CONTENT WARNING: discussion of pregnancy loss
Cartoonist Chari Pere discusses how she used art to share her experiences with pregnancy loss.
Cartoonist Chari Pere is on a mission to create art that is heartfelt, funny, and relatable–and has most recently done so with her award-winning “Unspoken” Cartoonmentary series, shedding light on miscarriage, pregnancy loss, and other taboo topics. She has previously worked with Red Bull, Mad Magazine, Gretchen Rubin, Comedy Central, Mayim Bialik, Bud Light, and Purina. During the pandemic, her “Corona Mama” comic series and coloring books brought humor to the challenge of parenting in lockdown. In 2024, she was named Artist of the Year by JewCE (the Jewish Comics Experience). Chari lives in Teaneck, NJ with her husband and three kids.
For more about Chari’s work: https://www.charipere.com/
For more about host Bea Moise: https://beatricemoise.com/
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FULL TRANSCRIPTION
Note: the following transcription was automatically generated. Some imperfections may exist.
BEA MOISE (BM):
Hello and welcome to Exploring Different Brains. I am Bea Moise and I’ll be your host. Today, I’m excited to welcome my guest cartoonist Chari Pere. She is going to tell us all about how she is using her unique and beautiful talent to highlight difficult topics. So before I welcome Chari to our conversation, I would like to say that this topic will cover pregnancy loss, so if anyone feels a little uncertain or is uncomfortable with the topic or conversation, I just want to give that disclaimer so you can do what you need appropriately. So Chari welcome.
CHARI PERE (CP):
Thank you for having me be it’s great to meet you and great to be here. It’s great, great,
BM:
great to meet you. So I was telling you I’m already a fan, okay? I’m a fan for so many reasons. One, why not like, why not like, why why not? But secondly, I just think I love your energy. We literally just met, and I feel like I do this to everyone, so it’s a little crazy. Everyone’s a new best friend.
CP:
I’m the same way, so it’s a match made in heaven.
BM:
Okay, yeah, we’re best friends now. Okay, so I want to know so many things about how’d you get started? How do you do How did you come to this? What brought you here, but let’s stay focused. Let’s stay focused, and let’s talk about you just telling me about your “Unspoken” cartoonumentory series. What is that?
CP:
So it’s a series of comics and animated shorts about reproductive health, currently. I love, at some point to expand to other topics about mental health and other other difficult issues. But it basically started in 2014 I had a miscarriage, and I was shocked by how little information there was available at the time. You know, my husband was away for five days. I was by myself with a very active, very active toddler, and I had had bad news, and was just having to sit by myself at two in the morning, and I would go online. And, you know, aside from a few people mentioning it, nobody really was super open or had any material or resources for me to hear their stories. You I had no nobody talked about it. I know, after I started opening up, I found out my mom had it, probably my grandmother had a miscarriage, and so many my best friend had to another friend had to before their first I mean, like it, just like everybody seemed to have had it. And there was this club that nobody wanted to be in, but nobody would talk about. So, um, you know, I’m a cartoonist. I’ve been drawing since I was a year old. I’ve been I’ve been hired. I went to the School of Visual Arts, graduated valedictorian with focusing on cartooning. And my first job when I was still a senior in college was to do a coloring book for kids with diabetes. And was so wonderful getting to tell to help other kids using my skills. And then I was had various freelance jobs that I was hired to do. I did a comic about an abusive relationship and a woman getting out after 10 long years of battling her, her cheating, abusive spouse. And you know, so when I and I worked with author Gretchen Rubin, whose book The Happiness Project was number one York Times bestseller, and I told her story in a supposedly chapter for a book ended up being released as a supplementary form online about her, her pursuit of trying to figure out what her what would make her happy, what was her passion. So I had been using my skills for a com book for bully prevention. I’ve been it was, for me, it was pretty routine to now use my skills to help other people. And so I said, Of course, I have to share my story. I’m a firm believer in if anything bad happens to you, you have to turn into something good and to help others as a way to heal. So it took me a few years I had my rainbow baby, which is the baby that comes after a miscarriage, and I was ready to tell my story, so I put it in a 10 page comic. And I was connected to actress Mayan Bialik, who ended up sharing it on her social media platform and launching it right between Mother’s Day and and when I had my miscarriage between Memorial Day, so it was a very meaningful time for me. And I, you know, this was back when social media, you could actually be social and share things that people would see it. Remember those days?
