Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kirsten Stoner. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Kirsten, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

I’ve worked on many meaningful projects over my career, including a children’s book series commissioned by one of my followers called “The Adventures of Edelbe”. Currently a project that I’m really proud of is my “Just Because Pun Special” where I’ve posted 30 pun comics every day in May of 2024. This is the third Pun Special I’ve done in my time as a cartoonist. My first Pun Special was in August of 2019 to celebrate reaching 1000 Instagram followers and the second was in April 2021 to celebrate 2500 followers.
So, why puns? Well, the English language (or any language really) has many sayings and phrases that have either a different meaning to what the actual words are saying, some words can have alternative meanings, or can be switched out with homophones, etc. When taken literally, these can be very funny. However, I feel that the media often tries to use cliche and forced puns as cheap attempts at a laugh without really unfolding their potential. Puns can be so much more than that. When I make my puns, I try not to go with too many obvious ones, or I try to put a funny spin on ones that could be cliché (i.e. everything under control or pear of underwear).
These projects are so meaningful to me personally because they’ve been a great exercise in creativity as well as an excuse to just have a light-hearted chuckle with people online and in my personal life. When I brought these Specials up to my friends, family, and coworkers, they’ve all found the concept fun and amusing and it also got their creative juices flowing too. My manager one morning even handed me a list of puns she thought of the night before. My followers that look forward to these specials often respond with puns themselves (they are a creative bunch). It’s been a fun bonding experience with many people in my life and my goal is to extend that fun to my readers. I plan on publishing these comics in a book with even more puns I couldn’t get to in the Specials in 2025 to spread that joy.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

From a young age, I always liked drawing and telling stories. For me, comics were the way for me to do both. In elementary school, I made a comic strip called the Flea and the Fly where a good fly would tag along with a rude, sassy flea on vacations, baking and such. As I got older, I explored other passions like music and dancing. I did show choir throughout my middle school and high school years. I also was experimenting with fun stop motion animations on my iPod Touch and drawing anime characters. I didn’t consider drawing as a career path until my sophomore year of high school when I went to my guidance counselor for class selection. I initially wanted to try computer science as an elective, but my counselor recommended taking an animation class instead.
My junior year of high school I started my first animation class. I was also fortunate that my teacher had connections at Nickelodeon Animation, and they provided a mentorship program to 10 select students open to all animation classes. I gathered all my sketches and anime drawings from the previous year and submitted it fingers crossed. Towards the end of the semester, my class went to the Nickelodeon Animation Studio on a field trip, and they announced the mentorship students there. And I was one of them. To say I was ecstatic was an understatement. So, from December 5th 2014 – May 23rd 2015 I worked with two mentors on my short film The Scarecrow. I learned a lot about story writing from Kevin Kramer, a story writer for Harvey Beaks at the time, and about shot composition from Monica Davila, a storyboard artist from Shimmer and Shine at the time. This also inspired me to pursue a career in the animation industry.
This was also the class where I created the characters that later went on to be my Little Animated Me webcomic. My teacher, Ms. Pickett, assigned the class to create cartoon versions of ourselves as part of the final portfolio grade. Since I was in the mentorship, I wasn’t required to do that portion of the assignment, but it was in the back of my mind. Then one day I tried to experiment with the idea of a large head, small body, and large feet (very original for a 16-year-old). I instantly liked what I made, and I started drawing the characters on my Spanish notes and doing choreography poses from my choir set. Then in my senior year, I started drawing them as a stream of consciousness on processing my day and drawing funny jokes. This led to me turning it into a webcomic and I posted my first comic strip Murphy’s Law on January 4th of 2017.
I went to California State University Northridge to study Animation, and I continued my comic throughout my entire college career. Professionally though, I had some difficulty deciding what I wanted to aspire to in the industry. I tried learning multiple skill sets including 3D modeling. I didn’t lock down on one area until my 3rd year of school in my perspective class. This class was taught by a professional I respect a lot as an artist and mentor, Robert St. Pierre. I owe a lot to him in my knowledge of perspective drawing, and I also noticed a dramatic improvement in my comics as well while taking his classes. He said once that it was very uncommon for students to come up to him and say they want to go into background design. So, I decided to be that student. I also found that I enjoy the challenge of perspective drawing, even if it’s frustrating sometimes. It’s also made me look at the world and the places I go to very differently in terms of not overlooking small corners. I enjoy walking around the shopping centers in my area and seeing the lone corners and trying to come up with their story. This is what I did with my Fizz Corp Mall image series.
What I want everyone to know is that what I draw comes from a genuine place. I’m passionate about the comics I make and the places I draw.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

