Contemporary Authors

• Am I there Yet? The Loop-de-Loop, Zigzagging Journey to Adulthood Clarkson Potter (New York, NY), 2018

1. Am I there yet? : the loop-de-loop, zigzagging journey to adulthood LCCN 2017034814 Type of material Book Personal name Andrew, Mari, author, artist. Main title Am I there yet? : the loop-de-loop, zigzagging journey to adulthood / by Mari Andrew. Edition First edition. Published/Produced New York : Clarkson Potter/Publishers, [2018] Description 189 pages : color illustrations ; 23 cm ISBN 9781524761431 (hardback) CALL NUMBER NC1429.A6325 A2 2018 Copy 1 Request in Jefferson or Adams Building Reading Rooms

• NPR - https://www.npr.org/2018/03/24/596093789/on-the-rocky-road-to-adulthood-illustrator-asks-am-i-there-yet

  AUTHOR INTERVIEWS
  On The Rocky Road To Adulthood, Illustrator Asks 'Am I There Yet?'
  6:06
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  TRANSCRIPT
  March 24, 20187:27 AM ET
  Heard on Weekend Edition Saturday
  Scott Simon
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  Am I There Yet?
  Am I There Yet?
  The Loop-de-Loop, Zigzagging Journey to Adulthood

  by Mari Andrew

  Hardcover, 192 pages purchase

  Mari Andrew is the dark-haired woman in black glasses, both in real life and in the cartoons she draws for her Instagram account. She illustrates what she learns as she goes along — about loss, love and trying to grow up by the time you're 30 and accused of being an adult.

  In Am I There Yet?: The Loop-De-Loop, Zigzagging Journey To Adulthood, Andrew has produced a book of cartoons, short essays, and pointed observations drawn — in all ways — from a couple of difficult years.

  "During a tough break-up, I also experienced the loss of my father and found myself at sort of a rock-bottom place, which is a place where you often begin to think about what you really want in life," Andrew says. "And at the same time, I realized that I was the only person who was in charge of my happiness. And so I went on a crusade to make myself happy, and one of the things that I did everyday was do a little watercolor drawing."

  Interview Highlights
  On what her Washington, D.C. apartment catching fire taught her to appreciate

  That was mundanity and the beautiful feeling of being at home somewhere. I've wandered around a lot in my life. I grew up in Seattle, went to school in Chicago, moved to South America right after college, lived in Baltimore as well. Never thought that I would find home anywhere, and I didn't really like living in D.C. because it was a time of life that's kind of hard for people — mid-20s. I didn't have a straight-arrow career path, didn't have the love of my life, didn't have quite everything that I wanted. But I had a really beautiful set of neighbors, and I had a beautiful daily routine. And after the trauma of being in a fire, I grew to really treasure those daily experiences.

  Andrew says her experiences have taught her to treasure daily moments.
  Mari Andrew
  On if she's discovered a quick route through grief

  When I was first experiencing it, this little rhyme from pre-school kept coming into my head: "You can't go under it, you can't go over it, you have to go through it." And I knew that time was the only thing that was going to carry me through, and how I was going to fill that time would have a lot to do with what it looked like on the other side. So keeping myself happy and social and having moments of my day to both reflect and find some happiness for myself were key to getting through those many, many stages, which continue to unfold.

  "I like 'She enjoyed herself.' That's what I'm aiming for," Andrew says.
  Mari Andrew
  On what she wishes she'd known sooner about romance

  Dating has been such a beautiful experience for me. I don't think anyone, as a child, thinks, "Oh, when I grow up, I want to not really know what I want to do in life, or not find the love of my life in my 20s." But getting to explore different parts of myself through living different places, trying different careers, and also getting to know different people romantically, has been such a wonderful way to get to know myself better, get to know the world better, get to have more insights into the world. And I think that I would just give myself permission to keep exploring and not feel like I had to have it figured out so young.

  Samantha Balaban and Barrie Hardymon produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Sydnee Monday adapted it for the Web.

• Mari Andrew - https://www.bymariandrew.com/about

  Hello!
  My name is Mari (rhymes with starry) and I'm a writer and illustrator and aspiring flamenco enthusiast, living in New York.

  ​

  I’ve been a writer forever, but I became an illustrator when I was going through a tough time two years ago and needed a new fun form of self-expression. I tried guitar, salsa, surfing, and instructional cooking videos, but drawing is the hobby that really stuck.

  ​

  I decided to make one drawing a day for a year and put up my doodles on Instagram to keep myself accountable. First my mom followed, then my friends followed, then strangers started following, which was super exciting and weird and wonderful--so I'm going longer than a year. If you are one of the strangers, THANK YOU for building me a creative home. Your encouragement means the world to me.

  You can read more about my journey here. I also like this interview. For more on my creative process and to witness my love for overalls first-hand, take my online Skillshare class.
  I get a lot of creative inspiration from heartbreak, and this year I got to work on a breakup app with real-life goddess Zoë Foster Blake.

  Download it immediately if your heart is hurting!

  I value optimism, resilience, vulnerability, and joie de vivre. I do not value "having chill." I'm originally from Seattle, my favorite city is Rio de Janeiro, and I identify strongly with zebras. They always look like they're doing their own thing and having a great time.

  ​

  Representation by the fabulous Cindy Uh at Thompson Literary Agency.

  My new book came out in March 2018!

• Refinery 29 - https://www.refinery29.com/mari-andrew-am-i-there-yet-book-interview

  It's Okay To Still Be Figuring Out Work & Life
  JUDITH OHIKUARE
  APRIL 12, 2018, 12:00 PM

  SEE ALL SLIDES
  BEGIN SLIDESHOW

  Mari Andrew's new book opens with a wry dedication to her mother: a drawing of a heart with the message "To my mom," and a scribbled addendum: "I'm sorry it's not a grandchild."
  If you aren't sure what to expect from Am I There Yet? The Loop-de-Loop, Zigzagging Journey to Adulthood, Andrew's note sets the tone. Equal parts memoir and illustrated guidebook, it chronicles Andrew's journey through adulthood as she navigates love and heartbreak, professional indecision and success, and personal struggles — some of which have led her to her current line of work as an illustrator.
  Like many working people today, Andrew has worked in several different jobs, including at a law firm in New York City where "the days felt meaningless and unending" after only a few weeks. After a terrible breakup and the death of her father in 2015, she committed to drawing (a long-time passion) and publishing at least one doodle a day as an outlet. In short order, her illustrations and humorous, insightful commentary gained an enthusiastic Instagram following (@bymariandrew) of more than 781,000 people.
  Andrew tells Refinery29 what she has learned about the nature of work, how she had redefined success on her own terms, and how to come out on top when life throws curveballs your way.

