Anna laura on leading with compassion and love
Anna Laura, artist and graphic novelist.
In The Shift, UN Live's thought leaders explore how music, art, media, and even everyday spaces—from stadiums to dinner tables—can become stages for more connection, inspired empathy, and collective action.
In today's Q&A, UN Live’s Head of Comms, Annesofie Norn, speaks with Anna Laura, artist and graphic novelist, on leading with compassion and love, and how comics and arts can help people connect to emotions or experiences they might struggle to express in words.
It's time to rethink—and imagine the futures we want to create.
UN Live: Anna Laura, your comics have this incredible way of making people pause and really feel. When you’re creating, how do you enter that space of connection—both for the characters and for the people who will read your work?
Anna Laura: All of these questions have been so kind and thoughtful I’m humbled and grateful. I think I’m just being really honest, I’m trying to explore these themes, learning and growing and shifting in the personal life and the art follows. I love this Leonard Cohen quote: “art is the ash of a life burning well”.
UN Live: I’ve noticed your illustrations capture such subtle, human moments—sometimes moments that might otherwise go unnoticed. How do you find those moments, and what draws you to them?
Anna Laura: Spending a lot of time in silence. Always being on the look out and assuming every moment has something to offer, because it does! Every second, every room, every interaction contains it all under the surface.
UN Live: Comics can be playful, dramatic, intimate, and deeply reflective all at once. How do you see the medium itself helping people connect to emotions or experiences they might struggle to express in words?
“Sorry I have been mean” by Anna Laura
Anna Laura: Because I’m trying to do that exact thing! I’m really trying to use these comics as a way to understand myself, understand this life and then explain and share. It’s my personal experimental grounds. It’s challenging to dig up all the gems within and then offer them up in the right light, and the right angle. But it’s worth it, every attempt to connect has been so worth it.
UN Live: With over a million people following your work, you have a rare opportunity to touch hearts at scale. If you could invite all of humanity to understand one thing about connection right now, what would it be? How do you hope your comics contribute to that understanding?
Anna Laura: Love everyone and tell the truth.
UN Live: Looking at the world today, where do you see the greatest need for shifting how we see each other as part of a Global We, and how can comics help us meet that need and take action on it?
“Big love pod” by Anna Laura
Anna Laura: Gosh, we have a lot of work to do. Turning inward, learning what it means to love, how much grace and strength is required, then becoming those beings. This is a lifelong practice, let’s teach each other! Our future path must be compassion.
UN Live: Your work often balances lightness with depth. How do you decide when to lean into humor, vulnerability, or reflection in your connections?
Anna Laura: I follow the creative impulses and move with them. I’ve always been under the impression that my subconscious mind has better ideas than my logical mind, so it’s a balance of surrendering to whims and then catching up with technique and attentive reworking.
UN Live: Your comics have invited millions of people into moments of vulnerability and connection. After all these years of observing and illustrating human experience, what have you learned about what it means to be human, and maybe what it takes to live more connected and contributing lives?
Anna Laura: I’m humbled by this question and really feel like the weight of the credit should be scattered to everyone who is engaged with my work, I think we’re all collectively trying to answer that. I have a hunch it will start with a willingness to connect to ourselves, to feel cohesive in all our shifting forms, accepting all of it, and that acceptance will naturally radiate outward as lifelines we've stress-tested within.
UN Live: At UN Live, we often explore the idea that many of today's challenges are rooted in disconnection, from one another, from the living world, and from a sense of belonging to something larger than ourselves. Does that resonate with what you see in your own work? And what role do you think cultural organisations like UN Live can play in helping cultivate connection, empathy, and a stronger sense of 'we’?
Anna Laura: Oh yeah, there’s much to be done, I’m sure there’s a council of elders we need to assemble to really get at the heart of this question, but I think planting enough seeds will inevitably bear fruit of true, lasting connection.
UN Live: Your work has created moments of connection for millions of people around the world. Have you seen examples where art has helped people feel less alone, more connected, or more open to one another? What does that tell you about the role art can play in shaping the world we share?
Anna Laura: Yes! Online and off. Anyone who is trying to share “I am here! I am with you!” can do more than they know. It can be a sticker on a bathroom, a chalk drawing, an oil painting or an invitation.
UN Live: Finally, when someone engages with your comics and feels seen, or moved, what do you hope lingers with them afterward?
Anna Laura: They are loved, they are safe, they have more courage and wisdom than they know. It’s a better world with them in it, and everything will be okay.
“I’m rich” by Anna Laura
We extend our sincere gratitude to Anna Laura for sharing her reflections with us on on compassion and love as our future path.