BM:
I do remember those days.
CP:
Way back when, eight years ago. So I launched and people hadn’t really seen it anything like that before, and it was shared widespread online, and I had people writing to me from all over the world, sharing their experiences and opening up. So this was on a Tuesday, and then on a Friday, I was telling my husband, you know, as little as women talk about miscarriages, men don’t have a platform at all, and I should really consider. Telling a story from a husband’s perspective, and literally, an hour later, a fan of my comic reaches out to me and and says, you know, you should really consider doing a comic from a husband’s perspective, because my husband struggled, and he had had no one to talk to at all. He didn’t have, yeah, he didn’t have a tribe. So my first story was miscarried, and then the second one was Michael’s miscarriage from the fan of of my first and then the following year, I released the diagnosis about a Down Syndrome diagnosis, and I was working on my fourth comic when two things happened. I had my third child and suffered from postpartum depression. So I put the project on pause for a few months, and then I was picking it up again, and a little pandemic hit. So the whole project was put aside to like cope with this massive pandemic, and I ended up getting a fellowship last year for the Jewish writers initiative. Now it’s the Jewish writers Institute, and I was able to turn to finish up the fourth comic, which is called determination. It’s about an IVF abortion story of one woman who’s whose dream was to have twin girls, and she had IVF, she could only get pregnant from IVF, she had one successful pregnancy, and she had a son, and then she’s pregnant with two girls, and that was her dream, because she was a twin, and unfortunately, one of the twins was not developing well, and she hadn’t come to this terrible decision of whether or not to abort the baby to save the other in herself. And so I finished that comic and and I have been turning them all into animated shorts that have been screening at film festivals. Determination just launched at Soho International Film Festival a few weeks ago in October of 2025 and so that that’s how the whole thing started, and it’s just been my mission to try to keep making these videos and comics to help people and reaches as many topics as possible.
BM:
I think that’s such a wonderful way to decide, like to definitely say, okay, how can I reach others? What can I do? What else is there? Because, you know, there are certain type of, you know, I guess there’s certain clubs that you join as an adult that you didn’t think you were ever going to join, right? And the miscarriage club is one of them. Like, there’s, you know, the baby loss club, the, you know, there’s the neurodivergent club, there’s, there’s all these different things as you’re not really prepared to handle and no one is telling you they’re a part of it until you’re a part of it. It’s com, you know, like it’s this unspoken thing, and I, as you’re talking about that’s right, as you’re saying it, and as you’re talking about it, I do remember, you know, I had a miscarriage prior to my first child, Jake, and suddenly it was, I’m in a club by myself. So I thought, right? Like it just felt like, okay, it’s just me. I’m just the only one in this situation. No one else has experienced it. And but I decided I was going to be very vocal, and I was going to say, hey, this thing happened. I am saddened. I don’t know how to feel. I don’t know how to experience I just don’t know. But I wasn’t going to, like, be in a little bubble and be shamed about it like that was just the decision I made. I was like, I made this announcement, like I put it out on text. I’m like, I had a miscarriage. I don’t know how I feel about it yet. I’m still processing like, that was how I decided to go about it. And I think the way that you basically did the same thing, but you turned it from, you know, kind of your thoughts, to art, right? Like you made it art, you made it a passion. And I think again, it’s now you realize, oh, wait, you’re part of this club too, or you’re part of this club too. Oh, wait, you’ve already in, been in this club and, yeah, I think that is such a wonderful way for you to turn your art into a conversation, into a movement and also into therapy. So I I have a question about, like, okay, so what were some of the impacts on your mental health after you experience your pregnancy loss. Like, what was the impact to your health? Obviously, the postpartum, there’s all these things that happen just naturally by being pregnant, just your body and all the hormones. But like, what was the impact and how did you navigate it at that time, during that time, right?