• Elle - https://www.elle.com/culture/books/a19581806/mari-andrew-debut-book-illustrations-instagram/

  Instagram Artist Mari Andrew's Debut Book Is All About Surviving Your 20s

  BY MADISON FELLER
  MAR 27, 2018
  CLÉMENCE POLÈS
  Mari Andrew's Instagram looks much different than most. Instead of a curated selection of picture-perfect brunches and well-angled selfies, Andrew's feed is full of her hand-drawn illustrations, personal musings on life and love that have now ushered in almost 800,000 followers. The illustrations are small enough to fit into a square Instagram box but are often packed with truths about dating, self-care, careers, and all the secret thoughts you never say out loud.

  And now, Andrew, 31, has decided to take her never-before-seen illustrations—and a set of short essays—and publish a debut book titled, Am I There Yet?: The Loop-de-loop, Zigzagging Journey to Adulthood. She describes it as a collection of what she's learned through "heartbreak, love, loss, rejection, career confusion, adventures, and the gnawing question in the back of my mind: Where exactly am I going, or am I already there?" Though she started her Instagram two and half years ago, she actually began writing the book five years before that.

  “I always wanted to write a book, and then when I was going through a really dark period of life, I decided it’s now or never," she recently told ELLE.com. Ahead, she discusses how illness changed her art, why she's happier now than she ever was in her 20s, and why she thinks having chill is total bullshit.

  You began writing this book seven years ago. How did it all start?
  I always enjoyed writing personal essays, and I wrote them on my blog. I wrote the first one when I was 24. It’s called “Seasons"; it’s the first essay in the book, and it was about when I was 24 and working at a law firm. It was one of those times in your early 20s where you’re just like, “Oh my gosh, am I going to be stuck at this thing forever?” And it wasn’t just a bad office job. I didn’t want to be living in Chicago. I didn’t want to be dating the person I was dating. I didn’t want to have the life I was kind of setting myself up for. And I felt completely stuck because I thought you had to know what you wanted to do for the rest of your life when you’re 24. The stories that follow are sort of my path into what I really did want to be doing and how I got there. It was definitely not a straight arrow shot but a very twisty-turny path to get there.

  READ
  mari andrew
  Am I There Yet?: The Loop-de-loop, Zigzagging Journey to Adulthood is available March 27.
  CLARKSON POTTER
  You wrote on Instagram that your illustration style changes in the book from “before you were sick to after.” What do you mean by that?
  A lot of the essays were written in my mid 20s, but a lot of the illustrations were done when I was 29, 30. And so the essays were sort of a time capsule for my 20s, when I was battling some really intense health issues. You can actually see, there’s a specific illustration, where my hands are clearly shaky. It’s an actual moment in time where I felt my body beginning to betray me, and I didn’t know what was going on. I couldn't hold a pen very well. So this whole illustration looks kind of different; it’s sort of messy. And then the ones that follow, I don’t know if it will be clear to anyone else, obviously it’s so subtle, but I think that not being able to draw for about three months just made me see things a little differently. I use a lot more color in the new [illustrations], and I draw people a little differently.

  You went through something so difficult, while creating a book about going through difficult things.
  Right! It was like, “Here’s one more.”

  View image on Twitter
  View image on Twitter

  Mari Andrew
  @bymariandrew
  With gratitude, I view this page from my book as a time capsule: In the top right, you can see my handwriting becoming shaky; that's the exact moment when Guillain-Barré Syndrome began attacking the nerves in my hands, which would become almost paralyzed by the end of that day.

  8:23 AM - Mar 24, 2018
  169
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  Did you turn to your own book to heal? How did you get through that time?
  I had already been through quite a lot in life. The book begins with an apartment fire that I survived and was very traumatic. And then going through the loss of my father, a really intense break up, feelings of depression, loneliness, rejection, all of that. I think I had already developed a lot of resilience from the things that had already happened to me and some tools for getting through them. The tools I developed to get through emotional difficulty were writing and drawing and exercising and playing instruments and socializing, and when I was sick, I couldn’t do any of that because I was paralyzed. So I had to find a new set of ways to get through what I was going through, and a lot of that was completely mental. I really had no blueprint for that, and I think in a lot of ways, I’m still getting through it. But it did give me so much more empathy for people struggling with any kind of disability or illness, and I think that it really transformed my art. My greatest hope is that my art has become more healing because of what I went through, and I’m capable of that level of empathy that was totally lost on me before.

  MARI ANDREW
  Going back to your essays, were your 20s an immense growth period for you?
  Oh, totally. I feel like a completely different person. And the way that it manifests itself is that I feel much younger now in the best way. In my early 20s, I felt so much pressure to find what I wanted to do that I think I was kind of boring. I picked the thing that was the most responsible because you want to feel like an adult. And when I hit rock bottom, it was so freeing because it was like, “Oh, none of that matters.” It really doesn’t matter if I have a career because it could be taken from me tomorrow or I could make a really responsible decision and die in a week. All of these truths about life really came to light and, because of that, I really prioritized enjoying myself and enjoying the process. I got my dream career that I never would’ve had if this stuff hadn’t happened to me. I go out dancing way more than I ever did in my early 20s. I have way more fun and I laugh way more and I’m so joyful because I really know how hard life can be, and I don’t want any of that.

  mari andrew
  MARI ANDREW
  You put on your website that you’re an intersectional feminist. What does it mean to you to make art now in a more volatile political climate? Has it affected what you choose to say?
  It’s something I think about a lot because I do make art for myself. I don’t necessarily go in with an agenda or even an overall message. So when I do political art, it’s only because it’s something I feel like I really need to get off my chest. Something that’s a little hard for me to navigate right now is, I make work about myself, and I had people tell me that my work doesn’t reflect many people’s experiences. I had a girl email me the other day who said, “Your work is so heteronormative. Have you ever thought about writing from the queer perspective? Putting more of those messages in your work.” And the thing is, I’m just one voice, and I hope that my voice is not overpowering to other people’s stories. I happen to be a cis, female, straight person, and I can only speak from that experience, and I just hope that the essence of what I say connects to people who may not relate to the specifics. But that is something I think about, how to make art, really personal art, more inclusive, when it really is just about me. That’s a tricky balance.

