Magical Photo Series Brings Kids' Imaginary Friends To Life

The series is a testament to "the magical world our kids are living in."

An adorable photo series is bringing kids' imaginary friends to life.

Inspired by her 3-year-old daughter Mia, photographer Anna Angenend teamed up with illustrator and fellow mom Amy Snyder (aka Amy Gets Artsy) to create a series called "My Monster & Me." The photos show kids along with the magical friends (or in some cases "monsters") from their imaginations.

"One morning several months ago, Mia said to me, 'My yellow monster is kind of scary,'" Angenend told The Huffington Post. "Later in the day she told me, 'He's not so scary, he just needs a friend!'" That evening when she was getting ready for bed, she exclaimed, 'My yellow monster doesn't want to brush his teeth, he loves his cavities!'"

"Zasby the yellow monster can look a little smelly and scary at first. Even though he's a little shy from the beginning, he's always excited to make new friends. He'll explore your garbage can and jump in mud puddles with you, but he'll never venture near soap and water." -- Anna Angenend
"Zasby the yellow monster can look a little smelly and scary at first. Even though he's a little shy from the beginning, he's always excited to make new friends. He'll explore your garbage can and jump in mud puddles with you, but he'll never venture near soap and water." -- Anna Angenend

"This was the first time she had talked about an imaginary friend, or in her case, a monster," Angenend added. "She hasn't talked about the yellow monster much since that day, but it was so cute it gave me the idea of creating an image and adding her monster to it. At three years old, her imagination and creative play has really soared, and I wanted a new photo series to capture this part of her childhood."

The mom attempted to doodle her daughter's yellow monster friend, but, dissatisfied with the result, she asked Snyder to help with the project. By observing their kids' playtime together, the two moms brainstormed ideas for the series.

Angenend photographed Mia, two of Snyder's children and one of the kids' playdate friends, Marie Elise. Then, Snyder illustrated the monsters and emailed the scanned drawings to the photographer, who used "Photoshop fairy dust" to create the final images.

"We hope that people will fall in love with the characters as much as the images, and reach out to us to capture their own children and their imaginary friends, or whimsical worlds," Angenend told HuffPost, adding, "We would love for the series to be a reminder of the magical world our kids are living in, and that their everyday activities may be so much more to them then what we see."

Keep scrolling and visit Angenend's Facebook page to see the whimsical photo series, along with the artist's captions and quotes from the kids depicted.

1
Wendolyn
"She is waiting for me to finish drawing her picture so she can see it." -Irelyn, Age 6

Wendolyn is trendy. She'll never be caught with a selfie stick, but she commissions artist to paint her. She's an avid drinker of Kombucha.
2
Max
"I don't like to get soap in my eyes when I wash my hair, but my monster makes it fun." -- Mia, Age 3

Maximus never runs out of energy, and is always on the lookout for fun, even at the cost of leaving mass destruction in his path. We've lost count of the times he's cannonballed into the tub and flooded the bathroom floor. Sometimes he forgets how big boned he is.
3
Melvin
"I want to invite the moon to our party." -- Mia, Age 2, New Year's Eve 2014

When Melvin made it to Earth, he wanted to show his appreciation to the Moon for helping him find his way, so he was more than happy to assist Mia in inviting the Moon to her New Year's Eve party.
4
Mini Monsters
Evangeline, Age 18 months.

What started as shading herself from the sun turned into an exciting day of play for some curious critters in the backyard. They were amazed at the size of the humongous monster that could pick up their home with ease. The monster had lots of squishy landings for sliding and jumping and quickly became their playground.
5
Hot Mess Sheila
"Ow! Be careful, that hurts!" -Our Girls, Every Time We Brush Their Hair

When Sheila's peers at beauty school didn't agree with her over-the-top flashy fashion and edgy hairdos, she dropped out and became the number one on-call beauty consultant for toddler and stuffed pet fashion emergencies. She's just a phone call away at 1-800-HOT-MESS.
6
Dolores
"The mama dragon is looking to see what I did to her eggs. I helped the baby dragon hatch, because babies are cute and I wanted to play with it." -- Irelyn, Age 6

Dolores is an anxious first-time mom, always checking on her eggs and her newly hatched baby. But once the rest of the eggs hatch, she'll be a seasoned pro. She won't even blink if one of the babies rolls out of the nest or accidentally burps up a fireball on their sibling.
7
Larry
"He popped my balloons!" -- Marie Elise, Age 2

Larry has a difficult time getting close to people, so he was really excited about his playdate. He wore his best pot and his favorite hat, and picked up a bouquet of balloons and a package of bandaids just in case. Unfortunately, things didn't go quite as he had hoped.
8
Zasby
"My yellow monster doesn't want to brush his teeth, because he LOVES his cavities." -- Mia, Age 3

Zasby can look a little smelly and scary at first. Even though he's a little shy from the beginning, he's always excited to make new friends. He'll explore your garbage can and jump in mud puddles with you, but he'll never venture near soap and water.

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