Notes on Becoming (Real)

And What We Can Learn from The Velveteen Rabbit

Japanese illustrator Komako Sakai’s adaptation of The Velveteen Rabbit

In the children’s book The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams, the Skin Horse tells the Rabbit that Real is not about how you are made. It’s something that happens when you are lived with, loved, and worn down over time. To be Real is not to be flawless, but to endure friction, to s…