 Potter 's adolescence was a quiet as her childhood . She grew into a spinsterish young woman whose parents groomed her to be a permanent resident and housekeeper in their home . She wanted to lead a useful life independent of her parents and considered a career in mycology , but the all @-@ male scientific community regarded her as an amateur and she abandoned fungi . She continued to paint and draw , and experienced her first professional artistic success in 1890 when she sold six designs of humanised animals to a greeting card publisher . 