  You also wrote that you don’t believe in “having chill,” which so resonated with me. Why don’t you believe in having chill?
  I think I’m a naturally enthusiastic person, and I’ve seen women through the years, especially on a date, gushing about [their] love for a band or an experience or a hobby, and then the impulse is to be like, “I’m sorry. You didn’t have to listen to all that.” And I want everyone to be as excited as they want to be about the things that they’re excited by because that is what makes life worth living. It’s also the way to resist the hard things in the world, to find joy where you can. But then there’s also, in dating especially, this idea to not really say what you want or don’t let your feelings get the best of you. Don’t be too pushy, don’t come on too strong, and whenever I heed that advice I always feel like I’m being really inauthentic and it’s never given me the intimacy or deep connections I really wanted. I find that when I really put my heart into it, in anything I do, then that’s when the real good stuff happens.

• Paper - http://www.papermag.com/mari-andrew-am-i-there-yet-2553264247.html

  BOOKS/ZINES
  Mari Andrew Navigates Early Adulthood In 'Am I There Yet?'
  By Julia Gray 26 March

  Mari Andrew's soft, colorful illustrations trace the magic, the mundane, and the misfortune lining the path to inner growth and self-discovery. Her Instagram page is a safe haven for more than 750,000 followers, a source of solace and humor, a testament to facing your darkest parts and finding pockets of light along the way. In Andrew's first book, Am I There Yet?, she reflects on her twenties, navigating memories of joy and sorrow with wisdom and sensitivity. PAPER talked to Andrew about her new book, becoming the person you want to be, and getting to know yourself and your surroundings.

  Could you tell me a little bit about your new book?

  I wrote the first essay that appears in the book when I was 22 and I'm 31 now, so it's been a long time coming. I had been writing essays about growing up through my twenties for the past 10 years. Originally it was going to be a book of just essays without art, but then I started drawing two and half years ago and now it is a book filled with art.

  It's about the journeys I've taken metaphorically and literally through the world and growing up as a twenty-something who is really sensitive and had a few twists and turns in the process. There's so much pressure to know yourself better than you do in your twenties, but I think the whole point of it is the getting to know yourself, which is not the part that looks great on Instagram. Figuring it out takes a long time.

  So did you start out as a writer?

  Yes, definitely. I've never done it professionally, but it was always what I wanted to do. I actually consider my illustrations to be sort of like mini essays because they convey some pretty large ideas or metaphors in a quick little sketch. I'm sort of getting to know myself as a visual artist now because I started that so late in life. But I think it all comes from the same sort of writerly place.

  You started a drawing at 28. What what were you doing before that as a career?

  I've had so many different types of jobs, I never thought that my day job was going to be the thing that I really love to do. I never totally connected with that idea — which is a pretty millennial idea — that you have to be passionate about what makes you money. So I did a lot of jobs that were interesting to me in some way. I worked in a boutique, I got a job in marketing at a non-profit, I was an English teacher, I was a barista for a thousand years. All of these jobs gave me a lot of fodder for creativity.

  I was writing a lot in my journal and on my blog while working those jobs and living in different cities and I figured someday I would share all of these stories in a book. It's totally new for me to have a job that is my quote unquote passion. Although I don't really know if that's accurate either.

  Do you think it's necessary to have a five year plan? That's something I've been thinking about a lot.

  When I think of a quote five year plan, I think about the person I want to be at that age and how I'm feeling and what I surrounded by what I'm doing on the weekends, where I'm traveling, who's in my life, what I'm up to, and I kind of work backwards from there. So what are the things I need to be doing now to be that person in five years? So it's less about career goals at it as it is emotional goals. How do I want to feel? And work backwards from that.

  I knew that I wanted to have a book deal by 30 because I knew that I wanted something to show for all of my life experiences in my twenties. And so I thought about myself as a 30 year old and I hustled really, really hard and I made it happen. But I don't think that's because I had specific goals. It was more, "This is how I want to feel at 30: really accomplished," and then, "What would make me accomplish that: Having a book."

  That's great advice. How did you reach this point of enlightenment and being in touch with your emotional self?

  I've been very fortunate to have really good friends who have helped me see myself a little better. I've always been super sensitive and super observational because growing up I didn't have a lot of friends and so I was always just kind of watching people on the outside. I think all of that observing and then writing in my journal and being really reflective made me feel like an outsider. But then when I got a little older in my twenties and made really good friends and realized, "Wow, I'm not alone and I actually have something to offer the world." I'm really encouraged to see a lot of my friends being artistic and creative and I think that motivated me to be a little more expressive myself. My advice is to definitely make friends who are smarter than you are.

  It's sometimes hard to find inspiration and observe what's going on in the world when everyone's kind of just observing it through their phones, but you seem to do a really good job. Could you expand on your relationship with your phone and social media?

  That's such an important question. Anyone who is a thoughtful person is thinking about their relationship with their phone and social media. Humans are animals and we can only really take in so much. I think that we're overwhelmed easily, but we're not always totally aware of that. I've been very aware of my animal self lately and how I just cannot handle everything that is available to me on my phone. It doesn't feel good.

  But, you know, my whole career as on my phone. So what I personally do is log into Instagram in the morning, I post and then I log out and don't really touch it for the rest of the day. That said, I think that Instagram is only as good or as bad as the people using it. We do have to be really responsible about what we consume. I try to only look at accounts that make me feel inspired and it and good and not follow so many that are aspirational and make me doubt myself. I've gotten so much from the community on Instagram and I try to remember that these are all real people with a phone and feelings, but I think we all have to just pay attention to how we're feeling when we're on our phone because it can get to be a little much very easily and quickly.

  Do you use drawing as a type of coping mechanism?

