Lainey Molnar is an artist that creates thought-provoking illustrations exploring and challenging societal norms surrounding femininity, body image and more. From motherhood to freedom of choice, she tackles a variety of themes important to many.
Molnar is Hungary’s first personal blogger. She’s been involved in the fashion industry and women’s empowerment projects for quite some time already. However, in her blogging days, she received a lot of hate and harassment, so that’s when she decided to create a comic-style avatar as a representation of herself to help her process what she’s been going through as a woman.
More info: Instagram | bylainey.com | tiktok.com | Facebook
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When we asked Lainey about her source of inspiration, the artist revealed that her own experiences, as well as a variety of content creators, inspire her for new illustrations or comics. The artist has also shared that she has a long list of illustration ideas on her phone and she picks the one that makes her feel inspired at the moment of drawing.
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We asked Lainey whether she finds it challenging to convey a message in the form of an illustration or a comic. “My mantra is always ‘simplify, simplify, simplify’ to convey a message,” the artist replied, “but I also come from a fashion background and I tremendously enjoy drawing elaborate outfits and many details, so usually my biggest struggle is where to meet with the two. I’m always ecstatic when someone in the comments points out a tiny detail or easter egg they found in the illustration, so it’s worth the extra work!”
We were also wondering if the artist has noticed some change in the messages she’s trying to convey. “I believe the one thing that came up in a lot of my illustrations lately is double standards when it comes to women and men and how deeply they are embedded in society as the norm,” Laney shared. “Like when a man has body hair, it’s completely normal, but when a woman doesn’t shave her armpithair, it’s suddenly ‘unhygienic’. Or whena man puts himself out there firmly, he is called assertive, but a woman is called bossy. There are so many little things that add up to a system where women swim against the current and we don’t even realize. My illustrations are a straightforward way to call these out and make people think.”
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According to Laney, the biggest misconception about women’s bodies and mental health is that women’s worth lies in “how they look or how their bodies are shaped”. “We are conditioned from an early age that only petite princesses find their happily ever after and how good girls and decent women don’t take up much space and are always well groomed, put together, and overall do everything in their power to match the (unrealistic) beauty standards. So much of what we do, even subconsciously – like sucking our bellies in, constantly fluffing our hair – is this constant chase of the ideal. It’s a system that serves nobody and it needs to go.”
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Lainey is currently working on launching a podcast and building “a tiny little empire” of community to help women worldwide “redefine femininity on their own terms, so we can all be free to express ourselves and make life choices the way we want them. There is no wrong way to be a woman, you do you!”
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If you’re someone struggling with your body image or having self-esteem issues, Lainey encourages you to start your journey towards healing by finding community in safe spaces “where there is nothing shameful talking about the shared experiences of womanhood from all aspects, and with content (could be books, conversations, social media posts) that challenges internalized toxic beliefs and the status quo. I’m trying to provide both with my illustrations because these things can trigger a beautiful avalanche of self-healing.”
If you’d like to see the previous parts, make sure to click here, here, here, here, here and here! Let us know your thoughts by commenting and upvoting your favorite illustrations!
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