Personal life īell is married to children's author Tom Angleberger. The title of the graphic novel comes from the idea that Cece feels powerful like a superhero with the assistance of her Phonic Ear, the hearing aid she uses in order to hear her teachers at school. She also shows and talks about how being deaf isn't something negative. When she was growing up, she felt like she was the only 'rabbit' whose ears didn't work, in doing so she shows being deaf as a power. The project eventually evolved into graphic novel where children who were deaf could see themselves positively represented in a book.īell uses the imagery of everyone illustrated as rabbits as a visual metaphor. She wanted there to be a handbook for hearing people so they knew how to understand and communicate with deaf people without being disrespectful. She became a freelance commercial artist, illustrator, and designer for an array of projects before beginning her career as a full-time author-illustrator.Įl Deafo is based on Bell's own childhood. As a result, she had to get used to using bulky and prominent hearing devices around her school-age peers.īell attended the Paier College of Art as an art major and went on to get a graduate degree in illustration and design at Kent State University in 1991. Most well known for her graphic novel El Deafo, Bell's work has appeared in The Atlantic, Vegetarian Times, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, Working Woman, Esquire and many other publications.īell suffered hearing loss as a child due to a case of meningitis. Cecelia Carolina Bell (born December 26, 1970, in Richmond, Virginia) is an American author, cartoonist, and illustrator.

Cece el deafo