  Yeah, I do use drawing to process some thoughts and ideas, but there's a big difference between what I talk about and draw privately and what I put on Instagram. I try to process what I'm going through and heal before I put it on Instagram, so I often will post about things that happened years ago or things that I've already completely processed. I tap into the emotions that I was going through at the time. So it is a way for me to process, but it's not a way for me to heal.

  To process things I definitely do a lot of journaling. I'm a social introvert so I love to talk out what I'm going through with people. I think it's very important to externally process what exactly you're feeling. Brené Brown, who is a fantastic writer and a big influence on me, says that the way that shame disappears is to speak it. So to tell someone, 'I'm feeling really ashamed' or 'I'm feeling really embarrassed' is a great way just to begin processing. I also love taking baths. I dance a lot. Physical activity is such a healer, it's really a great way to let out anxiety.

  Related | The Kendrick Lamar-Approved Poet You Shouldn't Be Sleeping On

  How do you motivate yourself? I know you were diagnosed with a pretty serious autoimmune disease last year. I can't imagine motivating myself in that position.

  It's on a day-to-day basis when you're going through something so hard like that. I always try to get back to the root of why I do what I do, which is to make people feel less alone and to express hidden parts of myself.

  When I'm going through something really dark and overwhelming, it can be so helpful to put that out there as it is. When I was healing or recovering, which was the hardest part of being sick, I did an illustration that was just about like how hard it was to do illustrations at that time. I try to use even a lack of motivation as motivation.

  How did you come to internalize self-love and self-care?

  I think I came to really love myself when I created a life that I love to live. I can look back on the past couple of years of building it and say, "Wow, I'm really happy today because I knew myself well enough to make the friends I wanted and to get the career I wanted and make my apartment look the way that it looks and live in the city I wanna to live in, and I did all that for me." That was such a, an act of self-kindness. So I think I'm getting there, but it's probably as a lifetime process.

  Your work has a lot to do with travel and finding love. Can you talk a bit about that?

  Yeah. It's funny you say that. Those are the two experiences that I consider to be the best experiences of my twenties, dating and traveling alone. I think they both taught me so much about myself. They're both challenging and you have to really struggle to make them happen, but there are moments in both traveling and dating that are so magical, like you'll believe you can fly. Those moments from both traveling and dating have been my favorite moments of life. And I think it's such a special thing to be able to do both of them and just explore the world and yourself a bit before settling down. It's a really, really lovely gift to give yourself.

  What was the last book or article or essay that you read that you really found inspiration from and are connected to?

  Back to a Brené Brown who I mentioned earlier, she wrote Braving The Wilderness. I really love all of her books, but that one particularly resonated with me. It's about how to really belong to yourself so that you can better make other people feel like they belong. It's about being really true to your story and honoring all of the parts of yourself that aren't the most glamorous. It's a really calming book for anyone who feels like they're constantly messing up, which I think anyone who's remotely sensitive probably feels.

  Am I There Yet? is out 3/27. Pre-order it here.

• My Domaine - https://www.mydomaine.com/mari-andrew-interview

  JUNE 3, 2018 FROM MYDOMAINEHOME.COM.AU
  Mari Andrew: The Artist Who Turned Her Break-Up Into a Thriving Career
  Nicole Singh by NICOLE SINGH

  PHOTO: Clémènce Polès
  Three years ago, illustrator and Instagram influencer, Mari Andrew, could have never predicted that a simple desire to find a creative outlet after a break-up could turn into a thriving career. But, that’s exactly what happened.

  When I say “influencer” I don’t mean in the traditional sense. Because, instead of glossy photos posing with the latest Chanel boy, or capturing a perfectly curated acai bowl, Andrew has amassed a huge fan base (842,000 followers and counting) by tapping into the more ordinary and un-glamorous parts of life, illustrating them in a way that resonates with so many (including myself). Whether it’s about illness, loss, ex-boyfriends, or simply the awkward and confusing decade that is our twenties, one thing's for sure: Andrew has definitely become a resounding, authentic voice on a platform that can sometimes feel fake and unattainable.

  But what started on Instagram is reaching a far wider audience for Andrew. Having just penned a book, Am I there Yet ($28) earlier this year, Andrew is flying down to Sydney and Melbourne with The School of Life to talk about the journey of adulthood. To celebrate, I sat with Andrew for a chat—while also trying my hardest not to fan-girl.

  How did you first get started in illustration?

  I’m 31 and I started when I was 28, so it’s very new for me. I never expressed myself through drawing before. I’ve always liked to draw, and so it came from going through a very dark period of loss in my life: Both heartbreak over relationship and the loss of my father. I didn’t really have anything to cling onto. I didn’t have a job I was very fulfilled by, I no longer had a relationship I identified with. I had great friends, but I didn’t really have anything going for me, I think. I wasn’t living in the city I wanted to be in, so I just wrote a list of things that made me happy and things I wanted practice doing everyday because they make me happy. And painting with watercolours was one of them. It was something I found very relaxing and soothing.

  I found dealing with this period of loss and depression by just watching TV all the time, and that didn’t feel very healthy, so I wanted to do something while I was watching television. Painting was that thing, and so I started doing paintings. First it was just little drawings of things I had seen that day or little memories, and then it evolved into a scene or something I had actually experienced. So, for me it became a way of expressing a lot of the things that were going on in my life: With dating, loss and just observations. That’s when strangers started following me, which I never ever ever expected to happen. It’s crazy!

  What were you doing before your illustrations took off?

  I was doing every job you could possibly imagine before I was able to quit any sort of day job to become an illustrator full-time. I had so many jobs, I was always creative, and I always really liked to write. So for me, my day job didn’t have much to do with my identity.

  I took jobs that made sense either for my schedule or seemed kind of interesting. I never really identified with my job. I’ve done so many things, I’ve taught dance lessons, I’ve taught English, I’ve worked in retail, I've been a barista.

  It never felt like a reality for me to work creatively full-time because it’s so rare that someone is able to do that. I’m very grateful that I am able to do it because my dad was a musician, and it was a very difficult life for him. Very early on, I realised I didn’t want to do that: I don’t want my profession to be hand-to-hand cash, because that’s too much pressure.

  Going full-time into illustration was just a matter of convenience. I was able to quit my job because I literally didn’t have time to work anymore. I was too busy with illustrating. So, it wasn't necessarily that I found success in illustrating, it just kind of took over my life.

