Carlisle Robinson - Beyoutiful - Convo

Carlisle Robinson is a comic illustrator who has made it his mission to honor the humanity in all of us through his work. His story inspires us to truly be ourselves, which is the greatest gift of all. Learn more about Beyoutiful at convorelay.com... and follow Carlisle's web comics at / carodoodles .
[TRANSCRIPT] CARLISLE: It wasn’t until I was about what 3 or 4, or right around that age, that I actually started to notice that there were Deaf adults and hearing adults.
I had asked my Mom and she sat me down and said, “You know, I have blonde hair and you have brown hair. I have blue eyes and you have green eyes. I am hearing and you are Deaf.” And at that moment I started bawling and my mother was like, ‘What’s wrong?’ and I was crying and I said, ‘I want blue eyes!’ My mother gave me a look.
I played soccer and I actually made a goal for the wrong team! I was running down the field, I looked over and saw people waving… I thought they were cheering me on. I was feeling good! I ran down the field the team behind me and made the goal. So embarrassing!
I’m just not fit to be on land. I’m not a land animal. I am more of a water creature. I did it for so long, so I knew it was time. My shoulders were giving out.
Right around 8 or 9 years old, I did yeah, I envisioned myself becoming a cartoonist.
As I grew up, I started to lose motivation because a lot of people said, ‘you can’t have a good career with art. You can’t!’ A lot of people would say, ‘yeah, your only option is to become a teacher.’ And I was like what?!
I feel like society still puts a lot of pressure on gender. Really we’re all human. I felt like I had to fit society's expectations. And I did, and at that time I didn’t really know too much about transgender. There’s a lot of oppression in the binary system, recognizing only male, only female. But really there’s fluidity within that spectrum and there are people that don’t fit.
After doing some self-searching and at that same time, I realized I wanted to become a cartoonist as well. It happened simultaneously. And that’s when my life took a 180-degree turn.
I immersed myself and fell in love with it.
And comics can also educate people. When there’s oppression within the system, comics can talk about it.
It was the scariest decision I had to make. But at the same time it’s the best decision I ever made. I’m much happier now. I’m happy I made that decision. Yeah.
RIKKI: You seem more comfortable in your skin. It’s because you found yourself.
CARLISLE: I consider myself very fortunate. I have a supportive family and friends.
RIKKI: You’re still the same person, still funny, still a klutz!
CARLISLE: Ah ha ha ha! I’m a klutz - yep! Deaf people always have to support each other. We’re already a close knit community. Seeing that Convo had the Ecosystem. Woah! I was thrilled, I mean that is an amazing resource for Deaf-owned businesses.
I was thinking and it struck me… what if aliens came down? And they had six arms? Would they view us as disabled? Thinking "Oh, you have two arms. Poor you." And from that idea, a vision was born. So, it’s still a work in progress. Building their personalities and seeing what they are gonna be. Web comics will soon be released. You’ll find out more later.
Eat, sleep, comics - story of my life! Next thing you know it’s Graduation Day! And I’m moving to Massachusetts, near Boston. Really looking forward to that new chapter in my life.
I hope we get to the point where everybody can just feel safe to be themselves.
My name is Carlisle. I am artistic, empowering and happy.