I am an author-illustrator whose work blends whimsical storytelling with explorations of disability, difference, and belonging. Drawing from my lived experience with chronic illness and disability, I create stories that center disabled characters not as metaphors or problems to be solved, but as vibrant protagonists with agency, humor, and imagination.

My characters adapt, pursue their dreams, and forge their own paths. In Rollin’ Rosco, a disabled shelter dog who uses wheels for his hind legs discovers that his worth isn't determined by winning a race, while Tilly’s Wish to Fly follows a young toucan with nerve damage in one wing who invents her own way to take to the sky. I hope my stories invite young readers to encounter disability through possibility, adventure, warmth, and joy.

Artist Bio

Rhea Dias is a children’s author and illustrator, as well as a researcher and curator whose practice is deeply informed by research into disability representation in children’s visual culture. She is currently pursuing her MFA at Tufts University, where she was selected as one of four Tisch Library Graduate Fellows. As part of her fellowship, she researched and curated Through the Looking-Glass World: Visualizing Non-Normative Bodies in Children’s Illustration from Tenniel to Today, an exhibition examining representations of disability and non-normative bodies in children’s illustration. The research and creative development of her picture book Rollin’ Rosco has received support from the Tufts Graduate Student Research Competition and Montague Travel Grant. Her work has been exhibited in New York and Boston, including at FLOUHAUS Gallery, and her illustrations have appeared in SFGATE and The Daily Californian.