Stories

We tell stories about health and human experience. Our words and pictures make connections, provoke new thinking and share lived experiences.

  • Article

How the slave trade’s medical legacies persist

Micha Frazer-Carroll, uncovers the historical links between enslavement and disability to better understand her family’s complex attitudes towards healthcare.

  • Long read

Letting go of IVF

Fertility treatment is physically and emotionally arduous, with no guarantees. Jessa Fairbrother describes her decision not to have IVF and the complexity of living with that choice.

  • Article

Pregnancy, parenting, and embracing blindness

Amy Kavanagh, who is blind, shares the delight she feels in her young, sighted son, and her growing acceptance of the ways his experiences will differ from hers.

Part of The Joy of Being Disabled
  • Article

Disability, desire, and pleasure unlocked

Roxy Murray dives into the raw, intimate truths of sex and pleasure as a disabled person, sharing an unapologetic and explicit journey through her frustrations and desires.

Part of The Joy of Being Disabled
  • Short film

Exploring Deaf space at London College of Fashion

In this British Sign Language (BSL) film, activist and architectural designer Christopher Laing outlines the five principles of Deaf space and shares his thoughts on identity and inclusive design.

Part of The Joy of Being Disabled

Zines at Wellcome Collection

Zines are DIY publications, produced in limited numbers and often aimed at a specific audience or community. Explore themes such as mental health, disability, gender, chronic illness and menstruation from our collection of over 1,400 zines in these stories.

  • Article

Six personal health zines that might change your life

Personal zines put health conditions back in the hands of the people who experience them. Here are six that Wellcome Collection staff love.

Part of Zines at Wellcome Collection
Part of Inside our collections
  • Article

Rag mags and monthly issues: Five period zines to stop you seeing red

Using humour, personal experience and political activism to explore the bloody reality of menstruation.

Part of Zines at Wellcome Collection
Part of Inside our collections
Part of Period pains
  • Article

What are zines doing in a museum

On the face of it, zines and museums are not a good fit, but Lea Cooper argues, they have a lot to offer each other.

Part of Zines at Wellcome Collection
Part of Inside our collections
  • In pictures

Quaranzines

Researcher and zine-maker Lea Cooper explores pandemic zines made by people who were often familiar with “staying at home” because of disability or chronic illness.

Part of Zines at Wellcome Collection
Part of Inside our collections
  • In pictures

Neuroqueering comics

Researcher and zine-maker Lea Cooper considers how comic-zines use the distinctive qualities of zines to explore some of the complex connections between memory, autobiography, disability, neurodivergence and queer identity.

Part of Zines at Wellcome Collection
Part of Inside our collections
  • In pictures

Zines from the in-between

Zines, because they are messy, unconventional and personal, are the ideal vehicle for describing the in-between, liminal parts of life. Lea Cooper is a researcher and zine-maker who has been delving into Wellcome’s zines collection.

Part of Zines at Wellcome Collection
Part of Inside our collections
More stories

Comics

Explore new perspectives on bodies, brains and health with our guest comic artists.

Books

We publish thought-provoking books exploring health and human experiences.

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  • Article

Fashion, identity, and the need for community

Sinéad Burke’s love of fashion has driven her to campaign for change and, ultimately, establish a consultancy that aims to transform the way the industry includes and represents Disabled people.

Part of The Joy of Being Disabled
  • Article

Ballet, beauty, and the joy of wheelchair dance

Since childhood, Kate Stanforth has danced whenever and wherever she could. The only difference now is her wheelchair.

Part of The Joy of Being Disabled
  • Article

What are zines doing in a museum

On the face of it, zines and museums are not a good fit, but Lea Cooper argues, they have a lot to offer each other.

Part of Zines at Wellcome Collection
  • Article

Left behind by workplace wellbeing

Having experienced bouts of serious mental illness, Caroline Butterwick discovers that the new world of workplace wellbeing schemes fails to mitigate discrimination against people like her.

  • In pictures

Cola’s complicated roots

How one of the most famous soda drinks in the world got its name from a traditional West African delicacy.

Part of Kola cultures
  • Photo story

Nothing without kola

Yaw Afrim Gyebi travels through Ghana to meet the people who grow and use kola nut for its many practical and symbolic purposes.

Part of Kola cultures
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