I used to think that a guy telling me I'm "not like other girls" was a compliment and I've now flipped to seeing that for the back-handed compliment that it is.

I think the Internet gives too much for a young artist to compare themselves too. I'm not sure that "notes" or "likes" are what we should be aspiring to, but the Internet means something different to me because I've always been primarily interested in publishing physical books.

I've always thought about gender, as someone who has been categorically "gender nonconforming" for my entire life, I was forced to think about it, but obviously I became more conscious of it as a social issue as I've gotten older. And as I've met more folks who are genderqueer or trans, it's been really enlightening to hear their stories, and it got me thinking about my own gender history.

I want to be the person whose art is accessible, who someone could look at and say "That's doesn't look so hard, I could do that."

I was really inspired by seeing self published zines and mini-comics: seeing someone else make work that was either really personal, or was just done entirely themselves. It really showed me what was possible for my own art, and I hope that my books will inspire readers in the same way.

I like the Internet as place to get instant gratification: posting a comic online is the quickest way to get attention for your art, but I have been talking to a lot of younger, aspiring cartoonists who very quickly get discouraged if they aren't getting a lot of attention immediately. This can also be aggravated by artists who appear to be really quickly Tumblr-famous, and get lots of notes on their work.

I've always been a draw-er, all throughout elementary school I was the "kid who draws".