One internalized misconception I’ve had difficulty unlearning is that my value as a person is automatically connected to my achievements and conflating worthy achievements with them being paid. I even still try to remind myself that the work I have created thus far and, in the future, has merit whether it was paid or not.
Often, I notice rhetoric online constantly calling young people, minority groups, American workers “lazy” for many different reasons. It could be student loan forgiveness, better working conditions, mental health days, the list goes on. I admit, I have internalized these sentiments and it’s had a huge effect on my self-esteem the last few years. Heck, even when writing this, I’m hearing the voice in the back of my head say, “who am I to say this, you got ______” or “other people have had it worse” The truth is, I’m not a lazy individual, and never have been. Even during the Pandemic, I was working 7 days a week on my comics and Internship for Champions of Eternity. I also know that many people have not had the same privileges that I have and have been able to achieve more and they are not lazy either. I’ve redone my professional portfolio many times and despite the many quantities of work I have, I’d have to take long breaks because it was mentally draining to see that work and my brain saying it was meaningless. That doesn’t mean it’s true of course, and it hardly makes me lazy.
Imposter syndrome is a common issue in many fields, including creative ones. In my case, when I first graduated college, I had a lot of people ask me for advice for animation and social media. I would answer to the best of my knowledge, but I was thinking, “Why are you asking me this like I know what I’m talking about?” I used to play them off as a joke saying, “I successfully fooled you into thinking I know what I’m doing.” I even did a comic about this in January of 2023 (i.e. Fooled) As I’m getting older, I’m trying to grow my confidence in my work and myself.
Also, it’s fair to acknowledge some things are outside your control. I graduated college in 2020. My school moved classes online the day of my Grad fest where I ordered supplies for my commencement ceremony. The pandemic started about a week later. I am very grateful that my family and I were able to avoid Covid until we were vaccinated and there were more treatments available. Despite this, it completely changed the trajectory of my life. A lot of internship opportunities were halted, and the Pandemic has affected the entertainment industry for decades to come. But I was able to continue my comics despite that and published my first book.
Now, I’m not saying that personal responsibility doesn’t have a place and that there aren’t areas where I need to grow. In my case, I need to learn how to network better in the industry. It’s a step-by-step process, but I’m improving. What I am saying is that a person’s life experience has so many factors that can affect a person’s experience and circumstances. Some of which are in the individual’s control, some are not. It’s about learning the difference between the two and making do with what you have. The Pandemic made this all too clear to me. How could I or anyone else anticipate society stopping so suddenly. It’s easy to look back in hindsight on what I could have done differently but at the moment, no one knew what was going to happen. Who knows what I would be doing now if the Pandemic hadn’t happened? I’m not sure. I can’t go back and undo my own personal actions back then, but I can make different decisions going forward.
The takeaway from this is that struggling is ok. Sometimes things are just outside your control and that is ok. Even if your circumstances are the result of your own decisions, you can still try to make better decisions going forward. There is no one way to be human. Sometimes I mess up and there’s things in life I cannot control. Things don’t always go to plan, but I still have value as a daughter, a partner, a friend, a teammate, a college graduate, a coworker, and yes, an artist.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

I think the best way to create a thriving creative ecosystem is as a society, we start valuing creativity as a skill, not just a talent. I and many people have been told we are so talented for our creative works by well-meaning people. While I appreciate the compliment, I don’t think it acknowledges the time and work it’s taken me to practice being creative. Creativity may come easier to some people more than others, but that doesn’t mean people who take to it easier don’t practice expanding the skill. I think seeing creativity as more of a talent instead of a skill to be developed plays a huge role in the mentality that creative careers are “not a real job.” This doesn’t acknowledge the idea that a lot of roles in society will benefit from a creative labor market, not just artistic ones.
One place to start in my view is with education. Not just increased spending in art programs, but curriculum that’s designed to foster creative problem solving. My junior year of high school, my AP Statistics Class was preparing for the exam. We were practicing using previous versions of the test. For those who don’t know, at the time, the exam had a word problem section with 6 multi-step problems. The last problem was one that you weren’t taught about in class or in review books. You were meant to find your own approach based on all you’ve learned to find the answer. That stuck with me 8 years later due to how that helped me grow. These are the lessons we should be fostering in youth, and we should be doing more of them.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.littleanimatedme.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/littleanimatedmecomics
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/littleanimatedme
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirsten-stoner-design
• Twitter: https://x.com/LittleMeComix
• Youtube: Little Animated Me
• Other: www.kirstenstonerdesign.com (portfolio site)

  https://www.tiktok.com/@littleanimatedme (Tiktok account)

  https://youtu.be/vEBnm3Drlhs (The Scarecrow Mentorship Project)