Janina is a New Zealand Samoan Graphic Medicine Artist and Illustrator. She creates comics about life with Type 1 Diabetes and has had Type 1 Diabetes for over 30 years.

Her comics have been featured in Bernie Sanders political campaign, as well as Brut America, and The Mighty. She was on BBC “The Conversation” to talk about her artwork and life with diabetes.

She does graphic design and illustration work for The World Health Organization Global Diabetes Compact, and has recently created illustrations and animations for their World Diabetes Day Campaign in 2022, 2023 and 2024, with “Access to Insulin” being one of their top posts of 2024.

She loves creating and imagining things that come to life on paper and in the digital world. In her spare time, She loves hanging out with her partner Rick and her puppy McFly, travelling, reading graphic novels and comics and watching K-Dramas.

CURRENT PROJECTS

She has just finished illustrating the children’s book “It Belongs To The World”, about the co-discoverer of insulin, Frederick Banting, written by Lisa Katzenberger, published by Harper Collins and is in bookstores now. It has also made it to the 2025 Bank Street Best Children’s Books of the Year!

If you want to get in touch, you can email her here: hello@missdiabetes.com