Anxious Avery: Adult Animated Series With a Black Female Lead
About
Anxious Avery is an adult animated series about a young Black woman named Avery, who struggles with anxiety.
You can watch episodes on Youtube and the Anxious Avery Episode Page.
Co-creator Hayley Armstrong calls this project, “a love letter to introverted, nerdy, shy Black women and girls who struggle with anxiety.”
Black Female Cartoon Character Anxious Avery Shines In New Show
If you’re looking for a relatable cartoon about what it’s like to be an introvert, Anxious Avery is for you!
Hi, I’m Hayley Armstrong, co-creator of Anxious Avery, an animated series for and about Black girls who struggle with daily anxiety, introversion, anxiety disorders, diagnoses, etc.
I wrote and developed this series with my mother, Charlotte Moore, who does the animation.
My Anxiety Story:
I’ve dealt with anxiety all of my life. The first emotion I can really remember affecting me and dictating my life choices was fear. I’ve never felt an emotion so deeply.
My nervous system is always on high alert, I’m constantly in fight or flight mode, even in moments that don’t call for it.
Mental illness wasn’t something that was openly discussed in my family. (I think that’s a pretty common experience in African American families)
But as I’ve gone through life, and now, as an adult, having seen doctors, psychologists, and psychiatrists, I don’t doubt that mental illness runs rampant in my family.
Any legitimate illness someone had was probably chalked up to having a “weird personality,” “little, funny quirks,” or that person just… “being like that.”
Not having the vocabulary to talk about it isn’t our fault, I think a lot of it can be attributed to a hyper-focus on religion (Christianity specifically) as a cure-all, and a valid lack of trust that many older Black people have of doctors, that was then passed down through generations.
It’s still pretty taboo to consider going to therapy as a Black person. There’s stigma attached, an idea that there’s something wrong with you or that you’re “crazy” if you feel like you need to see a therapist.
I do see that slowly changing, the more Black mental health advocates that come across my social media feeds and the more in depth conversations we have with each other about what we’re dealing with.
But I’ve always known that something was off with me. I feel like I’ve been more afraid of things than other people were.
It’s been hard for me to hold jobs because of my fear of having even the tiniest conversations with strangers, I spent a couple of years drinking way too much in a desperate attempt to bury my fears, I ruminate over past mistakes, replaying them in my mind and the emotional pain lingers for decades, my brain has never been a neurotypical one.
Of course everyone deals with anxiety to an extent, we know that. But I do feel like there’s a unique pressure that comes with being a Black Woman with anxiety. I don’t think that existence makes sense to people.
The stereotypical Black Woman is loud, boisterous, the life of the party, maternal, and maybe the most harmful descriptor….strong.
The idea of the Strong Black Woman is insidious in its….seeming like a compliment.
Who wouldn’t want to be viewed as strong?
The problem is, that it’s considered the default when it comes to Black Women. People think it’s an inherent trait, something we’re born with.
Strength is expected of ALL Black Women… ALL the time.
But we’re human. Strength isn’t a static position, we all have moments of strength and moments of weakness, so when Black Women are made synonymous with strength, what happens when we feel weak?
As all humans sometimes do?
I created Anxious Avery for Black Women who feel weak more often than they feel strong, because I don’t think of feeling weak as a moral failing. I see it as one facet of the human experience… one that Black Women are as entitled to as any other human being.
I’ve always been a fan of cartoons, and while the cartoon world has always lacked Black female characters, the ones I did see were always depicted as headstrong, outspoken, extroverted, and confident. And don’t get me wrong, those qualities are great to have, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a mainstream cartoon Black girl whose major personality traits were: highly sensitive, scared, introverted, or outwardly self conscious.
I’ve seen that character archetype lots of times, but never a Black female version.
Representation Matters.
Anxious Black women have to be depicted.
Introverted Black women have to be depicted.
Nerdy, nervous Black women have to be depicted, and why?
Because those Black women exist in real life. And they have no representation.
They’re always telling us if you don’t see what you want to see in the world, create it, right?
That’s what I’m hoping to do with Anxious Avery.
Please check it out if you have a moment, and feel free to let me know what you think.
Anxious Black Women, Unite!
Watch Anxious Avery On Youtube