  Where do you seek inspiration?

  It comes in many different ways. Often I draw from memory, and I don’t really like to draw things that are happening to me right now (that’s a lot to put in public). Sometimes the feeling I’m having in the moment is something I can tap back into; sometimes when I'm in a really good place and I’m really excited, I can tap back into a time when I was falling in love a couple of years ago or I was really excited about a new opportunity. Sometimes when I’m in a place of sadness and rejection or loss, I can tap back into the emotions I experienced a few years ago of grief, health issues or various things I’ve been through.

  I’m very lucky to have a very emotional memory, a strong emotional memory, so I’m able to remember the way I felt at a certain times.

  You’ve been very open about your journey with health and sickness, what's it like being so vulnerable to the public?

  It's been amazing. I don’t think anything bad happens for a reason. But I do think that there is something you can do with that. For me, I think my art really shifted at that moment when I was recovering from serious potential fatal illness, and in the throes of post-trauma from dealing with this really difficult thing and feeling very isolated from other people. At the time it didn’t seem like a gift, but in hindsight I think that’s the moment when I realised that the art that I make can be as healing as the art that other people have made that has helped heal me.

  What is one of the key lessons you’ve learnt while trying to ask yourself that question from your book "am I there yet?"

  Something I always say when I get asked by a young twenty-something, "What would you tell your former self?" I think that I spent so much time trying to make everything in my life have a purpose. If I was dating someone, it had to be someone I could see myself marrying. Or if I was in a job, it had to be something I could see myself doing for the rest of my life. Or if I was living in a certain city, it had to be one that I thought I could live in forever. I was seeing every decision extremely indicative of the way the rest of my life would go.

  Now, I’ve had a million jobs and boyfriends and cities, and I just wish that I had let myself let myself enjoy the experimentation of it, like I did in later years. But it felt like there was so much pressure to know my direction and where I was going. In hindsight , I don’t really remember the job I had at 23, but I do remember what it was like to walk home from the job and the flowers I saw every day on the way home and the friends at the time. The things I didn’t think were necessarily that important are actually my strongest memories and my fondest memories. So the biggest lesson I've learned would just be the idea that experiences are just as important as accomplishments. Even if they don’t check off a box, it's still very very important to enjoy the meandering time that you have.

  To see Andrew speak, you can get tickets at The School of Life website.

• Amelia Bartlett - https://www.amelia-bartlett.com/blog/women-taking-leaps-interview-with-mari-andrew

  Women Taking Leaps - Interview with Mari Andrew
  March 29, 2018
  wtl-mari.jpg
  Taking the leap on that fateful day - and everyday - to create authentic, autobiographical art and share it with the world.
  In taking on an everyday practice you share with the world, you’ve come to inspire thousands of people - strangers, friends, new friends alike. You’ve catapulted into this realm of internet fame that wasn’t your intention and seems to have changed your life significantly. Tell me a little bit about the Mari before doodling, before deciding to commit to a practice every day and put it out into the world:

  The Mari before doodling was always, always expressing and creating something. I can’t tell you how many websites, blogs, books, and projects I’ve started that didn’t go anywhere, which is one of the many reasons I’m so surprised that this one actually took off! It feels random in that way, but no more random than anything else I tried.

  I always felt a sort of calling to do something bigger than myself. Who knows if that’s a personality type, a rich inner spiritual life, or an aggrandized sense of self! I just felt from an early age that I was different from most people around me in a way I couldn’t articulate, and therefore was going to have an unusual path or “purpose” in life. I didn’t have one overwhelming passion, although I always loved to write, so I wasn’t sure what this calling was really going to look like. I’m still exploring it. But illustration certainly gave me the platform to explore.

  You’ve mentioned in previous interviews that you’d tried multiple potential hobbies before drawing stuck. Playing the guitar, dancing… what else did you try? What drew you to these activities?

  I wanted to pursue fun. I just wanted to be happy. I observed truly free, happy people--the kind of people I wanted to be like--and all of them had a couple things in common: they were always up for fun, they had story-filled eclectic lives, and they always had some sort of hobby. I remember sitting in a park in Portugal watching all these young beautiful people playing guitar, dancing, painting, singing together...and I didn’t have a way to really participate. Then I realized that was 100% within my control. I wrote a long list of all the things I wanted to do to become my dream self, including surf lessons and really tough exercise classes and makeup classes. I just started creating myself into the person I wanted to be, a person who played guitar and could dance salsa and painted with watercolors, and it was delightful.

  ILlustration by Mari Andrew
  ILLUSTRATION BY MARI ANDREW

  Yet, drawing won out! Do you think there’s a specific reason why drawing became your everyday practice?

  It’s just really easy and cheap. That’s about it! I still dance almost every day, but it’s expensive and you can’t really share it with the world so easily, nor can you do it on an airplane. Drawing costs $3 and takes five minutes and you can do it anywhere. I recommend it to everyone.

  Each of your pieces is different, yet you have refined your personal style over the past two years. Do you have artistic (or non-artistic) influences?

  I have so many influences and I’m always picking them up! I truly believe “You can’t be what you can’t see.” That’s a great motto for more diverse representation in art, but it applies to so many things. I didn’t know I was “allowed” to be an artist because I’d never seen anyone with a really loose, personal style. Then I picked up a Maira Kalman book and thought, “Oh, I can do this. I’m allowed to do this.”

  As my style has progressed the past couple years, I can easily pinpoint some direct influences on my themes and style: Jonny Sun, Sabrina Ward Harrison, Sufjan Stevens, Liana Finck, Jonathan Fields, Brene Brown, and Mary Oliver. I adore illustration as a fine art and there are so many artists I love so much; I like to think they influence my work but I’ll never be as talented as they are. I really love Blanca Gomez, Ricardo Cavolo, and Pascal Campion. Oh my god, Pascal Campion is SO GOOD. Every piece of his evokes enormous emotion.

  One of the reasons your artwork drew me in was its stark and direct relatability. It’s as if thousands of us look at your artwork and collectively explain, I HAVE BEEN THINKING/FEELING/WISHING THE SAME! How has illustrating these thoughts and concepts - from hilarious beverage comparisons across decades to the anatomy of the ‘new girlfriend’ changed the way you approach daily interactions and experience?

