When we asked Lainey about her source of inspiration, the artist revealed that her own experiences, as well as a variety of content creators, inspire her for new illustrations or comics. The artist has also shared that she has a long list of illustration ideas on her phone and she picks the one that makes her feel inspired at the moment of drawing.
We were wondering if the artist has noticed some change in the messages she's trying to convey. "I believe the one thing that came up in a lot of my illustrations lately is double standards when it comes to women and men and how deeply they are embedded in society as the norm," Laney shared. "Like when a man has body hair, it's completely normal, but when a woman doesn't shave her armpit hair, it's suddenly 'unhygienic'. Or when a man puts himself out there firmly, he is called assertive, but a woman is called bossy. There are so many little things that add up to a system where women swim against the current and we don't even realize. My illustrations are a straightforward way to call these out and make people think."
According to Laney, the biggest misconception about women's bodies and mental health is that women's worth lies in "how they look or how their bodies are shaped". "We are conditioned from an early age that only petite princesses find their happily ever after and how good girls and decent women don't take up much space and are always well groomed, put together, and overall do everything in their power to match the (unrealistic) beauty standards. So much of what we do, even subconsciously - like sucking our bellies in, constantly fluffing our hair - is this constant chase of the ideal. It's a system that serves nobody and it needs to go."
Lainey is currently working on launching a podcast and building "a tiny little empire" of community to help women worldwide "redefine femininity on their own terms, so we can all be free to express ourselves and make life choices the way we want them. There is no wrong way to be a woman, you do you!"
