Through a series of visualizations, this piece explores the increase in drinking amongst American women as well as the physical and mental toll drinking causes. The goal of this piece is to provide the viewer with a better understanding of what problematic drinking is, how prolonged alcohol consumption has irreversible and fatal consequences, and what steps could be taken to prevent long-term damage.

For this project, there were three datasets used to outline the statistics around women and alcohol consumption: National Health Interview Survey (NHIS); The Behavioral Risk FactorSurveillance System (BRFSS); National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH). These three were chosen because they were the data source for many of the articles on this subject, each survey has public health institutional oversight, and each data library could give me historic as well as recent statistics.

I wanted purple to be the main colour of the piece as purple is the official colour of International Women's Day, signifies mobility as well as reflection and self-awareness. I chose a really vibrant (almost electric) purple so that it could stand out and really grab the viewer's attention. I then chose complementary colours that felt almost reminiscent of the 1970s, which is when the fad of women self medicating through prescribed psychopharmacological medications and alcohol increased. This palette allowed there to be a softness yet vibrance in the visuals.

The format I felt would best highlight this information and allow me to guide the viewer through the topic was a scrollytelling website. A website is ideal because it can be shared a number of ways – via social media, email, or Airdrop/Bluetooth device sharing. While scrollytelling allows for elements to be revealed and feels like an excavation of information. Distilled down, this piece is a public health message, and the key to public health messaging is that it has to be easily shared and feel accessible.