Good Reads: Tummy Ache launches its laziest issue yet
Continuing its mission to destigmatise mental health, the slow fashion brand and magazine’s new issue explores how laziness has long been a story told by the oppressor of the oppressed
While attitudes towards mental health have progressed a huge amount in recent years, stats show that there’s still stigma when it comes to talking about it. Founded in 2024 by Anna Morrissey, Tummy Ache is on a mission to make mental health conversations less daunting through the lens of art and fashion.
Tummy Ache’s clothing range came first, born out of Morrissey’s need to be making things with her hands during a time of intense anxiety. “This birthed a brand that was intrinsically connected to mental health and crafting. The clothing designs addressed traditionally negative feelings of tiredness, regret, loneliness etc in a tongue and cheek way,” she explains.
“The brand remains rooted in the reality that wearing these handmade t-shirts professing how I was feeling directly led to conversations with people in my life who I would have never expected to be struggling too.”
The biannual magazine develops this conversation further, focusing on art, fashion and writing to encourage conversations about our mental health. “To be emotionally honest goes against patriarchal capitalism in many ways, as it rejects the productivity model that relies on emotional repression in the name of profit. Tummy Ache magazine bridges personal and collective experiences, addressing how systemic forces shape our emotional lives,” she says.
Tummy Ache’s editorial approach centres on exploring a different emotion in each issue, so far delving into vulnerability and jealousy. The inspiration for the art direction came from Morrissey’s own illustrations in her old school textbooks, which typically featured figures in different emotional states.
“The magazine is still very much tethered to this original inspiration of intuitive craft and illustration, with scanned in notes, potato skins, socks and a through theme of the identifiable Tummy Ache illustrated faces that feature on our t-shirts,” she says.
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The art direction of the magazine, she continues, strikes a careful balance between bold typography, thoughtful photography and more playful design elements. “I think we live in a world that is severely lacking in nuance, so having many iterations of a single emotion in one magazine issue, alongside diverging design elements, is important and actually creates quite a peaceful balance.”
Tummy Ache’s latest issue – its laziest yet – delves into the fear, shame and liberatory potential of doing absolutely nothing. Long framed as a moral failing, laziness is a label wielded against the sick, the working class, the racialised and the marginalised. In this context, the issue poses the question: what does it mean to embrace laziness not as failure, but as refusal?
The theme came from Morrissey’s own experiences of feeling shame as someone who is self-employed and struggles with chronic fatigue. “The label of laziness haunts me when I am confronted by opportunities I missed, or people in the same industry who seem to be overtaking me. As I procrastinated the next issue, this self-imposed label of ‘the laziest woman alive’ felt like a good starting point,” she explains.
Inside its pages, self-proclaimed lazy girl Catherine Cohen divulges her daily routine, which largely consists of laying around and “jerking off”, while Morrissey interviews poet and educator Tolu Agbelusi about how laziness impairs the most powerless in society. “Laziness has been a story for a very long time. It has been a story that has been told by the oppressor of the oppressed,” explains Agbelusi.
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The third issue’s release also recently marked the magazine’s first real-life launch party. Looking ahead, Morrissey would love to find more opportunities for the Tummy Ache community to connect IRL, as well as continuing to make clothes in tandem with the publication. “I think they have quite a natural reciprocity as they are both rooted in emotional language and design,” she says.
“But I would love to expand the clothing brand. I’ve had my heart set on a Tummy Ache tracksuit for a while, and maybe some pyjamas. My hopes for Tummy Ache magazine are that people read it, connect with it, and that it may offer solace to someone struggling. I have a list of emotions I want to delve into, so that will keep me going for a while. Next up… the horny issue?”
Tummy Ache Vol. 3: The Lazy Issue is out now; tummyache.co.uk
