Alyssa, a 15-year-old from Irvine, CA, is the Grand Prize Winner of the 2008 BKFK Digital Arts Challenge. Her winning idea "The Guardians" depicts a new kind of hero. Uncovering the challenging nature of the color guard, where dancers spin, toss and catch flags, rifles or sabers, Alyssa has conceived an edge-of-your-seat graphic novel that stars five heroines. Naturally, the girls dance on their high school’s “sport of the arts” color guard squad, but their real job is to protect the President of the United States. Lacking superpowers, they instead rely on brains, personality, confidence, and hard work to become better teammates.

The Guardians aim to create genuine role models for “normal girls” to encourage them to get involved in something they love and to work hard on attaining it. Alyssa has won herself $10,000 and a trip to NYC to shadow a professional at Pearson Publishing Company for her idea.