A California mom is using illustration to capture the good, bad and just plain hilarious parts of parenting.
Chelsea Larsson works as a content strategist at a tech company, but in her spare time, she likes to create drawings based on her life with her 17-month-old daughter.
“This usually means I pull out the pens during nap times and after bedtime to squeeze in all the art time that I can,” she told HuffPost. Larsson, who lives in Berkeley, posts her motherhood illustrations on Instagram.
“As I started sharing the drawings on Instagram, moms would message me about how much they related to the comics,” she explained. “It showed me that the little moments I was marveling at were universally shared by mothers everywhere. I felt like I stepped into this entirely new world of knowledge and shared stories. I love bringing that to life through illustration.”
Larsson’s art captures parenting experiences like pregnancy and breastfeeding. She recently published her drawings in a zine she called “Life is Boobiful,” which she sees as “a celebration of the weird and wonderful moments of motherhood.”
“I didn’t want the drawings to be too serious ― life is serious enough,” she said. “So, I focused on the humor in all the parenting madness.”
The artist particularly enjoys receiving messages from moms who say they read her comics while nursing and pumping. “It always tickles me to think that my breastfeeding comics are part of someone’s breastfeeding experience,” said Larsson, who sometimes leaves copies of her zine in nursing rooms as a surprise for pumping moms.
Beyond her zine and Instagram art, she has big dreams of painting murals on the walls of pumping rooms or even working as a full-time cartoonist or children’s book illustrator.
But for now, she’s just happy her work has resonated with other parents. “Being a new parent is crazy hard, especially in the U.S. where mothers aren’t guaranteed paid maternity leave,” Larsson said.
“Those first few months of healing your body, learning how to breastfeed, getting to know your baby, and navigating your new life are exhausting and can be isolating,” she added. “I hope my comics make people laugh and show them that they aren’t alone.”
Keep scrolling and visit Larsson’s Instagram for more relatable parenting comics.