This 13-year-old, originally from Kerala, has minted over 100 NFTs in 3 years

At 10, when many children would try to tell the difference between Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse, US-based Teresa Melvin, who is originally from Kerala, had already figured out the mood, nature and appearance of Ava – her first character in NFT- the series.

Teresa (13) has minted over 100 NFTs and three of her large collections are already sold out. She is now immersed in the creation of a story of a mixture of her two characters Ava and Ramona and calls it AvaRamona. Her parents Nimmy Melvin and Melvin Thambi are professional artists from Kerala. The trio now lives in Houston, Texas, USA. The family moved to the US a decade ago to work.

Three years into her creative journey, Teresa has carved a niche for herself in the American NFT spaces. In 2021, Teresa’s work has been exhibited at Art Basel Miami, NFT NYC, Dubai Exp. This year, Teresa’s work was shown at SuperMint NFY in Los Angeles 2022. She has also exhibited her work at the SCAA Gallery in Rhode Island in March 2022 Teresa has also designed the logo for NFT Kids magazine. She is the youngest ever designer for the magazine.

“AvaRamona is a story where I bring my two creations Ava and Ramona together to start a new narrative. The two characters are sold separately on Foundation and Opensea. Ava loves donuts and she’s a go-getter! I created her when I was 10 because I wanted a character that reflected my personality. Her best friend, Ramona, is a bold, confident and very active person who is crazy about skateboarding. She chose to beat to the beat of her own drum and she was born a year later because I decided to create a character that was similar to how I was at that time, says Teresa to Business Today.

Melvin Thambi, her father who is an NFT creator and founder of the NFT Malayali global community says, “Teresa was inspired to create digital art from the start and took to the iPad Pro as most children would take to crayons and paper.” NFT Malayali has helped several traditional artists onboard the NFT space to collaborate and co-create.

Nimmi Melvin says that the creative environment at home had a lot to do with her artistic pursuits. “Partly because at home we are all artists, she started creating original work so quickly, but it was also her reading habits that inspired her to create characters.”

While she started creating at a time when the crypto market was booming, the downturn in the market has not affected her passion.

“It’s time for all artists to create as the opportunities for experimentation in the NFT space have increased more than ever. It’s a particularly great time for child creators like Teresa to explore digital art because that’s where art is going, ultimately, Thambi said.

For Teresa, despite reaching the 100 NFT milestone, the journey may have just begun. She is currently working on exclusive properties for her characters and working on illustrations for her website. Through this project, she wants to inspire and support other children’s artists.

She works according to a plan. “My schedule is tightly organized with digital tools like Google Calendar and Trello that allow me to divide my time between studying and creating art.”

And when she’s not studying or imprinting NFTs, she’s doing other things. “I love music, writing stories and drawing cartoons. I’m also learning Indian classical music and the violin,” says the quiet teenager.