I, Jasmine Rosa Emilia Hintsala, commonly known as Jasu, was born in 1993, on the 16th of March, in a tiny village in Finland called Oulainen. My family consists of 13 individuals: Mom, dad, five boys, and six girls. I grew up surrounded by people; there were many kids in my neighborhood, and I had plenty of cousins and other relatives whom I often saw. Even so, ever since I was a little kid, I always enjoyed playing alone. I used to (and still would) go explore the unknown environment on my own. Many times I'd rather leave the crowd of people to have my little adventures in solitude.

The forest was my favorite place: I would go there and spend hours imagining that I was the fastest horse in the whole entire universe. There were hunters constantly after me, trying to catch and imprison me, but I was the only horse they couldn't catch. Then, on other occasions, I turned into a tiger: I would be the most skilled hunter that had ever existed. The human-hunters never managed to track me but instead, I'd sneak behind them to give them the last surprise of their lives. Every time I was swimming, I turned into a dolphin or a seal, and when I was around 4 years old, I would take off all my clothes every day exactly at 6 pm because, naturally, animals didn't have clothes. Then I'd run like a dog all around the house and the yard, not using my hands at all when it was time to eat and drink. I remember my dad once asking me what I was going to become when I'd grow up. Without hesitation, I blurted out, “A tiger!” Dad laughed and asked me, “What do tigers do?” To this too, I had a clear answer: “They eat small children and the plump.”

Obviously, I was very passionate about animals, and when around the age of 7, my dad bought a VHS player, I would sit for hours watching different nature documentaries over and over again. My passion for animals and nature was always intertwined with my passion for drawing. And so, when I grabbed a pen, the papers would be filled with different animals. As my mom saw me watching a nature documentary I hadn't seen before, she'd often say something like this: “And now she's going to spend the next two weeks drawing those dolphins,” and that was exactly what happened. Seeing the animals on the screen always thrilled me to draw them. And so, I kept drawing, drawing, and drawing.

I distinctly recall a particular moment from when I had just started elementary school. I hadn't attended daycare or preschool, so going to elementary school at the age of seven marked the first time in my life that I'd spend my days away from home. One morning, I arrived at school very early, and to my surprise, one of my future best friends had done the same. The teacher, noticing our early arrival, invited us inside and provided us with paper, pencils, and crayons, encouraging us to draw.

Happily, I began drawing, creating a sizable grass field divided in two by a small stream on the left side of the paper. I then added horses grazing on the field. As I became completely immersed in my drawing, I suddenly heard a gasp from the girl sitting next to me: “Woaaah! That's so beautiful! You can draw sooo well! Can I have that drawing?” I still remember the feeling of surprise and confusion that her reaction caused me. I had always loved drawing, but it had never occurred to me that I was somehow “good at it.” I couldn't recall anyone at home commenting on my drawings, whether to praise or critique. I had simply been drawing because it was so much fun.

My mom used to hide all the drawing paper from me because I had a tendency to use up a huge pile of paper in just a couple of hours. This is why I started to draw on used envelopes and on the backs of paid bills that I found in the kitchen garbage bin. In the third grade, I got a new elementary school teacher, and for the next four years, we would occasionally argue about my drawing style. I had a wild imagination and always paid attention to details.

When given the task to draw “my day in a forest,” most of my classmates would create something that included themselves, a few trees, and perhaps a small additional element. In contrast, I would draw myself (probably riding some animal), various types of trees, bushes with differently colored berries, pine cones scattered on the ground, an anthill, and mushrooms. I would include tree stumps, stones of different sizes, some with moss and others with smiling faces. And of course, there were animals: a bear lurking behind one of the trees, a moose, a reindeer, a stag with enormous antlers, a hedgehog having a dinner with frogs beneath big rhubarb leaves. There were also one or two rabbits, a fox chasing a mouse, a snake, some lizards gathered together, a woodpecker diligently pecking a tree, squirrels annoyed by the noise, birds soaring across the sky, some perched on tree branches, an owl peeking from a hole in a tree, the sun and clouds in the sky, and perhaps even some rainy clouds and a rainbow. Wolves, lynx, and a weasel found their places in my drawing as well. Every animal that came to mind had to fit into the scene.

Looking back on those years, it's not surprising that my teacher occasionally lost his temper. However, I was always very fast at drawing, and even with all those details, I rarely left any works unfinished due to running out of time. Nevertheless, there were times when the teacher strictly forbade me from including so many details, as I seemed capable of continuing endlessly. Whenever he did this, I sought revenge by hastily drawing something that was far below my skill level. At home, I would tape several pieces of paper together to create one enormous canvas, and then I would begin drawing detail after detail as ideas continued to pop into my mind.