CENTRAL — Two Central High School graduates are drawing cartoon portraits of their classmates for free after the school's yearbook faced backlash over the use of AI-generated images.

Serenity Stewart and Naiya Kessler, who graduated from Central High School in May, say they want to give their classmates something to hold onto while also recognizing the work students put into making the yearbook.

The two got their 2025-26 yearbooks several days ago. The book's theme was inspired by Cartoon Network and its vibrant animations.

When they looked through the books, they noticed AI-generated imagery on the front page and at least a dozen other pages. The senior superlatives page, which features students with captions like best dressed and class comedians, was among the most notable.

"It was offensive considering there is an entire Talented Arts program they could've used instead if they wanted to make them cartoonish," Stewart said.

Stewart posted about the yearbook on social media, which drew hundreds of comments from students, parents and alumni. The two felt some of those comments went too far.

"We as a student body do not support AI in our yearbook, but this has turned into a big hate fest of 'this is the worst yearbook ever.' That is not at all the message that we were trying to push," Kessler said.

Kessler said she reached out to her followers on Instagram to gauge interest in hand-drawn versions of the senior superlatives. The response was immediate.

"On my Instagram, I was like, 'Hey guys, would ya'll want to see your senior superlatives drawn actually by me?' And everyone was like, ‘Yes, please do that.’ I have tons of students that go to Central on my Instagram," Kessler said.

Once she started working on the project, she realized the scale of it.

"I actually was just trying to work on this by myself because I didn't want to delegate to other people; I felt bad doing that. However, I realized it's kind of a daunting task, so I definitely sympathize with the yearbook and it's a big deal because it takes time," Kessler said.

The portraits will be given out for free. "It makes me feel very proud that we both have created a community of friends that will reach out to us for our work, knowing that we will represent them in the way they were supposed to," Stewart said.

The pair says many Central students would love to help with yearbooks going forward if given the chance.

Central Schools released a statement saying it is aware of the concerns over the generated images and is reviewing the matter and working with those involved.

The yearbook's chief editor, Elaina Newman, responded in a comment under Stewart's original post, saying the AI usage was a product of strict deadlines and last-minute changes.

"Our class put a lot of time and effort into creating this yearbook and trying to make it inclusive and unique," Newman wrote. "We, as a group, understood that not everyone would love the design decisions we made, but that is simply part of creating something, especially for a large group of consumers. Of course, the feedback provided by everyone is much appreciated for the future yearbook classes to take into consideration!"

Taylor Keowen, a digital media and marketing teacher at Central High, also commented that AI was used for the superlative pictures because they did not have pictures of just the winners together. According to Keowen, only two of the featured seniors showed up to the scheduled superlatives picture day.

"So the students in yearbook did the best they could to fit the theme without having actual pictures of the recipients," she said.

Keowen also said the original Cartoon Network characters could not be printed without written permission from the owner of the art.

"Sadly, the original cartoons from Cartoon Network are all trademarked and could not be printed without written permission from the owner of the art," Keowen said. "So overall, to stick with the cartoon theme, they did the best they could with the short timeline they had to change all of the trademarked art."