September 9, 2025 • 9 mins
Caitlin Blunnie, AKA Liberal Jane, uses art to advocate for all kinds of rights, including reproductive rights and queer rights, amongst so many other things.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, this is Annie and Samantha. Welcome to Steffan Never
Told You production by Her Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
And for today's feminists around the world. We are featuring
a well known and much loved artist, Caitlin Blunny, and
we've actually featured her, I think on our Instagram. If not,
I've thought about doing it when I was doing the
Instagram because she has such amazing stuff and we here
love her work so much. I was perusing through her
(00:39):
stickers collection. I'm gonna have to buy a few. But
Blunny is an activist and artist currently from the DC
area who has been outspoken for the rights and advocacy
for others. Her art has been used throughout the country
and the world as a representation of queer trains and
reproductive rights, women's rights, disability rights of all of the things,
(01:01):
like she is on top of it, and again she
has done so much with all of that. And she's
known by her title Liberal Jane. I think people everybody's
gonna be like, yeah, no, I know who she is.
And her works has been featured on different publications and
by different campaigns that like I just saw I believe
Women's art activists kind of a site that was featuring
(01:22):
and thanking her for her work. She's she's known. If
you're a part of this community, you've seen her artwork,
even though you might not know the name or her
name personally. I know Liberal Jane. I didn't know her
name before the fact, but Caitlin Blunny and she's amazing. Obviously.
She went to school in New York and moved soon
after she graduated, and she's talked about growing up in
(01:43):
a conservative household and how her own father inspired the
name liberal Jane. So here's a quote from an interview
from j Jones magazine. Quote. I grew up pretty conservatively
and my dad, who was pretty far right, was upset
when I went off to college and was exposed to
progressive ideas. Sounds familiar. We would often talk read yell
(02:04):
over the phone about politics, and one day he just
responded to my argument with okay, Liberal Jane. And the
name stuck, especially when I got deeper into my activist work.
I decided to keep what became a family nickname and
use it online as an alias. While I'm no longer
anonymous online, the name is very sentimental to me, and
I love that take something that's supposed to be an
(02:24):
insult and use it and make money. Yeah, I mean, look,
she has two hundred and forty six thousand followers on Instagram.
She is known so go ahead, and her journey and
starting Liberal Jane was due to her empathy and standing
up for the rights of trans people and wanting to
(02:45):
be a voice to advocate for everyone's rice. So here's
a quote from Amelia greenblog dot WordPress dot com. Caitlin
Blenny has been an advocate for sexual assault victims and
while at university, was the victim of an attack herself
needing an abortion. Being an a to access one in Virginia,
she traveled across the state lines to get the healthcare
service she required. In her heavy New York draw, she explains,
(03:08):
in Virginia, if you want an abortion, you have to
wait twenty four hours, have to go through counseling, which
is biased, so you will hear things like the word baby.
So through her artwork, she is an avid campaigner for
reproductive rights in America. And again, like she's kind of,
it's just all all everywhere. It's not just reproductive work.
And she actually has worked with several organizations and nonprofits
(03:31):
by the way, so she is all about that walk
in this talk. Yeah, I was cheesy. I'm gonna keep it,
keep going. She has worked as an organizer and uses
her work in digital art spaces as a place for activism.
She grew in popularity in twenty nineteen twenty twenty, and
I say that with a caveat it, there's gonna be
so many people like, No, she was way before. She
(03:52):
probably was, but for us, like, she really blew up
in that era of that digital art space in a
time when everything all the protests and happening in like
through twenty sixteen to twenty nineteen, she really blew up
in that timeframe. I'll keep it at that. You can
come correct me because I understand. And she has become
a household name in the artivism world, which we have
(04:16):
said a couple of times, but it does sound tongue
in cheek, but still we love it. Her works are
inspiring and inclusive for so many And she talks about
how she began her illustration journey after working with a
nonprofit where she was dismissed for her concerns when a
coworker was making anti trans comments, and she used her
art to be able to vent her frustrations, which good
(04:38):
on you. This is better than smacking somebody or yelling
at them I am a violent person or her anyway.
