Andy J. Pizza describes how his journey toward self-love and embracing his inherited ADHD led to his best creative work.
Illustrator, storyteller, and podcast host Andy J. Pizza shares his touching and personal history of struggling against and later embracing his ADHD while also searching to find his voice as an illustrator and storyteller. In an emotional retelling, Andy lays bare the inner work of moving through rejecting and later embracing the parts of himself that remind him of a mother who struggled to function in the “normal” world. As he contextualized these parts as symptoms of ADHD, he came to accept and appreciate what this inheritance brought to his own life, while also giving him the compassion for his mom that he needed to find healing. Through learning to love all parts of himself, Andy’s best creative expression was finally given voice. Andy’s talk reminds us all that “we are a good thing,” and that knowing this is the beginning of our own best work as creatives.
About the speaker
Andy J. Miller is a verbal and visual illustrator. He uses picture-making and podcasting to create little moments of hope and clarity. Miller is the creator of the Creative Pep Talk Podcast, The Indie Rock Coloring Book and the Color Me ______ exhibit with collaborator and product designer Andrew Neyer. Miller’s illustration has been utilized by a wide variety of clients including Nickelodeon, Google, Sony, The Boston Globe and Converse. The Creative Pep Talk Podcast has been selected for iTunes ‘Editor’s Choice’, and featured by the likes of Design Sponge and Buzzfeed.
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Andy J. Pizza is an inspiration and his creativity, warmth, and honesty shine through his work and his talks. I listen to his Creative Pep Talk podcast every week.