  Haha, thank you! When I started drawing every day, there came a point--perhaps about six months in--where I found that my brain had developed into a sort of observational machine. I could see an illustration in every experience and interaction; it was sort of cool! My mind took over for me so I never experienced a creative block.

  About a year in, another artist thought I was plagiarizing her. I don’t blame her at all, but it was a sort of traumatic experience that made me very hesitant to keep sharing work at the risk of that happening again. So, I decided to make my work way more personal. Now it’s less funny and perhaps less observational, possibly less “relatable,” but I’m confident that the work I make is 100% my own and couldn’t have been made first by someone else. At least I don’t think so! I’ve started being a lot more open about parts of myself I was previously nervous to share, like my spirituality, politics, thoughts on illness and death. So my brain doesn’t quite work in the same way anymore, and I’m no longer as observational as I used to be. But oh well! This is my work now, and it makes me equally as happy.

  In the very beginning, when your profile was private but you were still committed to your daily practice, did you have sources of support, maybe a person or small group of people cheering you?

  Ha, no, not at all! Party of one.

  Image by Passerbuys
  IMAGE BY PASSERBUYS

  How did that support develop and change as your daily practice launched a much greater and more diverse following?

  I am so lucky to have a very supportive group of friends, and unconditionally supportive mom. I’m very lucky to have known myself well at an early age and attract very confident, down-to-earth people who couldn’t care less about Instagram likes and followers. My friends have been everything for me as I navigate this new career and the challenges of being a slightly more public figure. I’m amazed at how supportive they’ve been, from listening to me cry to taking me out for lavish dinners to celebrate 100K followers. The job I have right now can be lonely and isolating; I don’t know how I’d do it without the encouragement and empathy from a very strong group of loved ones.

  I have also been very fortunate to find wonderful men who have been encouraging to me as well. It’s not easy to date someone who writes and draws about her romantic experiences in public! I try to be respectful of those relationships, but I know it’s still hard. I found some good ones, who never made me feel like I had to tone it down or change the way I express myself. Sometimes people--even my loved ones!--will insinuate that I may have trouble dating because men are “afraid I’ll write about them.” That’s hurtful, and a poor interpretation of what I do. It also threatens the integrity of what I do; I don’t make art to gossip or get revenge on anybody. And I haven’t had much trouble dating so far!

  ILlustration by Mari Andrew
  ILLUSTRATION BY MARI ANDREW

  Anyone who has ever tried to do something every single day can probably attest to the difficulty and crushing blow of missing a day or giving up entirely. What’s been your greatest challenge since taking on this commitment, this leap, every day?

  This is something that just isn’t hard for me; it comes so easily and naturally. I certainly struggle with many other commitments! But I never wanted Instagram to feel like a chore or something I was doing for anyone but myself. If it caused me any stress, I wouldn’t do it. I have given up on so many other projects in life, but this one feels spiritual for me and is essential to who I am. It feels as natural as going to sleep every night.

  Have there been instances where you wanted to quit? Or tried to rationalize (as we all day) a more comfortable, easy agreement with yourself?

  There were three waves of wanting to quit: the first time I experienced trolls, being accused of plagiarism, and then the general strain of feeling overwhelmed by the big business decisions I had to make by myself. The daily drawing has never been hard; it’s all the stuff that comes along with it. I am overwhelmed with gratitude for my followers and my platform, but the “behind the scenes” can be very challenging. It is unbearable to read certain hurtful comments, and it feels awful when I can’t get back to everyone who writes to me. I’m still navigating this; I think it’s a lifelong journey for any creative and sensitive (that’s probably redundant!) person. Drawing is the easy part, and obviously interacting with followers is such a joy. But how to find the balance of interactions without getting too influenced by the opinions of strangers? Not sure yet.

  FC0EF67C-C989-4ECE-8EFD-18B5632757B9.JPG
  Fast-forward to present day - your book launched THIS WEEK.

  This compendium of essays and artworks, entirely autobiographical I believe? What’s it like to be compiling, refining, and offering what is essentially your heart and soul onto the market?

  It’s just a dream come true. I can’t complain a bit. This has been my dream since I was 5, to put a book into the world. It’s just a dream. It is my heart and soul and the culmination of my creativity and I’m so grateful that anyone wants to read it.

  I know, that sounds kind of dramatic. But seriously! The level of pressure in the realm of publishing is crazy, it always has been. And up til recently, art has been your pleasure, your practice. We can both agree on the cosmic importance of Elizabeth Gilber’s quote: “Be a patron of your own art,” but would you share with us what’s going through your mind - hopes, dreams, fears, expectations - as your first book goes to print?

  I just really hope that it does well enough that I can keep writing books! I’m working on my next one right now, which feels so special and important to me. If people like and read the first one, it will make publishing more a lot easier! I hope I can do that. It’s such a gift to be able to share my thoughts with the world. I just hope I get to keep doing it forever!

  This is a question I always ask as a part of women taking leaps, as misconceptions are rampant consequences of our virtual perceptions of others. If you could dispel one myth about what it’s like being Mari Andrew - whether in relation to your daily practice, your artwork, your personal life experience, or your subsequently resulting fame (if I may call it that) - what would you dispel?

  Mmm I think a myth I would dispel in general is that vulnerability is not a cry for help. I, like many artists, write from my heart and my memories and my feelings, but I write with perspective and distance. I am honest about what I’m doing through to an extent because I think honesty is really powerful and healing, not because I need advice. A lot of people send me advice! It’s very sweet, but unnecessary!

  I hate to ask so soon as your book is launching this week, which I will continue to congratulate you for because WHAT an accomplishment! But now that it’s completed, you’ve hit this major milestone, and so far as I know, you’re working as a full-time freelancer and artist. What’s next for you, Mari?

  Ahhh! I hope I fall in love. I hope I become an awesome flamenco dancer. I hope I am a good friend as I see my friends begin to forge ahead in their life journeys with new careers, relationships, and children. I hope to go back to Brazil. I hope to have fun adventures in Australia on my book tour. And I really hope to get my second book into the world and get to be a writer forever!

