Kim Anderson: Being 'multi-hyphenate' and not looking disabled

In this interview with artist, illustrator and writer, Kim Anderson (Ngāti Maniapoto), Anderson discusses how she navigates her creative mahi as a "multi-hyphenate" and a freelancer. She tells us about the graphic novel she has in mind to undertake as part of the d/Deaf and Disabled artists' fellowship and how she negotiates her feelings of imposter syndrome in the disability community with an invisible disability.

Listen to the podcast interview between Kim Anderson and Eda Tang, or read the transcript below. 

Eda Tang: Nau mai, haere mai e te whānau. Today, we have illustrator, designer and writer Kim Anderson. Kim has just been announced as the recipient of the Whakahoa Kaitoi Whanaketanga Creative New Zealand's Deaf and Disabled Artist fellowship for 2025. And if you read The D*List, you might recognise Kim's name as she is our brilliant in-house designer. Nō reira, welcome, Kim. Tell me about yourself. Nō hea koe? 

Kim Anderson: Thank you, Eda. So I'm a freelance illustrator, and I've kind of called myself like a general creative because I find it quite complicated to tell people what I do. So I tend to just default to freelance illustrator. But I also write. So, I've kept a blog for a long time and I currently have a Substack newsletter, and, yeah. And I also design and I have a background in marketing as well. I have a really weird CV. 

ET: Yeah, that reminds me you’ve once described yourself as a multi-hyphenate. And that was the first time I heard of that as a term. But I was familiar with the concept of it. Can you tell me about how you identify with that term?

KA: Yeah. So the term multi-hyphenate comes from a writer and podcaster, Emma Gannon, in the UK. And so Emma has written a book called The Multi-Hyphen Method which is where this term kind of comes from. And I can't remember exactly how Emma describes it, but it's basically the idea that you don't have to specialise in one specific, I guess, job title or area that you work in. 

So for her, she's a writer, a podcaster, a speaker. And the idea being, obviously that there are hyphens in between those things and that she can be all of those things. She doesn't have to just be one. And so for me, that felt really applicable because I had always had these different things that I did. Like I said, I have a really weird CV, in terms of … I went to teachers college and I study, I have a design degree, but I've worked in marketing. I'm also an illustrator. I'm also a writer. 

And so that term just felt very applicable because it helped me to encapsulate all the different things that I do and that I also want to present to the world as things that I do. Yeah. So it kind of is quite nice because it can mean that you can opt in, or sub in and out terms and or things that you are doing, or job titles that you have. 

ET: Do you think there's anything that ties together all of those different things that you do? 

KA: I think it's kind of why I call myself a general freelance creative. I think it's just that general creativity aspect. Especially for the things where you're creating stuff. So as an illustrator or designer or a writer… definitely that creativity is the kind of the core theme and being able to express or explore different ideas. That for me has been something that I've always done. I've always kept a diary since I was a child. I've always wanted to express myself in some way. And for a long time that was writing, possibly even more so than drawing. Even though I've drawn since I was a kid, that's been mostly for fun and exploration. 

But yeah, I would say maybe also curiosity. I just have a very strong curiosity around how we think about things, how we live life, how we see each other, our perception of ourselves. So, yeah, that kind of ties things together.

ET: So with this fellowship, it's for a whole year?

KA: It's about 6 to 9 months. So roughly I'll have about till the end of the year to create the project that I proposed to Arts Access Aotearoa. So chipping away at different things over four phases that I've given myself around research and exploration. And then actually making the thing and then refining.

ET: Tell me about the project. 

KA: So the project is a graphic novel. What I have proposed to Arts Access Aotearoa is that the graphic novel will probably be nonfiction, mostly autobiographical. A lot of the themes that I explore in my work are things around, like mental health, growing up as a mixed race kid. So my mum is from Singapore, she's Chinese and my dad is Māori. And so kind of growing up in New Zealand, being Māori and Asian… looking Asian to a lot of people but also having this very strong Māori whānau and culture behind me. That's part of the themes that I tend to explore in my work. So that's what the graphic novel will hopefully be about. 