So in her more recent post on Instagram, you will
see her works that highlight the importance and beauty of diversity,
calling out for advocacy through her illustrations. My faves include
(04:59):
the support your local WORF library. That's a good one.
Bodily autonomy is an appellation value. There's a possum in
one of ours. Gotta love that, uh a full stop.
And then asexuality is a real is real and valid.
Like she's very inclusive in all of that and is
a wonderful part of the queer workspace. Yes, that was
a shout out for you, Annie.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
There you go.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
We need that kind of we need that as a poster.
And yeah, like I said, she has some wonderful, wonderful stickers.
You should go check them out. They're a little sparkly
little round badges. One. You can go find it at
Liberal Jane dot com, which you can find out about
her work, all the art, some of the articles that
she's been featured in. How to collaborate with her, we
(05:40):
should probably get there. I kind of want her to
do some art work for us, but I have a
feeling she might be too expensive for iHeart for rightly so,
because it's worth that amount. But it is gorgeous. She
was also featured on The NIB, which is a publisher
of and this is from their site, quote political cartoons
and nonfiction comics about what is going down in the world,
(06:02):
and the story is called Abortion is an Essential Service,
where she tells as Marie's story and her having to
access abortion care and why it should be for everyone.
I will say a lot of the information that I
have gotten is from twenty twenty. Like I said, like
she really blew up at that point in time. I
discovered her before then I'll put that out there. Yeah,
(06:25):
I can. I can claim that I knew her and
I didn't know. I don't know her at all. I'm
just saying I saw her work, probably, but all of
that to say she I haven't gotten too much more
information in articles and I don't know why. I'm very
surprised by this, but twenty twenty was a lot of
the frames and including that story that was published. And again,
(06:47):
if you want to go check out the NIB, which
is really cool. They have a lot of amazing illustrations
and comics beautifully done and different artists are featured throughout,
so you definitely should check that out. But this was
one that I went through and read and like it
was exactly kind of what we did with our book
on when we were telling our stories. But I love
all of her art. It is gorgeous and by the way,
(07:10):
just recently I checked out on her LinkedIn that she's
worked with Women's First Digital to quote shine a light
on digital censorship of abortion information, which she has to
be busy. Like her artwork, I'm sure she's being inspired
by so much. I did see a lot of like
new artwork that has to do with immigration issues again,
disability rights, obviously trans issues that are happening because the
(07:35):
world is a burning ball of garbage anyway, But her
artwork is a bright light in all of these things,
so you should definitely go check out her stuff. Go
look at her up Liberal Jane on all the social media's.
I found her on TikTok as well, but I don't
think she's posted anything since twenty twenty four, so I
don't know if she's as active on there. Sheels on Instagram,
(07:57):
and I will add this bit too. She did talk
about in some of our articles about the fact that
Instagram has been kind of causing issues and censorship when
it comes to her art and her work and a
lot of people who are left leaning activism leg and
there's a lot to be said, so it is interesting
to see. But she is still doing a lot of
(08:18):
great work. So there you go. Go find our stickers.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
They sound cool, Yeah, they are cool, yes, yes, So
listeners go check her out. Let us know if you
have any thoughts about this or anyone you would like
us to cover, or any organization you would like us
to cover for the segment, you can email us at
Hello at stuff Whenever told You dot com. You can
find us on Blue Scott most up Podcasts, or on
Instagram and TikTok at stuff I Never told You. We're
(08:44):
also on YouTube. We have sub merchandise you can get
at Cotton Bureau, and we have a book yes that
you can get wherever you get your books. Thanks and
sways to our super producer, senior executive producer, My Ender
contributor Joey, thank you and thanks to you for listening
I've Never told you. Inspection about heart Radio. For more
podcasts from my Heart Radio You can check out the
heart radio app, Apple podcast wherever you listen to your
(09:05):
favorite shows.
