Images of children reoccur with striking frequency in early Turkish Republican cartoons. Following the fall of the Ottoman Empire after World War I and the founding of the Turkish Republic in 1923, numerous social and political reforms were enacted throughout the 1920s that enabled the new Republic to cut its ties with the previous regime and modernize the nation. Cartoons illustrating the reforms and the modernization process often turned to the image of the child to convey their messages: using the child as a symbol of positive abstract notions such as the future, potentiality, hope, and metaphoric equations to the young Republic. Additionally, cartoonists relied on the image of the child to communicate more direct and literal messages relating to education and initiation into the modern world through the modern Republic. Drawing from a number of political cartoons published in satirical journals such as Karag?z, Akbaba, and Papaaan this study focuses on two different approaches to the use of the child's image. First, it will reveal how the newly established Republic was viewed as a child. Such a comparison serves both to inject the image and identity of the Republic with the aforementioned notions of hope, potentiality, and brightness while also emphasizing its break with the past. Thus, far from the Ottoman Empire that was known as the "sick man of Europe," the new Republic identifies itself as a youthful, energetic, and dynamic child of the future. Secondly, this investigation will explore how these cartoons used the image of the child in a literal manner when discussing the reforms. The child was seen as a commodity and future agent of the Republic, its mind and heart like a sponge, a lump of clay, or a tabula rasa; thus ready, able, and eager to be indoctrinated into the new ideology during this time of great change. The cross-section of these two analyses will likewise provide valuable insight concerning the creation of the Republican identity around concepts of renewal, reform, and forward motion all exemplified by the image of the young child.