(upbeat music)
- I guess the main thing with my brand that I want people
to take away or inspire people with
is that weird can be good.
Feeling anxious or feeling fearful
or any intrusive thoughts we have,
we can turn them into something beautiful and productive.
Hi, I'm Jane Malone and I'm the owner and founder
of Cursed Drawings.
- What I loved about Jane right away was the fact
that she is truly herself.
She is transparent about her struggles
that she goes through.
I think authenticity is of the utmost importance
and she really shows that through her art that she sells.
- I've always been different from everyone
and different from my peers
and had trouble relating to them.
At quarantine, I was seeing videos of autism in girls
and I called my psychiatrist up.
I mentioned it to him and I was like,
"Do you think this is a possibility?
Like, do you see autistic traits in me?"
And he was like, "Yep, I really think
that that's probably true."
So I went and got the proper diagnosis and I was.
I'm really proud to be autistic
and it's a really big part of my life.
My interests are so deep and I'm so passionate
about the things I love because of that.
And I want to show everyone
that even though you're neurodivergent or autistic
or whatever you have, you should be able to be open
about that and still be respected
as a business person and still be able to do everything else
that anyone else is doing.
I might just have to do it
in a slightly different way than the normal.
The Cursed Guys originated from me feeling anxious.
I have derealization, which feels
like everything's in portrait mode
and it basically feels like you're living in a dream,
or you feel like you're in a dream all the time.
I've always had a really hard time
going to school with my anxiety.
Whenever I'd have a really bad derealization episode,
I would draw these guys and then at the end of it
when I'd feel better,
I'd look back at everything I wrote
and it helped me cope with how I was feeling
and they helped me feel less alone.
- I think it's awesome that Jane is neurodivergent
and she is doing her thing
and she's created a business sharing with other people
and showing people that it doesn't matter
if you have something that's different from the norm,
you can still do it.
You can still create a business.
You can still create a community.
- So all my life I've wanted to be a fashion designer.
It's always been my dream, but in the back of my mind
I did not wanna go to school.
I've always had trouble.
I started making clothes in my senior year of high school
inspired by my art, just as a way
to like make some cash on the side.
College rolled around and I was thinking to myself,
I'm like, "Do I really wanna go to school?
I'm really having so much fun making my clothes."
So I told my parents, I was like,
"I'm taking a gap year and I'm gonna try
and sell my clothes.
I'm gonna work really hard on it
and if it's not going well in a year, I will go to school."
So I kind of started from there and it's been going well.
So here we are and I love it.
- I think the last couple of years
and the challenges that it's created for everyone
has made us realize that we don't have to go
the traditional route to care for ourselves
and our families.
We can create our own business.
We can start a website.
We can start to sell things online
and promote it on social media.
And that is exactly what Jane's doing.
I think it's amazing and she's an inspiration
for all kinds of people to do the same thing.
- I've always done visual art,
but I never really felt like a real artist.
You know, I thought real artists
have stories with their art.
Real art means something or has a deeper meaning,
but when I started drawing my Cursed Guys,
I finally found the deeper meaning of my art
and it was something that inspired me
and helped me with my mental health
and I finally felt like a real artist.
GoDaddy was a huge help in building my website.
I was a senior in high school and it was in COVID
and I didn't have any idea how to get help for a website
or how to get someone to build a website for me,
let alone like have the funds to hire someone
to like make a website for me
and I was like, "What do I do?"
I was looking at the services and I saw the website builder
and I was like, "This is perfect."
And I was able to make my website on my own,
which was a good feeling.
I like to do things on my own when I can
'cause that's how I learn and get better.
- Sustainability has become so important for so many of us.
Jane has targeted that by taking things
that she may have messed up on and turning around
and still using them and selling them.
- To limit waste, you know, I don't have a factory.
I like to do everything myself
and that's manageable right now with the quantity I'm at,
but that's really important to me is just to limit my waste
and limit my pollution and just do everything myself
and do everything as sustainable as I can.
But I've messed up a lot of shirts, a lot of totes,
a lot of things and I was able to reduce my waste
by selling those to a discounted price and you know,
a lot of people were really excited about that.
I love a good deal.
I think a lot of people see success
as having a huge house with all these possessions
and being rich and famous and you know
and that's great and all, you know, that would be nice,
but for me and how I will see and do see my brand
as a success is making a sustainable living for myself
doing what I love.
It's impossible to fail when you're doing what you love.
(gentle music)