Stina Wirsén facts for kids

Stina Wirsén Hedengren, born in 1968, is a talented Swedish author and illustrator. She is well-known for her many children's books and her unique drawings.

Early Life and Learning

Stina Wirsén was born in 1968 in Älvsjö, a part of Stockholm, Sweden. Her parents are Carin and Christian Wirsén. She started creating art when she was very young.

She studied at Konstfack, an art college in Stockholm, from 1985 to 1992.

Her Work as an Artist

Stina Wirsén worked as the main illustrator for the newspaper Dagens Nyheter from 1990 to 2010. For several years, she was even in charge of the newspaper's illustration team. After 2010, she started working on her own as a freelance illustrator and author.

She has won many awards for her drawings. Stina Wirsén's art often mixes different styles. This is true for her children's books too. She writes ABC-books, story collections, and books with both text and pictures. She is also a member of the Swedish Children's Book Academy.

One of her books, Little Pink and the Motley Crew (Swedish: En liten skär och alla bråkiga brokiga) from 2014, caused some discussion. This was because of how she drew a Black girl character named Lilla Hjärtat (which means Little Heart in English). Some people felt the drawing looked like old, offensive pictures. They thought the character was shown as being "uncontrollable." People started talking about this on social media, and then news outlets in Sweden reported on it. In November 2012, Stina Wirsén announced that she would no longer use the Lilla Hjärtat character in her books.

Her Family Life

Stina Wirsén is married to Pompe Hedengren, who is a Swedish graphic designer. They have three children together.

Special Projects

An example of Stina Wirsén's art, from "Vision Kulturmiljö 2030"

Since 2000, Stina Wirsén has given talks and workshops around the world. She often works with children aged 2 to 6 years old. She has taught about children and pictures in places like Abu Dhabi, Tokyo, Bologna, Umeå, and Stockholm.

She created a huge, hand-drawn fashion illustration for Åhléns City, a department store in Stockholm. It was 25 meters wide and drawn right onto handmade tiles.

She also designed stamps for the Swedish Post Office. This series of 8 stamps showed designs by different Swedish fashion designers.

For UN Human Rights, she made a series of drawings. These were printed on 14 million copies of the Swedish telephone directory. The drawings were shown at the UN headquarters in New York. This was during the 50-year anniversary of the Human Rights declaration.

Stina Wirsén has worked with Save the Children, Sweden. She has done both volunteer work and paid illustrations for their magazine, BARN (CHILDREN).

She also created a special "doodle" for Google. This drawing was about diversity and appeared on Google's main page worldwide on Sweden's National Day in 2015.

Art Shows

• Sven-Harrys konstmuseum 2014: An exhibition called "Swedish Fashion: 2000 – 2015" showed how Swedish fashion changed a lot during these years. It included many important clothes and fashion drawings by Stina Wirsén.
• Bror Hjorts Hus 2013: This was a solo show focusing on her drawings from children's books. It also included some of her fashion and portrait illustrations.
• Swedish Embassy in Tokyo 2012: A large Swedish design show was held during Tokyo Design Week. Stina Wirsén's work was part of this event.
• Nationalmuseum 2010: The "Handmade" exhibition focused on hand-drawn lines. It showed a conversation between Stina Wirsén's drawings and older drawings from the Swedish National Gallery's own collection.
• Konstnärshuset 2009: This was a solo exhibition of her drawings about life in Stockholm's bars and restaurants.
• Dunkers Kulturhus 2015: Her picture book and fashion sketches were shown here. This was connected to a solo exhibition by Swedish fashion designer Bea Szenfeld.

Books by Stina Wirsén

• Jag har fått en klocka! (1991)
• Sakboken (1995)
• Djurboken (1995)
• Liten och stor (1995)
• Tussas Kalas (1996) (with Martin Vårdstedt and Anna Hörling)
• Siffror och Nuffror (1997) (with Anna Hörling)
• Hedvig! (with Frida Nilsson)
• Hedvig och sommaren med steken (with Frida Nilsson)
• Hedvig och Hardemos prinsessa (with Frida Nilsson)
• Hallå därinne! (2010) (with Ulf Stark)
• En stjärna vid namn Ajax (with Ulf Stark)
• Systern från havet (with Ulf Stark)
• Full cirkus på Sockerbullen (2012) (with Carin Wirsén)
• Jag (2012)
• Liten (2015) – a book about how children can be vulnerable and how adults are responsible for them.

Children's Book Series – Rut and Knut

(written with Carin Wirsén)

• Rut och Knut lagar mat (Rut and Knut Cook)
• Rut och Knut ställer ut (Rut and Knut Exhibit)
• Rut och Knut gräver ut (Rut and Knut Dig Up)
• Rut och Knut klär ut sig (Rut and Knut Dress Up)
• Rut och Knut börjar träna (Rut and Knut Start Training)
• Rut och Knut och lilla Tjut (Rut and Knut and Little Squeal)
• ABC med Rut och Knut (ABC with Rut and Knut)
• Lilla ABC med Rut och Knut (Little ABC with Rut and Knut)
• Supershow med Rut och Knut (Super Show with Rut and Knut)

Children's Book Series – Vem? (Who?)

• Vems byxor? (Whose Pants?) (2005)
• Vem är arg? (Who is Angry?) (2005)
• Vem bestämmer? (Who Decides?) (2006)
• Vem blöder? (Who is Bleeding?) (2006)
• Vems mormor? (Whose Grandma?) (2007)
• Vem är ensam? (Who is Lonely?) (2007)
• Vem är söt? (Who is Cute?) (2008)
• Vem är borta? (Who is Gone?) (2008)
• Vem är bäst? (Who is Best?) (2009)
• Vem sover inte? (Who Isn't Sleeping?) (2009)
• Vem är död? (Who is Dead?) (2010)
• Vems kompis? (Whose Friend?) (2010)
• Vems bebis? (Whose Baby?) (2011)
• Vem städar inte? (Who Isn't Cleaning?) (2011)
• Vem kommer nu? (Who is Coming Now?) (2012)
• Vem är sjuk? (Who is Sick?) (2012)
• Vem är var? (Who is Where?) (2012)
• Vems hus? (Whose House?) (2015)
• Vem är stor? (Who is Big?) (2016)
• Vems syskon? (Whose Sibling?) (2016)

The "Vem?" books were turned into an animated TV show in 2010. They are often shown on Sveriges Television, which is Sweden's public TV channel.

Children's Book Series – Brokiga (Motley)

• En liten skär och många små brokiga (A Little Pink and Many Small Motley Ones) (with Carin Wirsén)
• Dela! (Share!) (2013)
• Titta! (Look!) (2014)
• Bygga! (Build!) (2014)
• Nej! (No!) (2015)
• Rita! (Draw!) (2015)

Awards Stina Wirsén Has Won

• The Society of Newspaper Design (1997)
• The Society of Scandinavian Illustrators (2001)
• Stockholm City's Culture Prize
• Nordic Illustrators' Prize – Gold, Silver
• Award of Excellence by Society of Newspaper Design
• Elsa Beskow-plaketten (2000) for "Rut och Knut ställer ut”
• Expressens Heffaklump (2007) for "Supershow med Rut och Knut”
• Kolla! Svenska Tecknare's Prize