Artist and actress Jenna Rose Simon ’11 was featured in the June edition of Mode ELLE magazine and in a July 19 blog post by Darkness to Light for her artwork that depicts emotional and physical trauma inflicted by others.

Simon, who earned a bachelor’s degree at Arcadia in Psychology, has been drawing since she was a young girl, but she never thought of it as influential until her work was appropriated on social media. The sketch, which depicted the impact that verbal abuse has on children, was shared over 400,000 times on Facebook without an attribution to Simon.

“I hadn’t really planned for the entire world to see it, so I had to adjust to that pretty quickly,” Simon said. “I’ve developed my skill over the last year, mostly with practice through the volume of work I’ve been producing. I’ve also evolved from drawing basic portraits…to drawing concepts and feelings that seem to really resonate with others. I feel I’m now a person with a message to share.”

Now, Simon has started the social media campaign, #iamempoweredbecause, which uses portrait sketches to share stories of empowerment, which Simon hopes will inspire others to overcome their personal challenges.

“I started it because I want to help children, and I know that they look up to these celebrities and take into account what they say and do,” Simon said. “I can use my art to tell their stories, instead of just telling my own, and in doing so, we can inspire far more kids and teens then I could on my own alone.”

In addition to being an artist, Simon is an actress. She will be in the upcoming film, The Art of Confession, which will premiere at the Action On Film Festival in September in Monrovia, Calif.