When starting my own zine, I was immediately brought back to when I was younger and would draw continuously, creating my own characters inspired by the multitude of animes that I watched while also trying to be edgy and communicate in some sort of way that no one understood me as an angsty teen. Although I am not that same person as I was at 13 (THANK GOODNESS!), the simple act of creating something with such a rich, alt background allowed me to go back to a state where I could be carefree about what I put onto the paper despite the content not being edgy and middle school alternative. I decided to create a zine that included my favorite thing: eggs! Constantly through college and still, even now, I refer to myself as an egg and my head being egg-shaped. I also learned that “aegi” is another word for “baby” in Korean. This only further encouraged me to call myself an egg/eggy, since it seemed like many individuals in my generation/age group would say “am baby” on all the socials. I also love Gudetama, the lazy egg, and just how cute (?) eggs can be! It’s very niche, but I feel that it definitely fits into what a zine could be!
I explored different options for creating the zine: would it be funny? or would it be something that serves a more serious purpose? I decided to play on the theme of “egg-haustion.” This zine would summarize a short mental health check-in, understanding what it means to be exhausted, and what resources one might utilize to help their mental well-being, utilizing both humor in the visual aspects but also the seriousness of proper mental health care. I think that addressing both in the form of a zine could be an aid in de-stigmatizing mental health and making resources more accessible and normalized for the younger audiences.
The population I decided to “use” this medium for was children with Disruptive, Impulse-Control, and Conduct Disorders. Children are so often encouraged to read and explore different avenues of doing so. Zines, similar to comic books, could be a way of using a creative outlet to communicate how they feel while adjusting and learning to understand their own behaviors and how it may differ from the perspective of others. With the use of zines, children could also use this as a way to communicate and build supports among one another that helps them understand what their peers are going through psychologically and in their everyday lives. The creation of zine serves as an affinity space for these children, “acting as a magnet for people with a wide range of experience who can learn from each other and even from the zines themselves” (Leone, 2020). Creating these spaces for children to explore their behaviors within a contained environment offers different ways of expression and alternatives to coping that might not work with children with Disruptive, Impulse-Control, and Conduct Disorders.
References:
Leone, L. (Ed.). (2020). Craft in Art Therapy: Diverse Approaches to the Transformative Power
of Craft Materials and Methods. Routledge.