I'm still very much in the early phases of it, where I'm trying to figure out what exactly will be the stories or the essays or whatever I will tell. But yeah, it's giving me a chance to kind of explore something… I've wanted to work on a graphic novel for a long time. But it's quite a daunting project to take on. There's a lot that goes into it. And they can take a long time to kind of develop and make. At the time that I applied for this fellowship, I kind of finally felt ready. I've done some comics and I think I have enough material there to actually make a full object or output. 

ET: I guess as a freelancer, you're always working for someone and doing little bits and pieces for other people. Have you ever had time like this to just do something to your own accord? 

KA: No. When Arts Access Aotearoa put out the press release for the fellowship, I kind of said in it that it was like getting… you know spoon theory where you only have so many spoons to divvy up throughout your day. And if things take more spoons than you have, then you're basically like, that's it. And it's really hard to do anything more on top of that if you don't have any spoons left. So for me, having the fellowship and the money attached to it and the support as well. And honestly, the deadline. Having the deadline attached to it is also really, really helpful. But it was like having a bunch of spoons kind of dropped in my lap. These extra things that I could use… resourcing that I can use towards things that I would never usually spend money on because that's just outside of my budget or outside of my capacity right now. 

So, yeah, that's just been really good. I don't think I would have… maybe eventually I would have embarked on a graphic novel. Like I said, I've always wanted to make one, but it probably would have taken a much longer period of time… done kind of in the gaps of my life. So things like fellowships and grants are really pivotal for creatives and artists to to just make the work.

ET: Yeah. Why a graphic novel and not say a book or another art form?

KA: I thought about it like I would really love to make, to write a book of essays or something like that at some point. But I think I suggested the graphic novel just because there's something really special in being able to combine words and visual elements to also express ideas that can be quite complicated or quite dark. So this is not a guarantee that this will definitely be in the graphic novel… But my experience with mental health or mental distress, mental illness… These are things that I think are so important to talk about, and so I'm keen to explore them in my work. 

But there's something, I don't know... I feel like the visual elements really help to express those emotions and those experiences in a way that's maybe a little less hard for me. But also, I think can resonate with people. You know rather than writing about a shadow, you could show them one and it's this shorthand for things. You know, in the same way that a black dog is a symbol of depression. It’s that kind of shortcut.

ET: Yeah. The affect is more immediate. 

ET: I can imagine each of your days looks very different. What does a good day look like to you? 

KA: Oh, boy. What does a good day look like? I think for me a good day is more about the feeling that I have through it, rather than the individual things that are actually happening. So whether that's work, whether that's freelance work that I do for someone else, or whether that's work that I do for myself, I think for me it's more about like… Is there a sense of calm or contentment or flow state that's happening? That, for me is like a really nice day, where I feel like I am doing things at my own pace, in a way that suits me. I feel very content with how things are going, and I feel like I've done enough work, but not so much that I'm overstimulated or overwhelmed. 

So that's kind of what a good day looks like to me. Just because, I don't know… with mental health stuff, neurodivergency, the world can just be an overstimulating and stressful place. So if I can get to this kind of like, calm state, that's fantastic. 

ET: Have you figured out what the ingredients are to get there? 

KA: I try so hard to figure out what that looks like. I've sometimes done reflection questions where it's like, “What would your ideal day look like?”, or “What would your ideal life look like?” 

I think some of the things that work for me is that, yes, I do need quite a lot of buffer time around stuff or downtime. So that's why I've kind of gone freelance as well, is because working full time is very hard for me to do consistently. So having that flexibility to be able to take breaks or to work when I feel like I can work, rather than forcing myself to work. So, downtime and that flexibility has been really critical to having a good day. And I think I'm just not a great morning person. So being able to slip into my day slowly and gradually has been really, really helpful as well. 

So again, freelance life means that I kind of have that, again, flexibility and time to do the things that make me feel awake and human. Like eating a proper meal that has like– it's so boring, but– that has enough protein and having a big cup of tea and you know, watching something lighthearted on YouTube. And then I’m like, “Okay, now I need to go pack my bag.” Rather than being like, “Oh my gosh, I need to go right now.” 

ET: Do tell me a bit more about your creative background or just the things that have led you to where you are now. Because you mentioned that you went to teachers college and you've probably worked full time before to know that it's something that's not for you.