CP:
Well, there’s, there’s two separate impacts, and there’s the ones you can control and the ones you can’t control, right? Absolutely. So there’s the physical impact of, you know, bleeding your baby out of you, and then having to, like, I view myself as, you know, it was pretty mild. I my body took care of itself. I didn’t need a DNC. I’m very grateful for not having to make any decisions about whether or not to terminate because I was 10 weeks five days, if it were a few weeks later, even though my baby had no brain and like no heart, you know, I would have to make decisions about stuff on my own that I didn’t want to. I didn’t have to deal with. So those are the kind of the physical ailments are the ones that cannot be controlled. That is why. But I would have spent a lot less time feeling like I was a failure, and feeling like, why is my woman body not doing what it’s supposed to you know, I had this dream of having kids two years apart, very much, a big dream. And those dreams were, you know, could I get pregnant right away? Can I not? I don’t know. Like, doctors can only tell you so much. I needed to hear from other people with their experience, the people I knew and trusted with, like, the emotional side of what’s going through it. You know, personally, I had a doctor who, while initially was very my husband, came to me at all doctor’s appointments, except for this one, because he was on a plane, going on a trip, right? And you know, she was getting she handled the news well, but then subsequent phone calls was just like, she’s seen this a gazillion times a day, pretty cold. So I didn’t know who to turn to if I couldn’t talk to my doctor, if you know. So just if I had known who I could talk to, if I had these resources, I would realize, wait a second, I’m being hard on myself. This happens for 25% of pregnancies, right? I can, like, get on and try it on again right afterwards, you know? And it just, it just would have taken away all this unknown. I don’t know about you, but the unknown is what kills me. I for each time with this, with this miscarriage, I knew, like, okay, it’s light spotting, if it turns to red spotting, the doctor. So like, when it got to the heavy bleeding, and it was like, you’re on your own now, until something comes out of you, like, I don’t know what that’s gonna happen. Is it gonna happen tomorrow? Is it gonna be full term right now? Like, next week? Do I have to make this? Like, the unknown really made me crazy, and just having others to tell me, like, if you’re feeling this, this is what you know, this is what I’ve been through. Would have just relieved all this unnecessary strife that I had within my body. And so it’s the emotional pain that, like really could have shifted, as opposed to the physical
BM:
pain, right? Yeah, and that makes sense, because, again, there are the things that just are, there are the things that just are, and there’s nothing you can do about it. But then there are things that are preventative in terms of conversation, right? Like, in terms of communication, it’s like, okay, how hard you feel is based on how much information you’re given on the upfront, right? And, like you said, if your doctor is like, Oh, I’ve seen this before. Okay, you go home and go to sleep, take a Tylenol, and you’re like, what does that mean? You know what? You know. Like, sure, for every other patient you’ve dealt with, that’s your go to but for me, I’m alone. My husband’s gone. I’m by myself. Like, what does this mean? What what I need a little bit more information. Can I get a support group? And that could definitely make you feel more alone, and that’s definitely going to have a negative impact on your mental health, because you’re alone, and when you’re alone dealing with something, it becomes it’s already a traumatic experience, but when you’re alone without help, it becomes more traumatic. So I totally understand the two parts of it. So was it difficult to open yourself and express yourself and your experiences to your readers. Like, was that difficult or did it just feel natural? Was there a process you had to do?
CP:
Readers: totally natural. I’m used to being open and storytelling online. It was the initial hump of getting over telling the close family and friends who I thought would have judged me more. A lot of the reaction like, I know you’re pregnant. Like, yeah, it’s the first trimester. Like, I was like…
BM:
Because you’re told to wait anyway, right.
CP:
So I found that to be really hard to to tell people, you know, oh, I’m I didn’t like, other than my husband and I, you know, no one knew we were expecting. So it was very hard for me to tell people, oh, I am pregnant. It’s not good. Haha. Like, this is like. This is what do I do now? So having after and telling the family members who I thought would act one way or say, you know, some people are trying to be helpful, but they say the wrong things, like, oh, I should try again. I’m like, but yeah, my dream was to have, like, two kids two years apart. So, like, I can’t just try again for the dream. Like, I everything was timed so well. So so, you know, it was, it was hard to tell the initial group, and then once, and then I knew for the future. You know, I don’t have to tell everybody that I’m pregnant, but I’ll tell people earlier. Next time I there’s, I don’t know why it’s a secret, I’ll just tell my core group who, you know, by the way, I’m pregnant again, if I’m like, anxious or whatever, just like, this is the reason why. Just, you know, check in on me. Just, you know, help me and whatever it is. You know, a lot of people don’t like to ask for help, and I don’t understand, and you don’t have to ask the whole world for help, but you. Been asked, you know, one or two people to be there for you, and they will be very happy that you have asked, and that they will feel honored that you’re the one. You know, it helps everybody, like, there’s, it’s, it helps them feel good because, because they ask you, you ask them, and make you feel good because you have a support. It’s a win, win.
