Featured in the TED Books Library and inspired by Six Words’ popularity in English classes and art classes alike, SMITH Magazine called for submissions for illustrated Six-Word Memoirs, in which we asked students, whether in grade school or grad school, to create a piece of artwork that enhanced their memoirs. Here’s what the press is saying about Things Don’t Have To Be Complicated.

Brain Pickings: “The micro-memoirs are divided into four sections — grade school, high school, college, and graduate school — and touch, with equal parts wit and disarming candor, on everything from teenagers’ internal clocks to the escapism of Alice in Wonderland.”

San Francisco Chronicle: “Smith’s selections, curated from thousands of submissions, shows how little age has to do with perspective. A 9-year-old girl from Virginia creates a Jackson Pollock-like painting accompanied by the provocative words “Two girls, both of them me.” A common theme, and a heartening one, is self-expression, suggesting that the Six-Word Memoirs project has given students a voice that they might not normally have.”

I Heart Daily: “Our love for Six-Word Memoirs is known. We weren’t sure how they’d take it to the next level, but they just did. Things Don’t Have to be Complicated: Illustrated Six-Word Memoirs by Students Making Sense of the World. We dare you not to be impressed and inspired.”