The book “Why aren’t we talking about this?!” deals with the topics that are most often – and secretly – googled: questions about love, sex, health and being human. Author and artist Hazel Mead has illustrated numerous social taboos.
How can I check my breasts or testicles for lumps? How can I process grief? How do I recognize a toxic relationship? In her book “Why aren’t we talking about this?!” London-based illustrator Hazel Mead answers the kinds of questions people are afraid to say out loud – and therefore prefer to ask a search engine. To do this, the 27-year-old artist researched the most frequently searched Google questions and found that in addition to seemingly banal issues (“How do I cut a mango?”), it is mostly about intimate, personal topics that are almost always subject to taboos. The illustrator has long made it her mission to address this in her works.
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During an internship at a feminist company, the Brit participated in panels and events where “the woman’s cycle, gynecological health and a lot of other important things that we don’t really talk about,” tells Hazel Mead dem stern. The author found this exchange, in which women spoke openly about endometriosis, bad sex and psychological problems, to be a liberating, emotional space. “It triggered something in me” – and inspired her to illustrate these conversations.
Paid Steel Klaschinski Sex Trust, 21:55
Depicting taboo subjects has become Hazel Mead’s passion – and her artistic niche. She didn’t just want to fill her book with “pretty pictures”, but above all with “relevant and interesting information that younger people need to know”. That extremely heavy or light menstrual bleeding can be a sign of health problems. That sex shouldn’t be painful. How to defend yourself with a few simple fighting techniques. How to spot scams on the internet. “And I think there are some key points about empathy throughout the book,” says the illustrator.
The work is a mixture of the questions that Hazel Mead herself would have liked to have answered earlier in life and those questions that people google a lot. On the one hand, the author has collected material herself and, on the other hand, spoken to experts. She then tried to fit as much information as possible on 214 pages – and to present it using colourful, creative graphics.
Come out loud Hazel Mead a “coming-of-age book” intended to fill the gaps left by formal education. A guide and encyclopedia for young people, whether they are experiencing heartbreak or are about to be screened for cervical cancer. “As with all of my work, I want it to spark conversation,” says the author. And that it helps to break down social taboos.
“Why aren’t we talking about this?” will be published by Penguin Random House on June 1 – initially in English – and will cost 21.99 euros.