BM:
I agree. I agree. And I think you’re, you’re definitely in a unique situation where, again, no one knew right outside of the people who needed to know. And in this situation is between you and your husband, and it’s kind of like, why do I need to say something that nobody knew about? You know, it’s like a trip being canceled or something. It’s like, I don’t really need to tell you I was going, but then I’m not anymore, and so I totally, I understand that, like, I totally understand how it was weird but needed at the same time, you know, complicated. Again, we’re talking about a subject that is difficult for some to talk about. And I’ve, you know, I’ve spoken about, you know, miscarriages before, and I’ve spoken about my own miscarriage, and I realized, you know, I deal with loss and humor, right? That’s, that’s, that’s how I process loss and grief and anything sad, I make jokes about it, and that could be very uncomfortable to some people. So I think sometimes even trying to come up with, well, do I make a joke? I’m like, Oh, we’re pregnant. No, we’re not. Haha, you know, like, how do you do that? Trying, and it is most difficult with family, because you don’t know their response, where strangers tend to be. Well, it’s 50 million of you five will find this funny, and at least after five I got what I, you know, like, I hit someone where, with family, they’re like, I think she may need a little bit more help than she’s talking about. So I can see how it’s it was more difficult for family than it was for strangers. So this series been, I mean, you kind of went from like, I wouldn’t say, an overnight success, because there’s really no such thing, right? But the timing of when you shared it, of you know, when it got released, for it to become what it’s what it became, is obviously wonderful and serendipitous. But how, how have you seen their response to the series been, like, like, on a personal, individual level. Like, have you had people just kind of, like, reach out to you individually and go, Oh my God, thank you. Like, how has that response been?
CP:
Absolutely, I mean, from the beginning, people reach out privately and share their stories. I mean, when you release stories out, you kind of become a therapist, in a way, because you’re just someone who, like, ends up getting, I’m sure you get this too sometimes, like you, you know, you just get all the stories from everyone, and they’re all important, and they’re all so valid. And it’s amazing. Some people don’t talk to anybody else, and they’ve opened up to me. I think the most incredible experience was when I was from from the comic I was flown out to speak at a conference in England, and at my workshop about my comic, someone comes up to me and she’s like, I was waiting the whole conference to come meet you. I have to tell you your comma came out right at the week that I had a miscarriage, and it really helped me get through everything, and it meant a lot to me. So the fact that I go to different country, and someone came up to me specifically to tell me, like that, that’s what it’s there for, you know, yeah. And, you know, you mentioned the humor too. It’s funny because it’s funny. My background is in humor. I internet magazine. I tell a lot of humorous like, my goal in life was to be a newspaper comic strip artist, which I, you know, I graduated from school, and then the following month, the first iPhone came out and completely transformed the whole industry. How we get information. And really, like newspaper, comics were a difficult field to begin with, and it just made it really impossible. But in all my stories, you know, I really try. So the great thing about comics is that it’s my comic format, right? Like, you can feel like you are with these simple drawings you put in the shoes of this person. It’s not like it is somebody’s story, but you’re reading it as though you know you’re reading it. I felt this. I felt right, and with the iconic illustration, like it could be you. Some of them could be universal and could be you. So so I, and it’s really important to, like, tell these heavy stories, yeah, but also add humor. In each of my stories, I try to add humor so it’s not all heavy. So I feel like it helps reach to people who wouldn’t, necessarily, you know, have have been open to read, to seeing something heavier. So I feel like it’s really great when people open up to me, because I feel like it, you know, it’s, it’s really rewarding when it resonates with with others.
