In conversation with Shen Djafer

“My main mission was creative release in an otherwise unprecedented time riddled with anxiety.”

- Shen Djafer

Image: Shen Djafer aka @roybitchenstein

Shen is better known as her online alias 'Roy Bitchenstein' - commentator on ALL things pop culture. She has a Masters in Theatre and is currently working as a freelance illustrator, providing people with humour, risqué opinions and a much needed splash of colour!

Can you tell us a bit about yourself?

Roy Bitchenstein is a pop culture illustrator/commentator influenced by celebrity icons and sayings, from both the past and present.

Tell us about your business, how did you come up with the idea or concept? What were your first steps to bringing the business to life?

During the first UK lockdown I found myself furloughed, with loads of spare time on my hands and no constructive outlets in order to unleash my creativity. I started messing around on my iPad and decided I’d teach myself how to digitally illustrate. I was sat watching Showgirls and thought to myself, I would love to draw Nomi Malone and then write something funny to go alongside it. My own hot take, my own little platform to have my say. I just decided to stop looking for excuses as to why I shouldn’t, and I just went for it!

What was your overarching mission/aim at the outset?

My main mission was creative release in an otherwise unprecedented time riddled with anxiety. I found that illustrating calmed me down and gave me something to focus on other than the news. Once things started picking up my aim was to find other like-minded individuals and contribute to the ongoing conversation regarding pop culture.

What is the main inspiration for your business?

Pop culture of the late 90s/early 00s. I love the fashion, music, movies, aesthetic and general culture of the time. I’m nostalgic for those times and feel as though I’m stuck in a time warp sometimes!

Were there any initial challenges that you came up against, if so how did you overcome them?

When you’re creating something you hold dear and putting it out there on a public platform for the world to scrutinise, it can be extremely daunting. It took me a long time to get over that and feel comfortable sharing my work. I didn’t even tell my friends about it until I was a few months into doing it. Once I realised people will judge you no matter what, and you have to be okay with that and not let it stop you from living your authentic truth, I overcame my fears.

Can you tell us about your first “win”? Do you have your first sale framed in your office?

Mere minutes after I created my Etsy store and uploaded 3 illustrations as a ‘test run’ I sold out! I couldn’t believe it! I remember celebrating with sushi whilst trying to figure out how to renew items on my store!

What’s been the biggest lesson – about yourself, your abilities or just general life lessons – you’ve learnt since starting your business?

Don’t limit yourself, if you put your mind to it you can do anything, and never ever, ever, let anyone tell you otherwise!

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

Do it for the love, not for the money! Money is lovely and buying things is fabulous, but when you try and monetise every single part of your passion, your creativity disappears. Money comes and goes and I know it’s easy to get caught up in that, but creating something special is worth a lot more than just a paycheque.

Click here to get your Roy Bitchenstein artwork

How do you find the work-life balance? What strategies and routines do you have in place to cope with the work-life balance?

My work-life balance is actually really bad. Sometimes I will work as much as physically possible, 24 hours a day 7 days a week. I'll wake up with a million fresh ideas and attempt to tackle them all until I ultimately burn out and then need to take some time off.

It’s difficult when you’re heavily involved in the world of social media, comparison really is the theft of joy and it’s easy to beat yourself up when you’re not doing as well as others, or as how others are perceived.

I try to remind myself as often as possible that vanity metrics don’t matter and as long as I’m working hard and staying true to myself no one can take that away from me. If I feel myself on the verge of a burn out, I stop and take some time to reflect on how far I’ve come.

Would you recommend any resources that have been useful for you when starting/running your business?

Pinterest really helps to inspire me when I’m struggling to come up with content concepts and Display Purposes is a great website that helps with hashtag optimisation!

What would be your advice to anyone wanting to start their own business?

Just go for it! If you fail at least you tried. Trying and failing is better than never trying and failure is absolutely fine, you just get up (when you’re ready) try again, fail again and fail better! 

How can we support your business?

A lot of people think supporting a small business is all to do with sales, and yes making sales is fantastic but there are so many other things you can do that won’t cost a thing. Like, share, comment, pop one of my illustrations on your story and tag me, tell your friends, family and work associates to check me out, all of those things count as support and help get my work seen by more people!

Website: www.etsy.com/uk/shop/roybitchenstein 

Instagram: @roybitchenstein

Twitter: @roybitchenstein

LinkedIn: Shen Djafer