During the “golden age of illustration,” children were depicted with anatomic accuracy that was faithful to the stage of life they were in, and in poses that were natural and believable for a child. Jesse Wilcox Smith, Elsa Beskow and Mary Cassat are examples of artists who did such work and they were able to do so because they not only observed children closely, but also loved them. However, modern illustrations of children feature joints that don’t articulate–elbows and knees don’t exist– and facial expressions that are emojis rather than anatomically correct changes that belie bone structure and fat distribution underneath. As a circle with a triangle under it depicts a woman on a bathroom stall, so modern illustrators depict children with large heads, goofy bean mouthed expressions and noodle arms and legs. In essence, children are no longer depicted as human beings but rather emoticons of human beings. And the reason for this is not merely due to changes in “artistic styles”, but rather the far more oily and avaricious greed of publishers, the sloth and incompetence of modern artists and most heinously, a modern disdain for children. - An excerpt from my latest essay, soon to be published.