18yo puts in 1000 hours for the 40 Hour Famine

Natalie Jellyman
Natalie Jellyman

World Vision's 40 Hour Famine is coming up, and one Hamilton teenager is doing her bit to help by creating 40 works of art.

The trouble is, Natalie Jellyman is such a perfectionist each item is taking her around 30 hours, meaning she'll have toiled 1000 hours or more to create the pictures being auctioned on Trade Me.

Ms Jellyman is a World Vision Youth Ambassador and one tired teen. She has less than two weeks to finish the portraits and fit them around schoolwork. Sleep last night was a write-off.

"I had an essay to do, and so I did that and then I decided to finish off the drawing and then looked at my clock and saw that it was 6am."

It's her own fault for setting the bar so high.

"The first one I did took about 32 hours I think, and my plan was just to go a bit downhill from there and do smaller ones and not as good ones. But I set myself a standard and had to follow it after that."

Twenty-four drawings later and Ms Jellyman is confident she will get over the line.

"I'm going to have to," she says. "I've learned how to function on little to no sleep and energy drinks, so all good."

Ms Jellyman doesn't even want to be an artist; she actually wants to be a social worker, in keeping with the cause -- child-friendly spaces for Syrian refugees in Jordan.

"So they can start to heal from the trauma of war and remember what it's like to be a child again.

"I couldn't just sit back and not to do anything about it."

Ms Jellyman's portraits are up for auction on Trade Me, where she hopes her effort and World Vision will be rewarded.

"People don't buy what you do; they buy why you do it. And I don't know, I don't even care if they chuck out my art or whatever, as long as they see the heart behind the cause and get behind it."

Ms Jellyman's works will go on display at MOTAT in Auckland during the Famine weekend when, if she's not exhausted enough, Ms Jellyman will be doing the One Weekend One Backpack challenge too.

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