For over a decade, British cartoonist and illustrator Gemma Correll has been drawing the awkwardness and anxieties of modern life, offering a new, accessible way to talk about mental health. Now, with her graphic memoir 'Anxietyland,' she confronts her own struggles in more detail than ever before.
How Depression Looks to Gemma Correll
"Some emotions are really hard to write about," says Correll, 42. "For me, different ones evoke different shapes: depression feels heavy like a big blob, while anxiety is more spiky and loud, with little sparks that can gather into a storm." Her visual language has resonated with millions, particularly millennials, who recognised themselves in her cutesy cartoons about overthinking, phone anxiety, and bed-rotting.
One of her cartoons asks, "Am I even good enough to have imposter syndrome?" Another, titled 'Things I Have Cried About While Pre-Menstrual,' lists "disappointing ravioli," "an old person eating an ice cream," and "the state of the world or whatever." Her work, often featuring snuggly pugs, offered a light-hearted way to address mental health before therapy-speak became mainstream.
From Instagram to a Global Audience
Correll started sharing her illustrations online around 2010, and her following ballooned on Instagram. Today, nearly one million people follow her work. Her drawings appear on greeting cards, calendars, and T-shirts, and she has illustrated several novels for bestseller Marian Keyes. Correll attributes her success to honesty and relatability. "Everything I draw comes from personal experience," she says. "What I experience is not unique. It can be a relief to see it depicted light-heartedly."
'Anxietyland': A Decade in the Making
Her new memoir, 'Anxietyland,' chronicles her ongoing health journey, including depressive episodes, agoraphobia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and alcoholism. Shuttling between a present-day crisis and memories of her anxious childhood and teenage alcoholism, the book is painfully honest yet surprisingly light-hearted. Panic attacks appear as endlessly looping rollercoasters; social anxiety is a House of Horrors filled with fears like ordering food and eye contact. Work-life balance is a game of whack-a-mole where money, happiness, and time are always out of reach.
The pandemic gave Correll the space to finish the book, as a locked-down world found solace in her cartoons. Friends shared her posts like "SOS flares" across social media, a way to say "I'm not doing so great" without awkward texts.
Pugs as Comfort and Wisdom
Long-time fans will be glad to see pugs feature heavily in 'Anxietyland.' "You just can't help but smile when you see a pug," says Correll, smiling at her two pugs, Bean and Zander, dozing by her feet. "They are so in the moment. They aren't worrying about the future or what happened yesterday. I always try to be a bit more like them."
A Non-Linear Journey
Now in her fifth decade, Correll still reckons with the mental health problems she writes about. One key takeaway from her book is how non-linear life can be. The final chapter sees her present self meeting her teenage self. "Soooo, you don't have the bad feeling any more? What did you do to make it go away?" asks her younger self. The older Correll replies simply: "I didn't." At the end of the day, it's not about leaving Anxietyland but learning to live there.
'Anxietyland' by Gemma Correll is published by Particular Books.