BM:
Yeah, I agree. I definitely think humor is, is a universal language. It’s definitely something where, you know, I can listen to a comic from a different country, and they just kind of can deliver something and say something, and I’m like, Oh, that’s funny. Me, like, I have no idea what is happening in East London, but that sounds like a funny situation that could happen in East London, right, even though I’m nowhere near that. So I do think humor is, I think humor has a different reach, right than the serious tone. Like, I think it can kind of go a little bit further, but that’s, I guess, you and I just have that edge to us.
CP:
So, yeah, I mean, you know, I still can’t. I still laugh at the part where my miscarriage, like, I called the office. I had clearly bled something out in the toilet. I needed an ultrasound. And, you know, I called up the office, and there’s five doctors there, and they’re like, oh, nobody’s in today. It’s Tuesday. I’m like, Okay, so, like, miscarriages don’t happen on Tuesday?
BM:
Right, it’s canceled on Tuesday. Tomorrow we’ll resume.
CP:
And, like, by the way, there were, there was an ultrasound technician and a physician assistant who was who were fully capable of helping me on a Tuesday. They forgot to mention that part. I mean, that would have been useful. Yeah. And they actually came. One of them walked past when I called the second time and said, Wait, who’s on the phone? Oh, get her in there. I know her. She’s a patient of mine, so, like, multi sound technician was my hero. But it’s like, okay, so I guess in certain offices Tuesday, you know, you don’t have miscarriage. Nope, not miscarriage…
BM:
Not for Tuesdays. You reserve it for another day. No, I totally understand.
CP:
And we’re recording this in October, which is pregnancy and infant loss Awareness Month. But like, you know, okay, so, like, miscarriages happen in November, in December, you know. So, you know, in April, yeah. Like, you know, whatever, there are facts in life, and then there’s reality, and you’ve just gotta, like, be open and go with it.
BM:
I do, you know I have, I have ADHD. Everyone, anyone who’s ever listened to me talk for more than five minutes will know I have ADHD. And October is also ADHD Awareness Month, and I share something every day in the month of October about ADHD. But then I’m always like, we do know the ADHD exists in November as well, and in December, oh, it’s happening in January. Like, it’s gonna be here on March, like, So now today, yeah, it’s going on all the time. So you’re right. October is, you know, pregnancy loss awareness, but it goes beyond that. And I think, what? Why do? Why do? Why do you think there’s so little out there for women going through this very common again, you, you and I just met, right? We already share something, right? We share something. We share an experience. We share a moment in time. We share a feeling. You know, I remember, I had a very hard time watching any ultrasound, anything on television. It would be like, Nope, because I’ve had, like, a traumatic response to that.
CP:
Call the midwife. Okay, okay, to not do lists when you’re going through miscarriage. Game of Thrones, the red wedding episode. Do not watch that and call the midwife with miscarriages. I have never touched Call the Midwife again. Game of Thrones. I’m like, well, it was a one off, like, they’re not gonna be focusing on stabbing, but like, you know, that sort of scene is not gonna happen in the future. So I was able to get back to that. But Call the midwife. I’ve started and stopped. It’s just so ingrained in me, you know. Oh, and Handmaid’s Tale. Could not watch that again afterwards?
BM:
Nope, yeah. I mean, these are real experiences. So, I mean, why don’t we have more information? Like, do, what? What are your thoughts? You like? Why don’t we have, you know, we’re doing better. I will always say we’re doing a lot better. So it’s not to say we were sucking, right? I’m like, if we, if we, if we have a C. Now maybe, how do we get to a B? You know?
CP:
Well, I will like to call out that around the same time I had my experience. Dr Jessica Zucker started a movement hashtag. I had a miscarriage. So she made a lot of headway with her best selling books, and she has a new book, normalize, normalize. It, about trying to normalize all these things. So and I just last night also went to a documentary someone else featured who had a miscarriage to say, like, I don’t know what was in the blood was in the water with 2014 but apparently bunch of us drank the Kool Aid, and we’re all like, we need to do something about it. So I just went last night, went to this incredible documentary of before our breath, about three different stillbirth experiences that had been documented over the course of many years. And you know, so I think that we have done a lot of work in terms of finding support. There’s different organizations that are there for fertility foundations to put together, like a community. But overall, you know, I think that we just need to figure out how to do mental health and the doctor system better. You know, at the documentary last night, they were saying how 21,000 stillbirths happen in the US, and there are 181 countries ahead of us who have done better and regards to stillbirth. So, I mean, until, like, the doctors have gotten the memo of how to treat a patient with care and helpful advice, and until, you know, until the healthcare system has improved, to talk about the emotional parts of of this situation, of unfortunate pregnancy losses and all that. That’s where we’re stuck. So we’re doing better talking about it to each other, but the system still needs to be fixed.
