I think we can all agree that social media can be a real shitshow.

Here is a cycle I find myself in often: Because I tend to get my information about the world by following people and publications with voices I respect, my feed is invariably flooded with the day’s horrible events and everyone else’s loud opinions about them. When all of the noise starts to stress me out, I decide to switch gears and check out some of the frivolous fashion, lifestyle, and food accounts I follow, but then those accounts start to fill me either with FOMO or a general sense of inferiority. Stop looking at this stuff, I tell myself! It doesn’t matter anyway, the world is literally on fire! Read some news!!!

Switching back and forth between these two extremes is how I end up lying awake far past my bedtime, searching for some note of satisfaction to end the day on, and never, ever finding it. So far, there are only two corners of Instagram that really break the cycle for me: kittens and illustration.

I’m sure I’ll get to kittens eventually, but today I’m highlighting some of my favorite illustrators on Instagram. Follow them to inject a little bit of joy into that endless scroll.