Sarah's Scribbles focuses on adulthood and the maturity of the Millennial generation. Andersen herself described Millennials as "liking to laugh at themselves," making common use of self-deprecating humour. The Independent described Sarah's Scribbles as a series of "relatable comics capturing the dilemmas of a bug-eyed millennial who feels ill-equipped for grown-up life." The webcomic is semi-autobiographical, following Andersen's experiences as well as those of her friends and pets. One comic shows, for instance, how Andersen borrows items from her boyfriend. Andersen's webcomic primarily features the messy-haired protagonist Sarah, who has to deal with social anxiety, body image issues and laziness. Andersen has deliberately chosen not to publish photographs of her face, instead opting to present herself through her black-haired and black-eyed character. Andersen noted in December, 2016 that Owl Turd Comics was her favorite webcomic at the time, though she primarily gains inspiration from her own life and seeing what people on the internet are thinking and feeling.
Development
Andersen started creating and uploading Sarah's Scribbles on Tumblr in 2013. She was studying at the Maryland Institute College of Art at the time, from which she graduated in 2014 to work on the webcomic full-time. Andersen noted in an interview that publishing Sarah's Scribbles as a webcomic allows her to observe the reactions of her readership in real-time, and she stated that this allows her to do a better job. Andersen's webcomic makes use of a five-panel format, which Andersen developed because it works well with the scroll display of Tumblr and continues to work well on other websites, such as Instagram. Andersen has also described her romance webcomic Fangs as depicting "what “Sarah” would be like all grown up". In March 2016, Andersen released a print collection of Sarah's Scribbles comics titled Adulthood is a Myth. The book was published by Andrews McMeel Publishing. A follow-up was published in March, 2017, titled Big Mushy Happy Lump, from the same publisher and a third volume, Herding Cats was released in March, 2018. She has also released a calendar and planner featuring her comics.
Reception
Sarah's Scribbles books won the Goodreads Choice Award in the "best graphic novel" category in 2016, 2017, and 2018, for Adulthood is a Myth, Big Mushy Happy Lump, and Herding Cats respectively.
