9 Illustrations Every Introvert Will Understand

About a year ago, someone I follow on Instagram shared something that looked like a comic strip from the Sunday Funnies of my childhood. Only, instead of illustrating the adventures of a 6-year-old boy and his stuffed tiger or an inept (but lovable) Army recruit training at Camp Swampy, the story of this cartoon centered around a slightly unusual girl named Marzi. This particular vignette was in a windowpane format with four individual illos demonstrating "Why My Laptop Is My Soulmate."

As someone who turns down a majority of social invitations just because "I'd rather be home," I felt an instant kinship with Marzi. She seemed like just the kind of girl I could binge-watch Netflix with, and neither of us would feel compelled to make small talk. So, I followed the virtual trail to Introvert Doodles, where I learned Marzi and I shared pet peeves (people showing up at our houses unannounced), favorite activities (reading, watching movies, and really just anything you can do in bed), and even fears (what if being different makes me unlovable?).

Intent on learning just how much Marzi and I had in common, I tracked Marzi to the Introvert Doodles website, where I read an origin story for this superhero character that made me fall even more in love with her.

Since its inception, Introvert Doodles has spread like wildfire among introverts (which, when you consider that most of us would call a weekend spent wearing only pajamas "living the dream," really says something). Marzi has become a mascot and a hero for a group of people who have spent their lives feeling a little bit different, a little bit misunderstood, and who generally don't go in for the whole "team bonding" thing. And now, our heroine is making the leap to print with the new book, An Illustrated Look At Introvert Life In An Extrovert World.

When I mentioned to a fellow introvert (and dear friend) that I was covering Marzi's new book, he said, "She nails it, and that makes me feel less alone in what can be a lonely introvert existence. So often being an introvert can just feel like being a deeply broken person, and she makes me feel not so weird."