  Image by Passerbuys
  IMAGE BY PASSERBUYS

  About Mari
  Mari Andrew was instantly my friend when I came across her Instagram account. Every day, she publishes an autobiographic - humorous - relatable illustration by her own hand; a practice to which she's maintained dedication for more than two years. To start the year off with a bang, Mari's book Am I There Yet? The Loop-de-loop, Zigzagging Journey to Adulthood published on March 27. Despite setbacks and maintaining a full-time job through most of the writing process, Mari has compiled an impressive collection of personal essays and illustrations to make-up her first-ever publication. Mari's voice is akin the the voice in my head, maybe yours, too. She shares her experiences vulnerably, writes plainly and in language we can understand, and put herself out there even if she doesn't feel confident or doesn't like the work she's producing. One of my favorite quotes from another of Mari's interviews regarding work she might not be particularly fond of: “I usually put it out into the world anyway and see if someone else is fond of it.” (source)

  Learn more about Mari and order her new book:
  Instagram: http://instagram.com/bymariandrew

  Website: http://bymariandrew.com/

• Sojourners - https://sojo.net/articles/mari-andrew-zigzagging-journey-trauma-faith-and-art

  COMMENTARY
  Mari Andrew on the 'Zigzagging Journey' of Trauma, Faith, and Art
  By Juliet Vedral 5-02-2018
  Print

  Image via @ByMariAndrew
  I met Mari Andrew a few years ago in Washington, D.C., when she became a contributor to a literary review I was co-running, The Wheelhouse Review. She soon became a friend. Since then, she's gone on to become a beloved illustrator and doodle-ist on Instagram. I recently met up with Mari to chat about her new book, Am I There Yet? The Loop-de-Loop, Zigzagging Journey to Adulthood — and to discuss faith, suffering, and the creative process. When the recording of our interview came back unintelligible, Mari was gracious enough to re-answer some of my questions, this time over WhatsApp.

  This interview has been lightly edited for length.

  Juliet Vedral, Sojourners: Tell me about Am I There Yet. What inspired you to write it?

  Mari Andrew, Am I There Yet?: I have been writing this book for the past seven years. I really had to condense a lot of the feelings I was having in my 20s, which is what this book is about. It’s actually a sort of map of my 20s. It jumps around to different cities I’ve lived in and different cities I’ve visited and what each place — both physical place and each place in life — taught me about growing up.

  I’d been writing essays about my growing up for a while, beginning when I was in my early 20s. And then when my father died when I was 28, I started kind of blasting through life. I had always wanted to write a book and I was like, “Why am I not doing this?”

  I’ve also always been really drawn to illustration and really wanted to make a hobby out of it. And in the meantime, my Instagram kind of took off, so I incorporated a lot of my illustrations into this book, which was really fun. It wasn’t something I expected to do, but I like the way it turned out.

  I like visual books myself, so writing a visual book was a really lovely experience.

  screen_shot_2018-05-02_at_10.10.13_am.png

  Image via @ByMariAndrew
  Vedral: What has been the best part of getting your book published?

  Andrew: Oh my goodness. It doesn’t feel at all how I thought it was going to feel, but I don’t know how I thought it was going to feel. It does feel so good when people tell me that they’re really comforted by it, because I love comforting things. I like feeling safe! It’s just amazing to feel like people are resonating with my work in that way. … The connections I’ve been making with people are just so fulfilling and special and make me really, really happy. So I think that’s been the best part. And also getting to write a second one, which I’m really excited about!

  READ: This Comic Shows You What to Do If You Witness Anti-Muslim Harassment
  Vedral: You've experienced a great deal of suffering in the past few years: your father passing, a fire in your building, and getting Guillain-Barré Syndrome while traveling in Spain. Has your writing and illustrating helped you in getting through these situations?

  Mari Andrew: I naturally process things externally, through creativity. I’ve always felt a need to write about things that happened to me. I think that’s just a personality type — it’s like I just have to write about them, I have to process them in some way.

  Illustration is a new way that I’ve learned to process my emotions. It’s only a couple of years old for me. I find that it’s just as therapeutic and illuminating for me as writing. It really does help me get perspective.

  When I was sick, I was paralyzed, temporarily, in my arms and legs, and I couldn’t write or draw, and that was really hard. I couldn’t do a lot of things that I normally loved to do, like take walks or just go to coffee shops. Just do normal life things. That was really, really difficult. There was this added difficulty of losing my identity, which was writing and drawing. So not being able to do those things really took a lot out of me. It was extremely depressing, and I still don’t really know how to deal with that.

  screen_shot_2018-05-02_at_10.29.15_am.png

  Image via @ByMariAndrew
  Vedral: How did you hold on to hope when you weren't able to draw or create?

  Andrew: I don’t think I did hold on to hope! It was really depressing. I don’t know how I would have handled it if it was a longer-term or permanent thing … I mean, I couldn’t even hold a pen. It was really, really, really challenging.

  I love to be able to type and I love to be able to draw and journal with my hand. It’s really such a huge part of my life. To have that taken away from me so suddenly was devastating. I knew I would eventually get better but during the time, it wasn’t the best.

  But I remember the first time I was able to journal, I had enough hand strength to write in my journal a few weeks when I was out of the hospital. It felt amazing. It felt like one of those videos of like, the cows who live in the slaughterhouses and someone rescues them and they get to walk on grass for the first time. And they’re leaping and dancing and, like, the happiest cows you’ve ever seen. That’s how I felt when I was able to journal again. It was like, “Oh this is what I’m made for; this is what I can do.”

  So now I have a deep fear of losing my hand strength again, because it was so awful. But I do know that humans are extremely resilient, and somehow I would have gotten through it, even if I had permanently lost that ability.

  "I think humans are just really, really uncomfortable with the idea that not everything hard has a purpose." —@ByMariAndrew
  Vedral: We've talked a lot about suffering and hope in the past, particularly about the problem of romanticizing suffering. Would you talk more about that?

  Andrew: I think humans are just really, really uncomfortable with the idea that not everything hard has a purpose. I’m certainly uncomfortable about that.

  It’s funny, when people ask me about my sickness, they always ask me what did I learn or how did I grow or what wisdom did I accumulate. Of course there are things that I learned, but I try to be really honest about that question. I don’t think that pain served any purpose. I didn’t learn anything. It sucked! I wish that I had been able to drink sangria instead. I wish that I had just had a happy life.

