Vergie's World

When you meet Vergie, you're meeting me — just in feathered form. This is how she arrived.

I worked on Vergie for months. She started in Midjourney, then went unruly. Leonardo was better. Then I drew and drew her on paper, which is how I got her into my body. On the tablet she was finally born — with my tremble, with my signature. That's when I knew she had arrived. Now, as vulnerable as it feels, I'm tentatively ready to share her with the world.

Where Vergie began

Vergie didn't arrive out of nowhere.

It began with a simple desire: to write memoir.


In 2024, I gave my love for writing real space again, not as a "project," but as a way to catch my life in words. To make sense of things. To turn experience into story.

And then the visual itch came back.


I started drawing again, on paper at first, but I also wanted to get over a very practical fear: digital art. At some point I stopped circling it and simply tried. I picked up an iPad, gave the Apple Pencil a real chance, and began learning by doing.


The uncluttered surface. The smoothness of the glass under my hand, even the texture of the stylus. It regulated my nervous system in a way I hadn't expected.


And it turned out that digital didn't pull me away from the real work. It unlocked the world where Vergie could appear. In that quiet, clean space, she showed herself in a way she never had on paper.

A tiny timeline of how Vergie showed up

The first time she had a name...

before she had feathers.

Then she arrived as a goose

A detour. The hair had opinions.

Getting her onto paper became my bridge

back to digital.

Who Vergie is

Vergie is a goose with a neurodivergent nervous system.


She's funny, tender, easily overstimulated, unexpectedly brave, and sometimes entirely done with everything. But she keeps going anyway. She isn't a mascot. She's a kind of avatar of me — a feathered way to tell the truth sideways. She arrived as a goose partly because of my last name. Gans is Dutch for goose. Goosebumps, no pun intended.

What this world will become

Over time, Vergie's World will grow into a collection of:

  • illustrated moments: Vergie doing the dishes, zoning out or stressed. Vergie on the floor doing yoga nidra. Vergie noticing. Vergie overwhelmed.

  • awkward moments: the kind where your mind goes blank exactly when it shouldn't. Or floods with too many options to choose from any of them.

  • short texts that resonate.

  • characters and mini-stories that show neurodivergent life as it actually is, the inside story.

Join the build

Sometimes I find it hard to express what life is like for me, what makes my life different. These images of Vergie tell that story. And it is my hope that some people will resonate, or will have that aha moment.

I'm finishing an introductory PDF called Vergie's Day. It's a way to step into her world early. More soon.