So my newest book is called Guts, and it takes place in my fourth and fifth grade years, which again, those are the years I discovered comics. Those are the years I started making comics. That was when I started feeling a physical manifestation of anxiety in my body. And those things never went away. They were just part of who I was, and they’ve been part of who I am for a very long time. And then somehow, I made a career as an autobiographical cartoonist. But for the first several books I wrote, I think I was really focused on — here is a thing that happened to me, and it happened to me a long time ago.
So I was able to say, “The story of Smile starts when I knocked out my two front teeth.” And the story of Smile ends when, not only does my smile look normal again, but when I feel like I can smile again. And then with Sisters, the story is about a road trip that we took, which is a two-week chunk. And then I decided to intersperse that with flashbacks. And for years, people have said to me, “Well, when are you gonna write about your stomach troubles?”
‘Cause anybody who knows me, knows that I’ve always had tummy troubles. And I was like, “No, that’s too gross. That’s too personal. That’s too embarrassing, and I don’t really know how to tell that story without it being kind of disgusting.” But it hasn’t gone away. Nothing has changed. I’m still dealing with this. And I am finding that the more honest I am in my books, the further down I reach and, you know, the more open I am, the better.
That’s where the really good stuff happens, and I do a lot of Q and A’s on stage with kids, and they tell me how they’re feeling, and they ask me for advice, and they ask me, “Was this thing really true,” and “Did this thing really happen?” So I realized that I needed to write about what happened in fourth and fifth grade, which is that I was really dealing with some feelings, and when my best friend moved away, and it was really hard for all of us.
And there was another girl in my class that was having some health issues, and she wasn’t the nicest girl. But like, when I learned about her health problems, it gave me perspective that I didn’t have before, which was, “Wow, somebody’s dealing with a lot.” Like, everybody’s going through something, and even if they don’t tell you what it is, it’s still there. And so, you know, being kind to each other is important. And for myself, I didn’t really know how to talk about what was happening with me, but I went to see a therapist.
And the therapist helped a lot to give me some coping techniques, and to just be able to talk about how I was feeling, because a lot of times you feel things, you think things, it’s really hard to talk about them. But being able to talk about them is great. And I think that’s probably what’s at the core of my work, so this book gets right down in there, and it felt very vulnerable at first. It felt like I was telling too much.
People that have read the preview are saying, “This is me. How did you know? How did you get this so right?” and, “I can’t believe there’s somebody else like this,” and, you know, it’s just opens up the conversation. And they feel better, and I feel better, and I’m looking forward to talking about that with kids too, and letting them know that they’re not alone. They’re not weird. They’re not different, it’s just something that happens to a lot of us and we don’t know how to talk about it.
So let’s break down those stigmas. Let’s just talk about it.