We recently connected with Erica Ostrowski and have shared our conversation below.

Erica , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Are you happy as a creative professional? Do you sometimes wonder what it would be like to work for someone else?

I’m very happy as an Artist but sometimes I do daydream about having a different job. I’ll imagine myself as a famous boxer or a dog groomer, sweating under the pressure during a dog grooming competition, trying to shape my poodle’s hair into a lion’s mane.

But when I really think about what I could be, its more fun to let my imagination run wild than to actually have an non-creative career. I think its a sign that art and I were meant to be forever, especially since my daydreams are mostly animated with lots of color and movement. I really can’t see myself doing anything else!

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My brand is about letting yourself grow! As a queer artist who struggles with anxiety and OCD, I write stories and create comics about self discovery, self strength and self love. Comics have always been my passion. For the past 5 years I’ve been creating comic stories with my writing partner, David Bouloubassis, to help inspire people of all ages to never lose sight of their goofiness and to love themselves. This year one of our middle grade comics, “Beansprout” is currently being pitched for publishing by our Agent.

While writing graphic novels we keep our “Keep growing!” motto in mind. Our middle grade comics encourage kids to be themselves and to know they are always supported through colorful and relatable queer characters. Our YA comics are about finding your inner strength through characters who struggle with mental illness.

Everyone is a beansprout eager to spread out and color the world. With the right soil and friendships we stretch out into the sunlight and grow taller and stronger!

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

My personal motto is “Keep growing!” and my goal is to help folks feel inspired by their own self growth through stories and comics.

When covid hit it was the start of the toughest three years of my life. I lost my Mom to liver cancer and I wasted my time and energy on passionless projects run by toxic people. My anxiety and OCD were at their worst and I became very isolated. I began buying all these houseplants and started filling up my windowsill with aloes, snake plants, Swedish ivy and peace lilies. While I took care of all these plants I still have no room for, it started to inspire me again. Nature is deep in my roots and is a main source of reference for my work. It gave me a spark of passion and I began to create comics and write stories again.

This past year I started tending to my own health garden and with the love and support from my found family and friends, I feel like I can finally bloom! My mission is to take what I’ve learned and keep creating graphic novels with stories about mental illness, being LGBTQIA and finding your voice. I want to help folks laugh and grow!

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

People feeling represented, connected and inspired by my work.

While working on our webcomic “Beansprout Little Roots” I posted a few tiktoks introducing the characters. A woman reached out thanking me for the Autistic representation because her little girl has Autism and is non verbal. Her daughter really connected to one of our characters, Mushie, who is non verbal but has a big personality in the comic.

That was the most rewarding feeling in the world!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://eostrowskee.net/
• Instagram: @glamour_cryptid00
• Other: My webcomic “Beansprout: Little Roots”: https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/beansprout-little-roots/list?title_no=835164 My Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/bearmoon00