Sunrise Scribbles — Jessie Cave
Jessie Cave is an English cartoonist, actor and comedian whose Instagram account is both her business and a diary of her life. Cave had her “big break” playing Lavender Brown in the Harry Potter films meaning that some of her following undoubtedly are the “Potterheads” who make up the fandom for that franchise.
Scroll through her feed and it won’t take you long to see a snap of her doodles, a bathroom selfie, or a pic advertising her latest show. Jessie’s often twice-daily posts arrive on the screens of her 118k followers without filters or glamour, and her unique artwork is just as much a key into her mind as her Instagram captions. This is, after all, how most people are familiar with her work.
Her sweet drawings voice the thoughts of an anxious millennial woman and are a breath of fresh air amongst a feed otherwise saturated by celebrities boasting the perfect life. An example of this is a personal favourite, reading ‘On Sundays I Google people around my age in a similar field who are doing better than me’ (Jessie Cave, 2019).
I believe that the success of her online image stems from these honest and relatable doodles; particularly in a time where the role of the Instagram ‘influencer’ is under scrutiny for not being a true representation of ‘real life’.
Linked in Jessie’s bio is her website where you can order prints of her artwork and can even get one personalised. Her website is in keeping with her colourful scribbly style, and this gives her the perfect balance between preserving her unique, relatable image and maintaining her business. This is after all how she makes her money.
Dotted amongst her feed you’ll also see pictures of her adorable children. Many of her followers would probably recognise Margot and Donnie in the street thanks to their parents documenting their lives, all the way from baby steps to first day at school. Her stylish, scruffy children and her comedian boyfriend are the perfect, imperfect family.
We see the downtime and the difficult parts yet somehow we still idolise the lives they appear to lead. There’s an argument to be made against putting young children in the public eye, since ultimately a six and four year old can’t consent to the publication of their lives to 118k people, especially if it’s indirectly a source of income for Cave. However, given that Cave herself has been on screens since her first TV appearance at 19 in the comedy-drama ‘Cranford’, this is perhaps something that she is accustomed to, and therefore doesn’t see a problem with.
Her successful social media publicity includes venue policies and behind-the-scene snaps of her mother making her backdrops, and ultimately, whatever material she posts works to make her followers want to purchase her artwork and attend her shows. This certainly includes myself aged 19, keenly attending her 2018 Edinburgh Fringe show ‘Sunrise’.
Jessie Cave’s skill is making her followers feel like they know her when, in reality, we don’t know her at all. Her personal life and ultimately her business is available for anyone and everyone to access, all by following @jessiecave on Instagram.