Hey, this is Annie and Samantha. Welcome to Steffan Never
Told You production by Her Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
And for today's feminists around the world. We are featuring
a well known and much loved artist, Caitlin Blunny, and
we've actually featured her, I think on our Instagram. If not,
I've thought about doing it when I was doing the
Instagram because she has such amazing stuff and we here
love her work so much. I was perusing through her
(00:39):
stickers collection. I'm gonna have to buy a few. But
Blunny is an activist and artist currently from the DC
area who has been outspoken for the rights and advocacy
for others. Her art has been used throughout the country
and the world as a representation of queer trains and
reproductive rights, women's rights, disability rights of all of the things,
(01:01):
like she is on top of it, and again she
has done so much with all of that. And she's
known by her title Liberal Jane. I think people everybody's
gonna be like, yeah, no, I know who she is.
And her works has been featured on different publications and
by different campaigns that like I just saw I believe
Women's art activists kind of a site that was featuring
(01:22):
and thanking her for her work. She's she's known. If
you're a part of this community, you've seen her artwork,
even though you might not know the name or her
name personally. I know Liberal Jane. I didn't know her
name before the fact, but Caitlin Blunny and she's amazing. Obviously.
She went to school in New York and moved soon
after she graduated, and she's talked about growing up in
(01:43):
a conservative household and how her own father inspired the
name liberal Jane. So here's a quote from an interview
from j Jones magazine. Quote. I grew up pretty conservatively
and my dad, who was pretty far right, was upset
when I went off to college and was exposed to
progressive ideas. Sounds familiar. We would often talk read yell
(02:04):
over the phone about politics, and one day he just
responded to my argument with okay, Liberal Jane. And the
name stuck, especially when I got deeper into my activist work.
I decided to keep what became a family nickname and
use it online as an alias. While I'm no longer
anonymous online, the name is very sentimental to me, and
I love that take something that's supposed to be an
(02:24):
insult and use it and make money. Yeah, I mean, look,
she has two hundred and forty six thousand followers on Instagram.
She is known so go ahead, and her journey and
starting Liberal Jane was due to her empathy and standing
up for the rights of trans people and wanting to
(02:45):
be a voice to advocate for everyone's rice. So here's
a quote from Amelia greenblog dot WordPress dot com. Caitlin
Blenny has been an advocate for sexual assault victims and
while at university, was the victim of an attack herself
needing an abortion. Being an a to access one in Virginia,
she traveled across the state lines to get the healthcare
service she required. In her heavy New York draw, she explains,
(03:08):
in Virginia, if you want an abortion, you have to
wait twenty four hours, have to go through counseling, which
is biased, so you will hear things like the word baby.
So through her artwork, she is an avid campaigner for
reproductive rights in America. And again, like she's kind of,
it's just all all everywhere. It's not just reproductive work.
And she actually has worked with several organizations and nonprofits
(03:31):
by the way, so she is all about that walk
in this talk. Yeah, I was cheesy. I'm gonna keep it,
keep going. She has worked as an organizer and uses
her work in digital art spaces as a place for activism.
She grew in popularity in twenty nineteen twenty twenty, and
I say that with a caveat it, there's gonna be
so many people like, No, she was way before. She
(03:52):
probably was, but for us, like, she really blew up
in that era of that digital art space in a
time when everything all the protests and happening in like
through twenty sixteen to twenty nineteen, she really blew up
in that timeframe. I'll keep it at that. You can
come correct me because I understand. And she has become
a household name in the artivism world, which we have
(04:16):
said a couple of times, but it does sound tongue
in cheek, but still we love it. Her works are
inspiring and inclusive for so many And she talks about
how she began her illustration journey after working with a
nonprofit where she was dismissed for her concerns when a
coworker was making anti trans comments, and she used her
art to be able to vent her frustrations, which good
(04:38):
on you. This is better than smacking somebody or yelling
at them I am a violent person or her anyway.
