilly (C)2007-2008 Lilly Higgs