BM:
I agree. I think we had, my husband was there with me, and I think we, you know, in there was the ultrasound, and in, you know, there wasn’t a heartbeat. So that’s why I have, like I had, for a very long time, PTSD with the ultrasound, and you know, after that it was, I had the absolute most wonderful and caring and oh my gosh, she’s still my doctor. Till today, she’s still my OBGYN. She was so nurturing and so caring. And I actually forgot I was in a doctor’s office, because it’s like she canceled the rest of her day, you know, because again, you get this information, and she’s just sitting in the room crying with me and with my husband and I, and I, you know, there are, there are some who’s doing it right, right. There are some who can give you that information, and they’re doing it right. But then there are others who is very dismissive, because I have other friends who did not have the same experience as me. Oh, yeah, you know. And, and I think part of honestly, part of that loss. And Jake is my rainbow baby, and my son having autism, was like, I could care less about this. This is not a thing, like I lost a child before. So there can be some uplifting thing that comes from such a loss where me being told my son is autistic is like, but he’s alive, right? Like, you know what I mean, right? You know, there’s all these different things so separate from this. Like, what would you say that creating, have your art helped you with your mental health? Like, how did the miss you know that this kind of help you with mental health, or were there other things that kind of because you seem to have a pretty positive and optimistic view of life and just moving forward and also just sharing and exchanging information? Has your art been the main component of that? Or just different things?
CP:
Well, well, total side point. I just want to say that I love the name Jake. And I have a son named Jake who was born before my, my rainbow baby. So kudos to all the women out there. Oh, the Jake’s great name. Love it. And as far as, as, as you know, the cartoon, honestly, there’s been nothing more healing than me doing my comics. I feel like I don’t feel like I have the burden on me. I feel like it lifted everything. And I, you know, I don’t, I can’t honestly say that if I’d had a DNC, if I had, if I had a stillbirth, if it would have been the same, you know, I, like I said before, I saw the fetus in the toilet, and I don’t do well with blood, so I’m freaked out. But you know, being able to draw that and put it out there in the world, I feel like, you know how people say you should make a to do list the night before, because it’s not on your brain. It just feels like that’s what happened for me and the other people I’ve worked with also have felt the same. They felt like they were carrying this burden inside their heads, and then once it was out and it done well in the world. Then, you know, it was really, really, really, you know…
BM:
It’s therapeutic.
CP:
Yeah, therapeutic is the right word, and I’m very grateful that I am able to use my skills in that way.
BM:
No, it’s therapeutic because I write to purge you. Write you, you draw, you’re an artist. I cannot make stick figures, you would. It’s horrible. I’m horrible at that stuff. But I write to purge information, pain, resources, whatever it may be. I write so in you’re right, there is a feeling of once it’s no longer somehow attached to you. There’s this freedom. There is this release of it and and I don’t think that could be explained outside of it unless you do that type of art, whether it’s drawing or abstract art or cartoon art, writing or singing, or once you kind of get it from your. Mine and into the world, you’re free. So I that makes sense.
CP:
I have a college a college teacher who I believe the official term was getting your ya-yas out into the world.
BM:
That is what we will say from now on.
CP:
100% I figured you would appreciate that. So that is what we’re saying.
BM:
Everything else has been canceled. This is the only thing we’re saying. So what other stuff do you have coming up? What do you have coming up, new projects or anything else you’re working on?
