A TALENTED artist who is using her creativity to aid her on-going recovery from an eating disorder, joined Tavistock’s first ever youth market.
Ella Collins, 19, won a prize for business innovation at the Butcher’s Hall market in March which qualified her for a national competition to find the best young market trader.
She will be showing off her animal-inspired pictures at a youth market in St Nicholas in Bristol in June to see if she can reach the national final.
The competition is run by the National Market Traders Federation to give young entrepreneurs real-life experience of selling face-to-face with the public in a safe space. The competition encourages and supports youngsters in marketing their wares through presentation on their stalls and rewards creativity and originality.
A fellow youth trader at Tavistock’s Youth Market won the most best dressed stall with her knitted handbags, created even though she has little vision.
Ella, of Ivybridge, runs Ellabees Illustrations and is supported by her mother Lisa Geldard who prints Ella’s creations on t-shirts, or mugs and helps on the markets.
Ella said: “I’ve really grown in confidence since I’ve been on the markets and my aim is to reach the final in Stratford on Avon in August. It helps me on my ongoing recovery from my eating disorder when I was in hospital three times for support.
“I have to deal with the public and tell them all about my pictures, so I have to be outgoing. I’m getting better at that all the time. They support you at the youth markets, so you learn the selling and marketing skills.”
Ella was too weak for a while to ride her horse Winnie or walk pet Border Terrier Blagger. So, she developed her drawing skills with her pets as subjects which also gave her self-belief and aided her recovery.
