PRIDE: How does being queer affect your artwork?
Anshika Khullar: Growing up, particularly in India, I didn't get to discover or explore my queerness because it was something just never talked about anywhere. It was only when I was older, in England, and I started consuming media and fiction by and for queer people that I could finally identify and start to sort through the feelings I had about my gender and my sexuality. I always say my art is "people-powered," and at the core of it is representation. The characters I draw are all queer.
I want my queer family all over the world to be able to see themselves in my work, particularly trans, non-binary, genderfluid and/or gender non-conforming people who don't fit the "skinny, white, cis-assumed" mold, like me, because there's no one way to "look" queer. I want everyone to have the positive, powerful representation they deserve. My art is a way for me to practice self-care and self-validation in a world that doesn't see me as cis-het enough *or* queer enough, and if it has that effect for even one other person, then I can say it's a meaningful practice.