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Researchers have pinpointed the reason why creative people often come from broken homes

There's a long list of creative geniuses who had hard childhoods.

A woman painting.

Why do some people feel they are devoid of creativity, while others are bursting at the seams? A new study published by The Conversation has found that creativity is closely related to how people were raised and that there are two wildly different upbringings that produce creative adults.

The first type of creative person is raised in stable circumstances and has support from their parents to pursue their craft. They are given lessons and have ample resources to learn more about what they love. The other type of creative person is someone who endured trauma at a very young age and developed a deep inner world to help them combat persistent anxiety.

Does trauma result in creativity?

It makes sense that many of the creative giants of our time, Vincent van Gogh, Charles Dickens, John Lennon, Oprah Winfrey, Beethoven, Michael Jackson, and Frida Kahlo, all endured difficult childhoods, and it may be the catalyst for their incredible creativity. In Donald Winnicott’s 1971 bookPlay and Reality, the famed psychoanalyst notes that when children are young and have separation anxiety from their parents, they cling to “transitional objects” and specific behaviors. When the absence is prolonged and difficult, the behaviors transform into creativity.

“Some academics have proposed a model to explain this phenomenon,” Carlo Valerio Bellieni, Professor of Pediatrics, Università di Siena, writes at The Conversation. “Up to a certain level of separation or neglect from parents, the capacity to develop talents grows, but beyond a certain limit this decreases and alterations in social behaviour become more acute.”

Bellieni says that when young people experience trauma, it causes them to create a “parallel mental world” to shield themselves from the outside world. “The conclusion is that, paradoxically, children raised in an unfavourable environment can develop their own inner creative world to survive the stress, but in several cases, at the cost of producing mental health disorders,” Bellieni writes.

imagination, childhood trauma, creativity, airplanes, kid playing, flight, luggageA child pretending to be a pilot.via Canva/Photos

How does childhood adversity result in creativity?

To put it simply, when young children experience trauma, they develop a more robust imagination than those who do not, which gives them a fertile ground for the creative process.

Bellieni’s findings are echoed in a 2018 study by California State University, Northridge that analyzed 234 professional performers. The study found that the performers experienced a higher rate of childhood trauma and neglect than those who were not in the performing arts. The performers who experienced adverse childhood experiences were found to be more absorbed by the creative process and more receptive to art.

danging, performers, mental health, trauma, creativity, woman dancing, performing artsA woman dancing.via Canva/Photos

"Lastly, [this] group identified greater appreciation for the transformational quality of creativity, in particular, how the creative process enabled a deeper engagement with the self and world. They recognised that it operated as a powerful force in their life," the researchers wrote, "So many participants in our sample have experienced poly-traumatization and yet they also embrace their passion for performance and creativity. They are embracing ways to express all that is human."

Ultimately, creativity can stem from two very different places: support or neglect. But whether it is shaped by love or loss, creativity helps propel our world forward and is a wonderful gift that helps us all better connect to the world around us. Let’s hope that as these wounded creatives share their gifts, they also find healing along the way.

At a time when we could all use an uplift, a story of unexpected friendship and honest-to-goodness magic is warming people's hearts. And it's one of those stories that just gets better and better.

A woman named Kelly Victoria shared the story on Twitter. "At the beginning of the pandemic I went through some painful personal stuff," she wrote, "and would often go out at night for long walks because no one was around and I couldn't sleep anyway. One night I was walking down my street and noticed that someone had set up a few little objects in a tree planter, and upon closer inspection, I realized it was a fairy garden with a little note about the 4-year-old girl who felt lonely in quarantine and wanted to spread some cheer."

The fairy garden was set up by a tree, and a note on the tree read:

"Our 4 year old made this to brighten your day

Please add to the magic, but don't take away

These days can be hard, but we're in this together

So enjoy our fairy garden and some nicer weather."

The next day, Kelly wrote a note to the little girl, pretending to be a fairy named Sapphire that "had come to live in the tree because she had set it up so nicely." She left the note on the tree during her walk that night.

In her note, Sapphire said she would leave some lucky dice for the girl if she did these things:


- Say 5 nice things to people you love

- Do 3 helpful things for someone in need

- Promise to always be kind and brave, and to show love to those in need.

- Draw a picture of your favorite animal so I can show the other fairies!

Kelly wasn't sure if she'd even see it, but the next night, she found a note from the girl, Eliana, telling her how she had completed the requests. She included two drawings of "piggies," her favorite animal. Kelly says she "immediately burst into tears."

She did leave a bunch of resin die that she had made with a note for Eliana (and one for her parents with her real name and phone number, so they'd know she wasn't some kind of creeper).

And the next night, there was another note from Eliana, thanking Sapphire for the die and for the gnome magnets she had left. She explained what she was doing with the die, and then wrote, "Please stay safe from the sickness. I love you."

She also got a note from Eliana's parents, thanking her for being "a much needed bright spot in our quarantine season" and explaining that they'd been playing a modified version of D & D (Dungeons & Dragons) with Elaina, so the die were a perfect gift.

And so began a nine-month long magical friendship. "Doing this every night gave me purpose in a horribly painful and lonely time," wrote Kelly. "I looked forward to my days again and I started ordering art supplies and little trinkets to leave her."

Kelly texted with Elaina's mom to get personalized ideas for gifts. She even sent a photo of herself dressed as an elf, photoshopped to look like she was tiny.

Elaina responded by asking totally 4-year-old questions, like "What do you and you friends feel like? I mean like your skin feeling?" and sharing some totally 4-year-old artwork. Adorable.

Then came some news. Eliana's family was moving to a new house and would have to leave the fairy garden behind. Elaina was having a tough time with the idea of moving, so Sapphire wrote her a long note. "Getting to know you has made me less afraid of humans," she said. She told Eliana that she would be having to leave the tree soon so they could go through the moving transition together.

Eliana's mom said it helped her so much and they wanted to try to get together in person before they moved.

That's tricky in a pandemic, of course. And also tricky when you're supposed to be a teeny-tiny fairy, not a full-grown person. So Sapphire told Eliana that when fairies move houses, they grow to the size of humans for just one day to move all of their belongings. Brilliant.

She said she had one more gift, and that she hoped Eliana wouldn't catch her leaving it. But, of course, she did.

They got to sit and talk for about an hour, and Eliana asked "a million questions about what life is like as a fairy."

"It was incredible and one of the most important and impactful afternoons of my life thus far," wrote Kelly. "I hope one day when she's older she can understand that I truly needed her as much as she needed me these past few months."

Eliana wrote Sapphire a story in the form of a tiny book, and the two plan to keep in touch from time to time.

"She's changed me forever," Kelly wrote, "and the things her mom has said about how her self-confidence, her kindness towards others and her creativity have skyrocketed since meeting me make me feel like I made an impact too."

Childhood is naturally magical in many ways, but to have a person help spur on a child's imagination and creativity, especially at a time when we all need a break from reality, is truly heartwarming to see. This is magic as it should be. What a beautiful gift these two have given each other—and to the rest of us as well.