In ‘The Ghost Who Was Afraid Of Everything,’ Nadia Ahmed’s Viral Drawing Becomes A Children’s Book

CHICAGO — Three Octobers ago, artist and illustrator Nadia Ahmed marked the beginning of spooky season with a drawing of two cartoon ghosts holding hands in a pumpkin patch.

She captioned it “Date Night” on Oct. 1, 2021.

The illustration immediately took off, getting 336,000 likes and 63,000 retweets on X, formerly Twitter. Another post of the ghosts just nine days later garnered 107,000 likes.

Alongside appearing on tote bags, prints, T-shirts and mugs, that drawing marked the start of Ahmed’s career as an author. It inspired her first children’s book, “The Ghost Who Was Afraid Of Everything,” published Aug. 27.

The book flips the script on ghosts: In Ahmed’s world, there is an anxiety-ridden ghost who is spooked by, well, everything. But as he slowly learns to become braver, his life becomes more colorful.

“The idea of a ghost with anxiety just popped into my head,” said Ahmed, 27. “I’ve always struggled with anxiety, so I’ve kind of based it on — as much as you can base a children’s book about ghosts on your life — things that I’ve went through.”

Ahmed has loved drawing since she was a little kid; she started practicing more seriously as a teenager. She graduated from DePaul University with a degree in graphic design, but she still didn’t think she could make her art her career until the pandemic hit in 2020, she said.

“Suddenly, there was a job market that didn’t exist anymore,” she said. “I just had a lot of free time hanging out in my parent’s house, and so I was drawing all the time. I think my skills really improved there: I was studying a lot about art, learning how to draw, just practicing constantly. … And then in 2021, I started posting my stuff on social media. … It’s kind of crazy that October 2021, it just really blew up with the ghost illustrations.”

Ahmed pitched the premise of “The Ghost Who Was Afraid Of Everything” to her agent just a few months later in February 2022, beginning a more-than-two-year publishing journey filled with lots of writing, illustrating and edits. It’s only now starting to feel real after seeing her name in stores and libraries around the Chicagoland area, including her hometown, she said.

“That’s just been really awesome to witness,” said Ahmed, who grew up in suburban Naperville, lives in Oak Park and often works out of Chicago.

People have likened Ahmed’s work to two other authors and illustrators who came from Chicago: Shel Silverstein and Edward Gorey, she said.

“I think it’s funny that we’re all from Illinois and we’ve all got this distinct style,” Ahmed said. “I grew up reading a lot when I was a kid, so I grew up reading Shel Silverstein … and Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake, the illustrator. So a lot of those kind of funky, kind of weird, creepy little line drawings, that was a really big part of my childhood — those kind of surreal and dark childish drawings.”

But Ahmed’s work also has a more personal root in her South Asian heritage.

“I’m Desi, and I didn’t really grow up super cultural, but I was looking back at some of my older work and I’m like, ‘Oh, this looks so much like henna patterns,'” she said. “I’m obsessed with mehndi, I’m obsessed with henna, and I’ve totally worked that into my style.”

While Ahmed dabbles in mediums like oil paint and digital art, she most often draws by putting pen straight to paper. Just like mehndi — patterns drawn on skin using a plant-based dye called henna — ink can’t be erased. It’s taught Ahmed, who considers herself a perfectionist, to embrace mistakes, which has led to some of her best-selling illustrations.

“One of my popular drawings is of a bookstore with a black hole, and that was actually a mistake,” she said. “There was actually supposed to be a person reading in the center, but I messed up the drawing of the person as I was doing it. I can’t exactly erase it, but I was like, ‘Wow, I did all this work. I don’t want to throw it out.’ So I just kind of cross hatched it and made it look like [the black hole] was done on purpose. …

“It’s become something that so many people resonate with,” Ahmed said. “And I think it just goes to show that … people don’t always see the same thing as you will, like you always see your mistakes or your flaws and your art, but a lot of people will not see that at all, though they’ll be really touched by it.”

And though Ahmed is most recognizable for her Halloween-esque art, she draws inspiration from various sources: everything from architecture to Pakistani mythology to Palestine.

“As an artist … yes, you can make the fun, cozy, spooky stuff. But I think it’s also important to make work that reflects the times, reflects people’s struggles,” she said. “I’ve actually been getting commissions specifically from people who want to make [Palestine-related] work. … I made an album cover of a Japanese punk band [Mega X] in Japan, and they wanted a pro-Palestine album cover.”

People can follow and support Ahmed’s art and endeavors on Instagram and X with the username @nadiatheartist and on her website . “The Ghost Who Was Afraid of Everything” is available on Amazon and at select bookstores.

While the future could possibly hold more books and maybe even her own gallery exhibition, Ahmed is taking things one day at a time like she always has.

“I also wonder if maybe this book was a fluke,” she said. “I’d love to illustrate more books. I’d love to be known as a children’s book illustrator. … Especially with a creative field, you really don’t know where anything is going to take you. You don’t know what job or what things will change your path.”

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