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Identities

The Labels We Carry

Sometimes how you feel on the inside vs. what people see on the outside doesn't match up at all.

Hyesu Lee

Hyesu Lee

— 2 min read
The Labels We Carry
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Simple drawing of a pink character browsing through pink dresses. Caption reads: "The other day, I was at a clothing store looking at cute summer dresses on a rack. The shop owner approached me and asked..." A green bunny in a purple jumpsuit (the shop owner) says: "Are you from Japan?" The pink character thinks: "I'm not from Japan".
The pink character walks along a blank landscape. In her imagination, featureless characters loom over her. The caption reads: "As I was walking home, I thought about how other people see me and peg me."
Caption reads: "People see me and may think...". Then two speech bubbles, one pink, one black, read: "She's not from here" and "She's not a New Yorker". A second caption adds: "But I kinda am from here and I'm a proud New Yorker."
The character paints on an easel. The painting reads: "I'm also an artist and I'm an illustrator". The caption adds: "But being an illustrator doesn't only mean I make books for children. That's what some people assume I do."
A caption reads: "My editor was telling me about her experience with this. And we realized each of us is this whole kaleidoscope of labels and personas." Illustration shows the pink character and Francesca, with dark hair and glasses, spread-eagled on top of mandalas.
Cartoon of Francesca throwing a peace sign! The caption reads: "For example, she explained to me that people see her as not from the U.S. because she has an accent, but she is! (In fact, everyone has an accent, it just may not be the local accent)."
Cartoons of Francesca, variously: typing, with an arm around her mom, cheek-to-cheek with her sister, driving kids around. The caption reads: "My editor is also a mom, a sister, a daughter. Sometimes she is a chauffeur, driving kids around."
Both the women are still spread-eagled on mandalas, but this time they have been cut in half, and the mandalas are half-smiling faces now. Caption reads: "It is both amazing and frustrating how many labels we all wear. Sometimes how you feel on the inside vs what people see on the outside doesn't match up at all."
The pink figure is back in the featureless landscape, but now she - and the people who were looming over her - is smiling. Caption reads: "And I wonder if you feel the same?"
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Hyesu Lee was born and raised in Seoul, South Korea. Now based in Brooklyn, she goes about her life as an illustrator, artist, muralist, comic artist and educator. “My art has always been driven by a curiosity about how people connect. I was very shy growing up, so I never knew how best to communicate with those around me. But drawing people—observing them, and learning about them—that’s my way of connecting. Art, after all, has no language barrier.”

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