KA: Yeah, so my background in creativity, like I said, I've always drawn, I've always been like a big reader. I've enjoyed art. And then being at university, I used to volunteer and then work at the Adam Art Gallery at Victoria University. And so being exposed to more art through that was really, really great. I also studied Art History and English Literature at Victoria. So it wasn't like direct outputs, but I love that time of being able to just like, learn about lots of other creatives and people who'd made stuff and kind of forming my own thoughts or taste as well. I think that’s been a big thing. 

But yeah, then I went to teachers college because I thought, I like hanging out with people, I like kids. So I trained to be a secondary school teacher. And that was the year I got diagnosed with depression, anxiety, and had horrible exhaustion. Not because – well, I don't know, it might have been the teaching. I still miss the kids that I had in those classes. I really enjoyed being able to be a part of their education because I feel very strongly about education, but I was 22 at the time and it just didn't feel like it was going to be, It just wasn't a sustainable career choice at that point. So I ended up going to Massey and doing a visual communications graduate diploma. 

So the teaching was a graduate diploma, and then I went into another graduate diploma. I'm sure it looked really strange to my parents. I was like, “So I've decided I'm going to go to design school” after, because I did get my teaching degree. I could have gone and been a teacher, but I was like, “Oh, this is probably not going to be good for me”. So I went to Massey, did a graduate diploma for a couple of years, got that. And then immediately started working in marketing for a tech company. 

So I've been involved in marketing and user experience. I helped co-run the user experience meetup in Wellington for a year. Again, I think it's more just illustrative of the fact that I just really like absorbing information and learning about stuff. I'm very curious about the world and how things work. And, user experience is all about understanding people. Yeah. I think I've always wanted to go back to writing and illustration. Like throughout that time, I was still doing art, doing writing, running blogs, short lived as they may have been. I have a podcast, or I did have a podcast for, like six episodes a couple of years ago. 

ET: So with this fellowship, this is for d/Deaf and disabled people. You mentioned that you felt a bit of imposter syndrome applying for it. Can you tell me about that? 

KA: Yeah, sure. A lot of imposter syndrome. So, I did not think of myself as disabled until I started working at the The D*List. So it's been very recent, and I think it's really interesting how you can have these different experiences and find life really hard, but you don't necessarily make that connection with disability. Because I think there's such an ingrained idea in society of what disability looks like and what it means, and who could have that label and who can't. And so you kind of feel like the term disability is really, only applicable to those who have it the worst in society. And usually that looks like visible disability or whatever it might be. And it's quite problematic to kind of think of it in those terms and in terms of like, who has it worse off. But it is still very deeply ingrained, which is why I feel the imposter syndrome, because I'm not visibly disabled.

But I do really struggle in life, and it's not something that people can see. It's usually very private. It's behind closed doors. It's like only my closest friends know about it. I mean, I do openly talk about mental distress, mental health stuff and have done since I was in my early 20s. Once I was diagnosed, I was like, “Oh, people are also having these experiences, but haven't had the chance to go through the same process as I have to get diagnosed or to have support in it.” But I was seeing all these people around me who were experiencing depression and anxiety or something, where they were really struggling, but they didn't have the same access. And so we kind of just all quietly suffer through life. But it is hard to kind of get rid of that idea that I don't qualify as disabled. 

So it’s something that I really had a lot of mixed feelings and thoughts about when I was applying for this fellowship – whether I was taking this away from someone – because that's the kind of last thing that I wanted to do. But then I also knew that this would enable me to actually make something that I wouldn't be able to otherwise, and not just from an artistic perspective, because there are lots of other grants and stuff that artists and creatives can apply for who don't identify as disabled or who aren't disabled.

ET: And how do you relate to that word disability generally?

KA: I think it has become, and I totally attribute this to being a part of The D*List and being surrounded by members of the disabled community, a much less taboo term, but also like a broader term. So I wouldn't want it to be broad in that sense that then everyone's kind of like, as some people say, “everybody's on the spectrum” and it's kind of like, no. There's the autism spectrum and the people who are autistic or on the spectrum. And then there's outside of that. But, it has been nice to kind of open up the term disability to, I think more broadly of how it might apply to people who wouldn't necessarily put themselves into that. Yeah, under that term. 