  I think that in a lot of ways it made me worse. I think that it made me a lot more fearful, and I think it destroyed a romantic relationship of mine. It gave me depression for a few months. It made me distrust my body.

  It’s very easy for people to say, “This will make you stronger,” or even, “You’re strong already, you’ll get through this.” But that’s just not really the whole story. And I think that it can be so easy to want to tie every story into a beautiful package, but that’s not the way that life works. I don't mean that I don’t think that you can go through some significant pain and get some perspective eventually, and see the ways it did positively contribute to my life. But I think that I could have gotten those lessons in a different way. I think I could have read a book about empathy and probably had the same experience of becoming more empathetic.

  I really appreciated people who would just tell me, “Yeah this sucks, and I can’t believe you’re going through this and I’m here for you and here are some flowers.” That’s what really helped me.

  screen_shot_2018-05-02_at_10.10.02_am.png

  Image via @ByMariAndrew
  Vedral: Though your book isn't about faith, there are elements of it that come through in some of your essays, like “Seasons.” Would you talk a bit about your faith? Has it changed as you've made your way through your 20s, and processed your grief?

  Andrew: It’s definitely changed. Oh my gosh, where do I even begin?

  I’ve always had a very, very rich inner spiritual life. Ever since I was a tiny little kid, adults would say that about me, like, “Oh, she’s going to be like a theologian or a philosopher.” I just always had that in me. Religion always made a lot of sense to me. I didn’t have a negative experience with it growing up.

  When I was in college, I went to church constantly, loved it. It was a really huge part of my social life. And then after college I started examining it a little more, and realizing the way my experience of church didn’t quite align with my values anymore. I just didn’t feel very connected to it.

  READ: The Bible According to a Book of Cartoons
  I’ve always been interested in arts, and I’m drawn to intelligent people and intellectual conversations and science and politics and these weren’t things that I really saw celebrated in the churches I was going to. I was very lucky to find the Episcopal Church, which I thought really celebrated all of that. I fell in love with it, so much so that I decided at a certain point I wanted to become a priest and I was going to work toward that. I loved communicating about my faith journey and I thought I had a gift for it.

  In D.C., where I moved when I was 26 … I eventually found a Unitarian church and I really loved that, and it made me I realize, “Oh, I don’t have one type of faith, religion, spiritual practice that really works for me, I actually could have many of them.” I’m just a faithful person, in some way.

  If you asked me what exactly I believed, I don’t know if I would have a great answer. … I do know that being a person of faith has inspired me to be a lot more compassionate and a lot more motivated politically and a lot more interested in people’s inner worlds and exploring my own inner world, which I’m writing about in my next book. And it really has helped me connect with people easily. So I’m really grateful for it.

  screen_shot_2018-05-02_at_10.33.49_am.png

  Image via @ByMariAndrew
  Juliet Vedral
  Juliet Vedral
  Juliet Vedral is a writer living in Washington, D.C. She is the former press secretary for Sojourners and now does media relations for a global non-profit organization. Juliet is also the editor of a devotional blog called Perissos. You can find her on Twitter.

6/30/2018 General OneFile - Saved Articles
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Print Marked Items
Am I There Yet? The Loop-de-Loop,
Zigzagging Journey to Adulthood
Publishers Weekly.
265.10 (Mar. 5, 2018): p57.
COPYRIGHT 2018 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Am I There Yet? The Loop-de-Loop, Zigzagging Journey to Adulthood
Mari Andrew. Clarkson Potter, $19.99 (192p)
ISBN 978-1-5247-6143-1
In a market flush with self-help books, Andrew's illustrated debut stands out for its candidness. Through
simple doodle drawings, with a watercolor wash, interspersed with poignant essays both handwritten and
typed, Andrew depicts herself wandering through the dark map of her 20s in search of purpose. Reeling
from a breakup and the death of her father in 2015, Andrew decided to make a drawing each day and post it
online. Three years later, her sketches have gained her more than 700,000 Instagram followers, and the best
are culled for this volume. ("Choose one," says a caption over pretty little tombstones, each bearing a
possible inscription: "She Was Too Afraid To Start. She Explored. She Spent 5 Decades Comparing Herself
to Others.") Most of Andrew's drawings offer heartfelt insights (a tiny circular diagram depicts the two
stages of grief: "Feel Crazy [right arrow] Feel Less Crazy"), but a deliciously snide humor colors her
reflections on dating--like depicting her exes as different cups of coffee ("Diner Coffee at 2 AM: Cheap +
Lukewarm, Got the Job Done"). On the cusp of 30, her compass points to a truism: "What I love most about
living isn't accomplishing things, but experiencing them." So what does Andrew imagine her ideal
tombstone will say? "Here lies Mari. She enjoyed herself." As Andrew heals from rejection and loss, her
drawings capture how she learns to love herself, encouraging readers to approach life challenges with the
same generous spirit. Agent: Cindy Uh, Thompson Literary Agency. (Mar.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Am I There Yet? The Loop-de-Loop, Zigzagging Journey to Adulthood." Publishers Weekly, 5 Mar. 2018,
p. 57. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A530430298/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=00b1c064. Accessed 1 July 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A530430298
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AM I THERE YET?
BookPage.
(Apr. 2018): p25.
COPYRIGHT 2018 BookPage
http://bookpage.com/
Full Text:
AM I THERE YET?
Instagram sensation Mari Andrew shares essays and illustrations on navigating life in Am I There Yet?: The
Loop-de-loop, Zigzagging Journey to Adulthood (Clarkson Potter, $19.99, 192 pages, ISBN
9781524761431). Andrew's relatable tales offer insight and humor on topics from heartbreak, love, loss and
rejection to career confusion and questions like, "Where exactly am I going?" The modern quest for
meaning has never been more on point.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"AM I THERE YET?" BookPage, Apr. 2018, p. 25. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A532528597/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=ec126e91.
Accessed 1 July 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A532528597

"Am I There Yet? The Loop-de-Loop, Zigzagging Journey to Adulthood." Publishers Weekly, 5 Mar. 2018, p. 57. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A530430298/ITOF? u=schlager&sid=ITOF. Accessed 1 July 2018. "AM I THERE YET?" BookPage, Apr. 2018, p. 25. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A532528597/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF. Accessed 1 July 2018.

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