CP:
So the I have the first two, first two videos have been out from my series. They released last year the third video determination about the IVF abortion story that has been in some festivals this year, most recently at Soho International Film Festival. And we’re going to be releasing online November 3 with the premiere. So it’ll be available on my website after that, and then I’m still in development for the fourth animated version of the Down Syndrome story, the diagnosis, which my ambi Alec will actually be voicing the character, the main character in that one. So I am planning to release that in March, in time for Down Syndrome Awareness Day, not to be confused with October, which is not only pregnancy and infant loss Awareness Month and HD ADHD month and Breast Cancer Awareness Month and dwarfism Awareness Month. But it’s also Down Syndrome Awareness Month, but we’re releasing it in March, in time for Down Syndrome Awareness Day. So the week of March, 21 earlier some the exact time to be decided. So I’ve been drawing them all. I take my comics and I slice up the characters and I add all the eye expressions and the mouth expressions, and divide the joints and fill in the backgrounds, and then send it off to my animator. So this is all me and my little hands producing it all. My husband, Ellie Schiff, is the CO producer of the series, the editor of the comics. He helps cast. He’s a voiceover actor, award winning voice over actor, and he helps cast and direct all the voices. And he’s voiced as well all of my I have three beautiful children now, and they all have lent voices at some point in time to the series. So and after that, you know, we’d love to partner with other organizations and tell more stories and additional topics, not just reproductive health, but, you know, like ADHS, two of my children have ADHD. So ADHD is a topic autism is a topic on tackle, you know, stillbirth, the loss of a family member or friend cancer, there’s a lot of, unfortunately, there’s a lot of topics out there that are unspoken, yes, yes. And so I’m very open to collaborations and all about getting the right story and the right partnership at the right time.
BM:
I think that’s a beautiful way. I think that’s a beautiful way to tie it together. I think, you know, what a wonderful partnership. You know, in hearing about, you know, you get my am to do voice over that is pretty that’s pretty awesome. Like, I think just, but your work is great, like, your work is great. So it’s just easy. You know what I mean for someone to see that you’re doing good work? You know what I mean? Like, it’s very easy. What advice would you have for and I get asked this question, and I’m like, you know, it’s hard to give advice to a new person, because the trend, what’s current, is different, right, than when you got started to do something. So this may be a hard question, but what advice would you give to someone out there, an artist that is dealing with difficult things, but would like to create art, to express that like but they’re not comfortable to do so, you know? Again, I can you, we’re talking about pregnancy loss here. I’m talking about autism and pregnancy loss and ADHD. We’re just throwing all of it in there, you know.
CP:
And that’s why Dr Jessica Zucker, in her book, is talking about normalizing all the things, because there’s just so many of them, and it’s like really hard. There’s only 12 months out of the year to focus on all these topics, and only 365, days. And you know, there’s so many, so many more issues. So first of all, take the time that you need to process. When you’re ready — Because I didn’t write my story right away. I think I, like, waited a little bit of time until I was in a mentally okay place to write it down, or write it down immediately and then put it aside and then come back to it. Whatever works for you, everybody’s different. I love that. And then when you’re ready, you know, I had my miscarriage in 2014 and I released the comic in 2017 I probably worked on it in 2016 so you know, you know when you’re ready share it. And the important thing to remember is that. That it’s so helpful even now and 10 years from now, because years after I released my comic, I had friends private message me and say, you know, thank you for releasing that comic, because I just had a miscarriage, and I knew to go to your website because you released it back then. So it might not even make an impact today or tomorrow, right? But you know, at some point, some celebrity can share your story and be and then all of a sudden, everybody knows who you’re talking about. So, um, so, you know, it’s really important to figure out what works for you. Because what works for me, I’m a very open person. I’m not an introvert. I’m not a typical artist at my desk, you know, happy to just do my thing. I’m, like, constantly on the phone while I’m working doing my drawings. I have the TV on so I can, like I need to be around people, and so I am very open and sharing my story, and I recognize that is not 90% of the world. So do you? Do you? And, you know, figure out what works for you, and if something doesn’t work, or somebody gets bad advice, then just figure something else out it’s okay to pivot.
