Meet The First Black Female Cartoonist To Be Published In The New Yorker

The New Yorker magazine is well known for its cartoon illustrations and recently the publication made history thanks to a young woman who has shed light on the lack of diversity in this creative space. Meet Elizabeth Montague.

At the young age of 24, Montague likely became the first black female cartoonist to be published in the prestigious magazine’s history. Her relationship with The New Yorker started when she reached out to an editor about the lack of diversity with its cartoons.

“I think that it’s really easy for people to not see things and that until you tell someone like, ‘Hey, by the way, you know you might not see this, but I’m seeing this very big lack that you know, sometimes people are unaware of it,’” Montague told ABC News.

She has four cartoons published with the magazine. The theme of her work centers mostly around characters with brown skin and curly hair, capturing everyday moments with a subtle political tone.

Her inspiration comes from her own experiences. You can also see her work published in the Washington City Paper. Her senior thesis was titled “Cyber Black Girl,” an interactive digital art project about race.

“I try really hard just to stick to my perspective as an individual just because it’s such a broad field of, like, black people as a whole, women as a whole,” said Montague. “I don’t want to pretend like I can represent every black person or every woman on the planet because everyone’s different.”