Swirl was started by Andy Walton, a mental health nurse, who wanted to create a guide that condensed all the information from lengthy self-help books into something more concise as well as being pleasing to the eye. “With a lot of mental health literature... you don’t feel drawn to it or motivated to pick it up," says Walton. "I wanted to create something as striking as possible that people would be proud to have on their coffee table.” But the zine isn’t just aesthetically pleasing, it is underpinned by expert advice. “The content is psychological, evidence-based advice, led by CBT techniques. It help readers manage and rationalise their thoughts and be in the here and now… If you wake up in the middle of the night with your mind swirling with thoughts, my hope is that you can pick up Swirl and that it will soothe you.”

How is a zine helping people get to grips with mental health issuespparnxoxo (2017)

Research has found that 87% of people aren’t speaking up about mental health to their friends and family due to a fear of judgement, highlighting that stigma surrounding the issue persists. This seems to be a fact worryingly pertinent to the workplace with 58.2% of people saying they’ve taken a day off due to poor mental health and lied about it to their employers.

Zines hold particular resonance with Gen Z due to their low cost and the tight-knit community that forms around the publications. Zines focusing on mental health such as Swirl, Doll Hospital Journey or Anxy are opening up discussions around mental health through a medium that, unlike lengthy scientific journals or self-help books, are both aesthetically pleasing and accessible.

Tad Buxton is an intern at Canvas8 which specialises in behavioural insights and consumer research. He studies English Literature and History of Art at the University of Edinburgh. When he’s not studying, he enjoys surfing, reading sci-fi novels, and dreaming up new business ideas.