Menopause Mayhem - Queenager Era

Menopause Mayhem stickers were not part of the plan.

I sat down fully intending to work on very responsible things — emails, listings, deadlines, general adult behavior. Instead, I went on a full-day side quest making Artist Trading Cards about menopause symptoms. Brain fog, rage, sweats, sadness, silver hair… all of it demanded to be turned into characters immediately.

ATCs are dangerous like that. They’re small, low-pressure, and somehow give your brain permission to spiral creatively. One card turned into ten. Ten turned into “what if these were a whole cast?” And suddenly it was hours later and I was still muttering things like Rowena Hushgrave would never apologize.

By the end of the day, I realized two things:

1. I had accomplished absolutely none of my original to-do list

2. I had accidentally created Menopause Mayhem

Once the cards existed, the evolution was obvious. These characters did not want to stay tiny and precious. They wanted to be stickers. Loud ones. Ones that could live on journals, water bottles, snail mail, and laptops as quiet warnings or personal affirmations.

So yes — this was a detour. A distraction. A side quest that refused to be ignored. But sometimes those are the projects that feel the most honest. Midlife has a way of hijacking your plans anyway, so you might as well make art about it.

Side quests are demanding.
But they’re rarely wrong.

— Melissa