ET: What has identifying with the community afforded you in your life? 

KA: Honestly, I think a certain amount of grace towards myself, I think. Rather than thinking of it in terms of like, oh, I'm just like – shit? I don’t know. You know rather than being like, “oh, I'm just a bit shit at life”, you know, “I'm just a bit crap at this,” rather than kind of framing it as how you're deficient or in a deficit or just a bit shit at this whole living business, thinking about it in more terms of access and needs and how actually, maybe society needs to be changed to better accommodate everyone. 

Because eventually, regardless of whether you're born into life with a disability or whether you accumulate one, everyone will become disabled. If you have the privilege of getting older, eventually you will lose mobility, you will lose something. Or decrease. I won't say lose. All of us will experience disability. And so, I think being a part of the disabled community has kind of made me more aware of all of that, rather than it being very personal and insular and specific to myself about how I kind of suck. 

It's more just like, actually, you know, the way that our systems are set up, the way that capitalism is set up, that requires us to be productive and on and okay all the time in order to survive – not even thrive, but to survive. That actually is more the problem rather than me not being able to fit into it. 

ET: Yeah. And I think that's one of the first things I learned as well in this community is that that medical model goes away real quickly. It suddenly isn't about your diagnosis. It's to do with time. It's to do with collective care and looking after others and ourselves, and ourselves in the future, as you say, like it's one of these identities that anyone can identify with. So if you care about this community, then you're caring for everyone. 

KA: Yeah, I 100% agree.

ET: To finish us off, if you were to say something to your younger self, who was working full time, busting a nut, trying to become a teacher or whatever… What would you say to younger Kim?

KA: The unsustainability part of being alive and working full time and doing all of that stuff is certainly hard by the way that society and capitalism and things are set up. But, it's also difficult and unsustainable because I pile things onto my plate like nobody's business. I'll work full time and I'll also volunteer, and I'll also do this other thing. I was very involved in church growing up, and, you know, I'd be working full time and serving at church every Sunday and then running the UX work meetup and then doing whatever. And I was exactly the same at university.  I took notes for students who couldn't be there. I can't remember what they call them, like a peer support volunteer. So I’d like be taking notes for my lectures for students who couldn't be there because of injury or disability or whatever it might be. But then I was also working at the art gallery, and then I was also volunteering as part of an award that you get at Victoria. So it was having to accrue hours for that. And then I was also studying full time. Oh, I was also working. I've also worked part time since I was 15. 

So I was like doing all these things and I think for me, if I were to tell my younger self something, I think it would be to slow down, and to give myself space, that what I was doing was not sustainable. So regardless of everything else that I can't really control, what I could control was the amount of stuff that I was doing. So for example, at Teachers College, I was studying full time. I worked full time during that entire year, including during my seven week placements. So I would go to the high school that I was teaching at, I would teach for a full day, and then I would go to my part time job at the university library and shelve books, then close the library at ten, go home, mark assignments, create lesson plans, and then I would do it all again and looking back and I'm like, that's ridiculous. 

So, yeah, that's what I think I would go back and tell my younger self. “It's great that you're curious and that you're driven and that you want to do all these things, but look after yourself.” At some point you have to make yourself the priority and also prioritise the things that you do in life. We talked about this a bit earlier. When you're a multi-hyphenate or someone who does lots of things, or you're a freelancer, it's about prioritising. I would love to paint and write and be part of my community through volunteering and all these things. But I can't do them all at the same time. 

So it's about prioritising what you do in any given moment. And realising that actually, even though you have so many hours in the day, when you– I think especially if you have a disability or you experience mental health issues or neurodivergency, just learning how your brain works and that actually might just need more buffer space. You can't actually fill up the entire day with stuff. Yeah.

ET: Yeah. We can tell that you know you're so driven by your love for community and to do things for other people. So I'm really glad that you're getting a bit of love for your own work, and we're really happy that you're getting your flowers. So I really look forward to seeing your graphic novel or whatever it turns out to be. 

KA: Thank you. Me too.

ET: Kia ora.

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