So in her more recent post on Instagram, you will
see her works that highlight the importance and beauty of diversity,
calling out for advocacy through her illustrations. My faves include
(04:59):
the support your local WORF library. That's a good one.
Bodily autonomy is an appellation value. There's a possum in
one of ours. Gotta love that, uh a full stop.
And then asexuality is a real is real and valid.
Like she's very inclusive in all of that and is
a wonderful part of the queer workspace. Yes, that was
a shout out for you, Annie.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
There you go.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
We need that kind of we need that as a poster.
And yeah, like I said, she has some wonderful, wonderful stickers.
You should go check them out. They're a little sparkly
little round badges. One. You can go find it at
Liberal Jane dot com, which you can find out about
her work, all the art, some of the articles that
she's been featured in. How to collaborate with her, we
(05:40):
should probably get there. I kind of want her to
do some art work for us, but I have a
feeling she might be too expensive for iHeart for rightly so,
because it's worth that amount. But it is gorgeous. She
was also featured on The NIB, which is a publisher
of and this is from their site, quote political cartoons
and nonfiction comics about what is going down in the world,
(06:02):
and the story is called Abortion is an Essential Service,
where she tells as Marie's story and her having to
access abortion care and why it should be for everyone.
I will say a lot of the information that I
have gotten is from twenty twenty. Like I said, like
she really blew up at that point in time. I
discovered her before then I'll put that out there. Yeah,
(06:25):
I can. I can claim that I knew her and
I didn't know. I don't know her at all. I'm
just saying I saw her work, probably, but all of
that to say she I haven't gotten too much more
information in articles and I don't know why. I'm very
surprised by this, but twenty twenty was a lot of
the frames and including that story that was published. And again,
(06:47):
if you want to go check out the NIB, which
is really cool. They have a lot of amazing illustrations
and comics beautifully done and different artists are featured throughout,
so you definitely should check that out. But this was
one that I went through and read and like it
was exactly kind of what we did with our book
on when we were telling our stories. But I love
all of her art. It is gorgeous and by the way,
(07:10):
just recently I checked out on her LinkedIn that she's
worked with Women's First Digital to quote shine a light
on digital censorship of abortion information, which she has to
be busy. Like her artwork, I'm sure she's being inspired
by so much. I did see a lot of like
new artwork that has to do with immigration issues again,
disability rights, obviously trans issues that are happening because the
(07:35):
world is a burning ball of garbage anyway, But her
artwork is a bright light in all of these things,
so you should definitely go check out her stuff. Go
look at her up Liberal Jane on all the social media's.
I found her on TikTok as well, but I don't
think she's posted anything since twenty twenty four, so I
don't know if she's as active on there. Sheels on Instagram,
(07:57):
and I will add this bit too. She did talk
about in some of our articles about the fact that
Instagram has been kind of causing issues and censorship when
it comes to her art and her work and a
lot of people who are left leaning activism leg and
there's a lot to be said, so it is interesting
to see. But she is still doing a lot of
(08:18):
great work. So there you go. Go find our stickers.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
They sound cool, Yeah, they are cool, yes, yes, So
listeners go check her out. Let us know if you
have any thoughts about this or anyone you would like
us to cover, or any organization you would like us
to cover for the segment, you can email us at
Hello at stuff Whenever told You dot com. You can
find us on Blue Scott most up Podcasts, or on
Instagram and TikTok at stuff I Never told You. We're
(08:44):
also on YouTube. We have sub merchandise you can get
at Cotton Bureau, and we have a book yes that
you can get wherever you get your books. Thanks and
sways to our super producer, senior executive producer, My Ender
contributor Joey, thank you and thanks to you for listening
I've Never told you. Inspection about heart Radio. For more
podcasts from my Heart Radio You can check out the
heart radio app, Apple podcast wherever you listen to your
(09:05):
favorite shows.
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