Jessika Green is a comics writer, illustrator and archivist born in London, now based in Birmingham. Her work uses both analog and digital practices, as well as poetry and humour to explore themes of voluntary childlessness, mental health, injustice, mythology and more.
“I felt NON MUM coming a long time before the words or imagery formed. I had been researching voluntary childfree lives but didn’t see myself reflected in articles, Instagram posts or podcasts and wanted to create something that spoke to both the light and shadow of my experience as a childfree person.
Then, during the last UK lockdown, I received a message from my oldest friend to tell me that she had given birth to her third child and the words I was searching for poured out of me. Four of my closest friends gave birth during the pandemic and witnessing them navigate parenthood without the usual support of friends and family opened me up to a space of deep reflection and ignited the confidence to create NON MUM.
Another inspiration for writing NON MUM was the experience of admitting to my parents that I didn’t want to have kids. It felt like a confession to something shameful and that I was letting down generations of ancestors. The weight of that made me want to create a counterpoint – something beautiful that also cut deep in its message.
I didn’t want NON MUM to position me as the ‘opposite’ of a mother in a binary way, as someone who has chosen to turn their back on parents and children, because that is not how I feel at all. If anything, not having kids has made me want to support mothers, parents and guardians even more.”
