We recently fell in love with the beautiful and positively engaging comics of Aware Animals. Aware Animals is created by illustrator and graphic designer Mira Petrova as a way for her to feel less powerless about her struggle with zero waste living and her emotions towards climate change. We already used her illustrations in our blog on fast fashion.

Mira Petrova is an artist from Sofia, Bulgaria and has been trying to live a zero-waste life for many years now. However, like many of us who tried it, she experienced how difficult this can be. But she realized the following: the more she becomes “aware” of what she buys and about the alternatives, the more conscious she becomes, enabling her to control the amount of waste produced. That’s how the term “waste awareness” entered her life.

So with this new approach she turned to art (with the inspirational help and support of her boyfriend)and they decided to call it Aware Animals. All the stories in the comics are inspired by their personal experiences and situations: packing waste-free lunch, buying second-hand clothes for environmental reasons, refusing a plastic grocery bag at the store, turning down plastic straws over and over again, and trying to repair broken items to prevent them from going to landfill.

Why we like Aware Animals? Because we’ve all been in ‘waste-frustrating’ situations and know how it feels, but mostly because the comic gives people a fun and positive way to learn and share about the zero waste philosophy, free of shame and guilt. Aware Animals are spreading the message that we can all be part of the change or inspire it in others, sometimes even with the smallest actions. Their message is not to give up! 

We really enjoy browsing through her illustrations and we believe that you will enjoy it, too. You can follow her on Instagram, Facebookand twitter. 

Reposting of her artwork is allowed as long as it is not for commercial purposes and you can use the comics in educational presentations without permission as well. However, don’t forget to include full credits and a link to their social media. She also has a great little webshop where you can download her artwork (offers flexibility to use for posters or postcards for schools for instance) or coffee mugs (great for the office use).

If you appreciate her work, you can donate a one time support or by becoming a patreon with a (small) monthly fee giving early access and downloads

Let us hope she reaches plenty of people raising awareness with her artwork!