BM:
I love that I do. I genuinely. I love that I don’t think I think I love what you said more than I just love this conversation we’ve had in general. You’re an awesome human. Where are you? Where can we reach you? What’s your platform? How do I stalk you right after we’re done here, tell me how to get to you in every single way possible, like, how do we find
CP:
you Sure? Well, my website is Chari Pere – C, H, A, R, i, P, E, R, E, ChariPere.com can be found on Instagram and Facebook and LinkedIn @ChariPereart, C, H, A R, i, P, E, R, E, A R, T, and you can shoot me a message on any of those platforms. Reach out to me via my my emails, and you know the contact me on my website. I really love hearing from people, and you never know what good can come from any little conversation. So I love hearing from people. And you know, at some point I’m going to be putting a collection together of my books of existing stories to sell, but that’s in production right now, and, yeah, that’s how you can find me.
BM:
I love that, and something that we did not talk about, but also is related. A lot of people can relate to a story in cartoon form better than just written words. So you have tapped into a demographic of individuals where the picture resonate, right? Because we think pictures is something for children. I’m a visual learner. I love pictures. I like visually looking at things. My son’s a visual learner. So I love the idea of you having this way of reaching people in a way that is conventional to me, because I think it’s fantastic, but might be unconventional to others. So I just think you’re doing wonderful things. You’re putting beautiful work out into the world. We need more humans like you. And again, I’m going to stalk you. We’re not best friends for life. That’s what’s happening.
CP:
Thanks. And you know, it’s and one of the reasons why I do the comics versus the animations, because I really am genuinely trying to reach people and meet them where they are. So some people don’t want to watch a video which, oh, the videos can also be found on YouTube through my site also, but at unspoken cartoon mentory, so find you can subscribe there as well. But you can also find it through my website, Shari pierre.com/unspoken unspoken cartoons. But you know, everybody processes everything differently. Some people might want to just read the 10 page comic, which is the fuller version of the story, and then the animations. The comic, even though it’s 10 pages, is still too long for the five minute videos that I do. So the video is about half the size of it, but it’s really just to be sure that I can reach whoever needs to be reached in whatever way works for them. So, you know, it’s, it’s, it’s a labor of love. And I in, you know, I’m, like I said, I’m glad to be able to use my skills in this way to help people in this world.
BM:
I love that you’re thinking about accessibility to everyone and just true inclusion, which, again, here at different brains, we that’s the goal, is to make sure not one individual brain type is excluded, and in this situation, not one situation is excluded, because there’s just so many. I mean, obviously it’s just part of being human is you’re gonna have a human experience. And this is part of the human experience. It’s common. It happens. It happened to you, it happened to me, it happened to my friend, it happened to your friend, it happened to the doctors. It didn’t, you know, like it happened to so many individuals, so and we all process it so differently. We all process. Said very differently. You and I are making jokes about it, while other people may do something different, but you know it, it happens to us all, and however you cope is obviously appropriate. It’s just, and I do like your statement about allowing the time to process and just kind of sitting with it before you put it out there, because you might regret it, right? Like, if you’re kind of like, you put it out there as soon as it happened, it’s like, oh, I didn’t want it this way. I didn’t want to trade that way. So I love that as a piece of advice. I think that’s great advice,
CP:
Yeah, and that’s why, you know, I held off telling the determination comic, because I knew that I was in the thick of things with postpartum depression. I was working full time, 11 hour work and travel, 10 to 11 working travel days, and I couldn’t come home and bring myself to tell this very important story, because even though I knew it was important, because I was not in a good place, and I was in a much better place. You know, a year and a half ago when I started working on, on, you know, rebooting the series again. You know, everything is about, about you have to lift you, lifting yourself up and others as well. So if you’re sacrificing yourself and your mental and physical health, what’s that? I mean, who’s that? Who’s that going to please? How’s your body going to react to that if you’re not treating yourself well and your body’s breaking down on you, how can you be strong? It’s about, you know, the whole going on a plane and putting that oxygen mask on yourself first.
BM:
Yeah, yeah. Sherry, thank you.
CP:
Thank you Bea. This is lovely.
BM:
Oh no. Thank you for this talk. Thank you for this conversation. Thank you for today. I hope this conversation was healing to some informative to others, comedic relief for anyone else, I don’t know, however you want to take it. Thank you so much for today. Thank you for your time, and we look forward to seeing all the wonderful things that you will be doing in the future.
CP:
Thank you so much. Bye, bye.
