“Taking Up Space:” Illustrator Hayley Wall on Neurodivergence and the Power of Art
Credit: Hayley Wall, illustratorArt is Hayley Wall’s love language. Since Wall was a young child, she has found her footing as a communicator through drawing.
Wall struggled academically as a child due to dyslexia and undiagnosed ADHD and autism, but she says, “What I did have was this gift where I could create images and I could tell stories.”When Wall graduated from university and considered where to take her art, she was drawn to the topic of disability. “I was exploring the things I felt were important, the things that needed to be spoken about,” Wall explains. “My mom is disabled, so that’s been around me for a long, long time and it’s felt like people with disabilities are always the last to be thought of.”Wall was asked to illustrate an article on chronic illness for the cover of Sick magazine, and then another on the same topic for It’s Nice That.
These illustrations caught the attention of The New York Times, which commissioned Wall to illustrate a package celebrating the anniversary of The Americans with Disabilities Act.
Her work became known for her signature bodies — large, gender-fluid forms, typically without faces, that exude strength, joy, and confidence.As Wall’s art career gained momentum, so too did her personal journey to understand her own neurodivergence.
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