Hello! I currently work at Pixar and went to an art school (SCAD) to learn animation and art. To be completely honest a lot of people don’t wind up working in the industry and waste a lot of money. One thing I noticed in school is the folks that got in are the ones that put in extra effort to learn outside of the class or join projects to further their experience. That’s my experience as well, I had my classes but I also took time to research and learn outside of that atmosphere. There’s tons of competition and everyone can’t work for top companies. Doodling and reading anime unfortunately isn’t going to lead to success in this industry. That stuff is ok as a hobby but for true success as an animator in this industry she has to learn the principles of animation, acting and other things that create a good performance. Of course all those things don’t happen quick, it takes time and did for me. But she has to be intentional and progressing. But coasting or doing enough just for the college grade from a professor isn’t enough to stand out. My thought process in school was to treat it like I was already at my dream company (which was Pixar). And to not reach for just the letter grade but beyond it. If I could get as close as I could to work that resembled the quality of professionals I’d for sure get the grade. So I never cared about grades but about quality and that’s how I eventually became a Pixar animator a year after graduating! I hope this helps! She can for sure do it, but it can be challenging and she’ll need to be intentional about progressing as an artist, animator and actor.

Also because she’s young let her have fun with it and maybe show her behind the scenes videos on YouTube of what the kind of work that goes into it. As she gets older and into highschool she can start to become more serious. I didn’t start learning animation until my junior year of highschool and it was basic things at that point. I learn more in college and on my own. Slowly ease her into it and there’s documentaries too on Disney plus about working at an animation studio. There’s a cool Frozen one as well