Professional illustrator Eleanor Dobbs believes zine making offers people of all ages a simple but powerful way to express themselves, share ideas and build connections through creativity. She said the simple format transformed an ordinary piece of paper into something participants naturally wanted to share. “A zine is a small folded and cheaply reproduced personal piece of writing and image making,” Ms Dobbs said. “It's not edited by anybody and that's the beauty of it, it's really personal and really direct,” she said. She said she remained committed to traditional illustration techniques rather than digital methods because of the value of hands-on creativity.