VICTA Changemakers
Anti-Bullying Week 2025
The Art of Being Seen by Millie-Jayne
As a blind artist myself, I wanted to write a story that captures how it feels to be seen for who you are, not just what people notice first. “The Art of Being Seen” is about finding courage through creativity and how using your voice, your art, or your story can become its own Power for Good. Sometimes the most powerful change begins quietly, with someone brave enough to share how they see the world in their own way.
Story
Rowan was used to being noticed for the wrong reasons.
People saw the cane before they saw her.
In the corridors, whispers brushed past her like wind, quick, quiet, careless.
“Watch out, she can’t see.”
“Wonder how she does art if she’s blind?”
“I bet she fakes it”
Then laughter, sharp and cold.
But Rowan loved art. She couldn’t see colours anymore, not in the way everyone else did, but she felt them. Blue was the sound of a piano and the calm of the ocean, soft and deep. Yellow was the warmth of sunlight on her face. Red was laughter, bold and bright.
When her teacher announced the school’s Anti-Bullying Week project, a mural on the theme “Power for Good” Rowan signed up straight away.
At first, nobody said much when she joined the group. Someone muttered, “How’s she gonna paint a mural if she can’t even see it?”
Rowan heard, but she didn’t reply. She just smiled, quietly stubborn.
She worked by touch, tracing the outlines others sketched and adding her own textures: rough sand for the sea, smooth fabric for the sky, little beads for stars.
She couldn’t see the mural, but she could imagine it.
When the project was done, the class gathered in the hall to unveil it. The mural shimmered with colour and texture hands reaching toward each other, ribbons of light connecting them.
In the corner, in raised letters Rowan had painted herself, were the words:
“You don’t have to see someone to understand them.”
The room fell silent.
Then, the same boy who’d whispered before stepped closer.
“It’s… beautiful,” he said quietly. “I didn’t know you could”
“You didn’t ask,” Rowan replied gently, smiling.
Later, that boy asked if she’d show him how to paint with textures. And she did.
He discovered how colours could feel, not just look how art could be more than sight.
By the end of the week, the mural had become more than an art project.
It was a story of courage, of kindness, of power not the loud kind, but the kind that changes people quietly from the inside out.
Rowan never said much about it.
She just kept painting, her hands steady, her heart full.
Because sometimes, the most powerful thing you can do
It shows the world that being seen doesn’t always mean being looked at.
Closing Reflection
Rowan’s story reminds us that strength doesn’t always shout, sometimes it paints, writes, sings, or simply shows up as kindness. Being different can feel lonely at times, but it’s also where some of the most powerful voices begin. When we use what makes us unique to help others see the world in new ways, we create real change. This Anti-Bullying Week, let’s remember that the power for good lives is in all of us in empathy, in courage, and in the quiet bravery of being exactly who we are.
About the Author
Written by Millie-Jayne, a blind content creator, Artist and VICTA Changemaker who believes in the power of difference, creativity, and kindness. Through art, storytelling, and lived experience, she hopes to inspire children and teens to celebrate what makes them unique and to use their own power for good in the world.
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