Art makes this Chesco 15-year-old happy. So she launched a nonprofit to teach younger kids.

Something about the phrase “Do what makes you happy” struck Faridah Ismaila. It became the title of, and inspiration behind, one of her art pieces. It’s printed onto the back of her T-shirt. It’s something the 15-year-old artist lives her life by.

“When I do art, it’s because it makes me happy, and when I can give my art to other people or spread the joy of art, it’s making them happy,” she said.

Following that guiding light of happiness, Ismaila, a digital artist and a sophomore at Great Valley High School, recently launched her nonprofit, A Paint-full of Promise, which offers free monthly art classes for kids in her school district in kindergarten through grade six.

Working with educators in the district, Ismaila devises themed art projects and provides supplies and classroom time to teach young artists how to express themselves. The first club is slated for mid-January, with a winter wonderland theme. Children will make snowflakes and paint winter-themed coasters.

Ismaila has been recognized for her art nationally: She was the state winner and a national finalist in the 2022 Doodle for Google competition, where young artists compete for their work to be featured as the Google homepage design. That recognition helped give her the confidence to pursue big dreams, like her nonprofit and club.

“It makes me feel I can still do this. Because sometimes I’ll doubt myself. … I can’t be having all these big dreams,” she said. “But if people want to vote for me and I am recognized nationally, I feel on top of the world. I can do anything.”

The first brushes of the nonprofit — which she hopes one day will grow to multiple sessions a month — started years ago, when Ismaila began making YouTube videos, teaching the fundamentals of art. She showed viewers how to make a gradient, how to depict a sunrise. She circulated the videos around her Malvern neighborhood, and she thought: Why not hold a class for younger kids?

Over a summer, in her garage, she set up two art projects — painting and colored pencils — and led about eight kids through a lesson. She called it Faridah’s Art Crafty Corner.

Holding the class made her happy. So she did it again, but bigger, turning it into a summer camp, under the new name: A Paint-full of Promise.

“Then I decided, why not actually make this a club, so not only my community can get this, my entire district can?” she said.

And now, the teenager has a nonprofit under her belt. She officially launched the organization last month at an event in Malvern, where she raised money by auctioning off prints of her work and selling T-shirts with her designs.

Anne Dale, an art teacher at Great Valley High School who is an adviser for the club, said she was impressed with Ismaila’s ability to get other high school students involved in running the club.

“A lot of students have big ideas for clubs, but there’s not always follow-through. With her, it’s definitely different, and I knew that when she approached me with it,” Dale said.

Giving kids the tools and opportunity to create artwork was essential to Ismaila, who gravitates to art to process her emotions.

“It’s just the best thing ever,” she said. “Once you start doing art as a kid, it’s just a great way to get your feelings out there and express yourself, even if you can’t use words to describe it.”

One of her pieces, Beauty Within, depicts a skeletal hand holding a white mask, a tear running down its cheek. Behind the mask, flowers bloom. It came from a feeling of constantly analyzing herself, the feeling that what you show people is not necessarily what’s on the inside.

Another piece, made when she was “seriously sleep-deprived,” shows a face with an assortment of pixels, pizza, stick figures, and paint pouring out.

A piece she is working on now shows herself, in vibrant colors, pointing to her reflection. She wanted to capture the feeling of two versions of the self — one confident, the other fragile.

Sometimes, her mother Nofisat Ismaila said, her parents feel as if they are holding her back.

“I don’t know how I’m gonna keep keeping up with this girl, because she’s just taking us to places, keeping us busy, keeping us on our toes,” she said. “She’s turning out to be a really young, determined adult.”

But to Faridah Ismaila, it’s about finding happiness, and giving it to others, too.

“I really hope the kids just do what makes them happy. … It’s also just not being afraid to get out there, because when I was a kid-kid, I wasn’t afraid of anything,” she said. “I think middle school really kicks some kids in the butt, and getting up out of that — at least for me, art was a way to do that. I just want to give that to kids.”

This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer’s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com/donate. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org/supporters.