fashion

You’ve Got This With Amberlee Green

This International Women's Day, we're creating positive affirmations to boost your self-belief. Meet one of our illustrators, Amberlee Green, who helped design a curated ‘You’ve got this’ collection – feel-great words you can wear all day/every day. Amberlee is not only a self-taught illustrator (her studio Line & Honey focuses on the visibility black women and creates prints, textile goods and client commissions) she's also a mental health adviser and researcher. Quite the CV…

What does International Women’s Day mean to you?

IWD feels like a celebration of unity and intersectionality for me. It’s the perfect time to focus on all the women who have contributed to who I am today – from friends to changemakers who have paved the way for me. Intersectionality is crucial here, because it allows for women to be seen in spaces they might usually be overlooked – it includes all the layers of identity that exists in one person, and IWD is the time to celebrate this!

Why did you choose this particular affirmation? What inspired you to create it?

You are my sun! The radiance and warmth that comes out from it, and the light it provides. I aspire to feel like the sun, and feel it’s important to be around others that feel like the sun.

How did you get into illustrating?

I started drawing digitally whilst finishing my master’s degree in psychiatry. I was working full time in mental health (which I still am), and studying part time, and desperately needed to find a mindful, soothing activity to help me regain balance. I was a very creative child, so in this time of stress, I found myself drawing again. The digital medium was out of curiosity and ease, and the content was what I knew best – I enjoyed visualising black women in moments of relaxation. As this grew, I considered whether illustration would become a bigger part of my story and decided to keep it going, driven by the values I started with – mindfulness and the visibility of black women.

What three words would you use to describe your illustrations?

Soft, intentional, mindful.

Was there any pressure to pick/choose a career in either art or psychology? What advice would you give yourself before you started studying?

Any pressure that came, came from within. There is something about pursuing new passions as an adult that differs in some way. You have the ability to self-validate easier (i.e., I can do what I want!), but also, have so much awareness of the real world that overthinking and imposter syndrome kicks in. Approaching an illustration career as a self-taught artist, whilst still building a thriving career I love in mental health led to me thinking I had to choose. My parents and friends have always been so supportive, so I’ve always believed I could do it all, but in reality, it took a lot of work to feel my creative and scientific sides of me could exist as one.

What advice would you give yourself before you started studying?

If I had to give myself some advice for before my undergrad degree in psychology, it would be to realise that I can be more than one thing. You can choose as many paths as you like, enjoy them all, and do it without it feeling fragmented – the common denominator is you.