Shirley Zhong is a college student at San José State University, majoring in Digital Media Art, focusing on digital design and illustration. As someone who has been heavily involved in portraying emotion in her work, Shirley’s main goal is to reach a broad audience in hopes that the stories shared through her work will make them feel less alone. Under the belief that the world is currently evolving into a more digitalized format, Shirley aims to utilize the digital arts in the best of her ability. In order to advance her skills and knowledge, she works on personal projects, introduces new techniques and skills in her practices, and studies the works of others to diversify her knowledge.

Shirley is heavily inspired by work that normalizes what society has deemed abnormal, such as those integrating people of color or characters with certain interests that demolish gender stereotypes. She is detail-oriented, making sure her work is perfect, down to the last pixel, so that her storytelling can be as accurate as possible.

In her spare time, Shirley enjoys crocheting, 3D crafts, digital photography, video games, spending quality time with loved ones, animating, and viewing sunsets.