Meet Chari Pere: The Woman Giving Voice to the Fertility Struggles No One Talks About

When creative professional Chari Pere experienced a traumatic miscarriage in 2014, she channeled her grief into something transformative: a series of comics called “UNSPOKEN” that gives voice to experiences millions of women face but rarely discuss openly.

Now, with her animated short “DETERMINATION,” which premired at the SOHO Film Festival on October 9th, Pere is expanding her storytelling canvas to reach new audiences with even deeper emotional resonance.

For high-achieving women accustomed to controlling their professional outcomes, the unpredictability of pregnancy complications can be especially devastating. Pere understands this intimately. Not just from her own experience, but from the hundreds of women worldwide who have shared their stories with her.

What began as a personal comic in 2017, launched with the support of actress Mayim Bialik, has evolved into a mission to tackle the taboo subjects that keep women isolated in their pain. From miscarriage and IVF to abortion and Down syndrome diagnoses, Pere’s work explores the unspoken experiences that cut across cultural and professional boundaries.

We had the honor of chatting with Pere about her journey from static illustrations to animated narratives, the business of meaningful advocacy, and how she’s building a global community around reproductive grief and fertility struggles. She also shared with us practical wisdom for women navigating the intersection of fertility struggles and career ambitions, discussed the challenges and rewards of working with her husband and Co-Producer Eli Schiff on emotionally charged content, and reveals her strategies for maintaining work-life boundaries while observing the Sabbath in a demanding creative industry.

Check out the full interview with Chari Pere below!

“DETERMINATION” premieres at the SOHO Film Festival on October 9th – can you walk us through your transition from static comics to animated shorts? What new storytelling opportunities does animation offer for these sensitive topics?

Chari Pere: I had released my first comic in the series, “Miscarried”, in May 2017, with the support of actress Mayim Bialik who helped launch the comic. That story was based on my own experience, a traumatic miscarriage I had in 2014. I was originally approached by a filmmaker friend to try to turn the film into a short, as I didn’t have the skills to do so on my own.

While that partnership did not work out, it planted the seed of the idea in my head. In the meantime, I had begun releasing one new comic a year tackling topics from a male perspective in miscarriage, a Down syndrome diagnosis, and was working on DETERMINATION (which tackles an IVF/abortion experience) until the pandemic hit and I paused the project.

In the meantime, starting from around the launching of the “Miscarried” comic, I had spent the next 6 years working for advertising/marketing companies learning how to write, direct and produce animated shorts and commercials. So I applied for a fellowship with the 2024 Jewish Writers’ Initiative Digital Storytellers Lab to turn my and was thrilled to be one of 13 projects accepted! It provided me with the funding, tools and support I needed to begin producing my own work for the first time.

Getting to turn my comics to an animated format helped me reach a new audience and help add a new level of emotional engagement and acting that quite simply don’t exist in the 10-page comics I create.

Your work tackles subjects that many women face but rarely discuss openly. What advice would you give to women who are struggling with fertility issues while trying to advance their careers?

Chari Pere: I found that being open and finding the right support made a huge difference. At first, I thought I had to keep my personal fertility issues private, because I didn’t know anyone else who had gone through what I had.

Then, when I decided I needed to reach out to others, I learned that so many others had gone through similar issues, including my own mother! Regardless of what personal struggles one may be dealing with, everyone whose stories I featured are glad to share their stories to help others feel less alone on the emotionally challenging side of fertility and pregnancy complications.

By sharing our own stories, we feel like we are not going through our issues in vain and some good can come from it. It’s tough balancing work while dealing with our private life, but by building a trustworthy support team, it can help us succeed far better than by trying to take on such an emotional burden alone.

You’ve mentioned the taboo nature of discussing pregnancy loss. How do you think this silence particularly impacts high-achieving women who are used to having control over their professional outcomes?

Chari Pere: The sooner that each of us learns that we can’t control everything that goes on in our lives and sometimes we have to ride life’s rollercoaster of surprises, the sooner we can get to a better place.

While we can never prevent or control the physical challenges that come with pregnancy complications, I learned too late for my own situation that by finding the right trustworthy support network, we can ease the burden of the emotionally draining toll that comes with difficult diagnoses. The sooner we can heal emotionally, the faster we can return to “normal”, or whatever our “new normal” may be.

What role has building a supportive community played in your healing process, and how do you recommend women in male-dominated industries find or create these support networks?

Chari Pere: The role of a supportive community was instrumental, but it was honestly a bit of trial and error. The process isn’t easy, and some family and friends gave unhelpful comments like “you can always try again” or “it wasn’t meant to be” (I wanted the fetus in my belly to be healthy now).

The ones who did say the right words, or brought over ice cream to help me feel better were the ones I put in my inner circle and told right away when I was pregnant again to make sure I had the support from the get-go in case anything did go wrong again.

If a woman isn’t comfortable discussing this in work, then don’t! Really just find the right support team that works for you. Personally, I find that being honest, even with male colleagues, is a relief. I found that keeping secrets hurt me rather than helped, but each individual needs to find the right coping mechanism that works for them. What works for me and my workspace may not work for you.

So there is not one right answer for this; only your own personal intuition and comfort level.

Can you share insights about the business side of your artistic advocacy? How do you monetize meaningful work while staying true to your mission?

Chari Pere: I have looked for sponsors and collaborations for my projects. The plan is to work on a larger project (both in print and for TV) which I’m currently developing.

Your husband Eli Schiff is your Co-Producer. How do you navigate the challenges of working with your spouse on such emotionally charged content, and what advice would you give to other entrepreneurial couples?

I love working with my husband on these projects! Eli is a brilliant editor and has a sharp creative, artistic mind and voice talent. We also have different skillsets; I find the topics, write the scripts, do all the illustrations, and directly collaborates with and directs the animator. Eli edits the scripts and art, casts the voices, works on the recordings, and helps with the final art direction as well. We also order food to make “date nights” to discuss anything that we need to when deadlines are tight. Divide and conquer is a great way to go. We both feel passionately about using our artistic capabilities to make the world a better places, so it helps to be aligned on whatever project we work on.

You’ve received messages from women worldwide. Have you noticed any patterns in how women from different cultural or professional backgrounds process reproductive grief differently?

Chari Pere: It’s actually been pretty universal feedback. It seems that most women were raised to think that their experience is supposed to be kept private, particularly in the earlier stages before it’s “safe” to announce a pregnancy. I’m hoping that my comics show the benefits of being open, or at the very least become a resource to help those who prefer to keep their struggles private to feel less alone.

As someone who observes the Sabbath in a demanding creative industry, how do you maintain work-life boundaries and religious practices while building your career?

Chari Pere: I have always been open with my jobs and clients about my schedules. I try to plan calendars far in advance and offer to work on Sundays when times are busy and the Jewish holiday season falls out on many business days (like this year!)

I’ve been lucky so far to work with wonderful clients and companies who are very accepting and supportive of my religious needs. And I’m a hard worker who is not afraid to put in long hours when necessary, so I try to earn the trust that I will not miss deadlines as early on as possible.

What strategies do you use for managing the emotional labor of constantly engaging with traumatic stories while maintaining your own productivity and creativity?

Chari Pere: I watch a lot of rom coms or light TV shows and read a lot of chick lit to balance! Listening to Oldies music is also one of my go-to’s. I actually have a background in humor and kid-friendly material, so it’s been quite the challenge to tackle such heavy topics.

I also make sure to take on other commissioned projects that are less heavy. Consuming easy and fun entertainment any way I can is the way I can best maintain my sanity!

For women who want to use their professional platforms to advocate for important causes, what lessons have you learned about balancing vulnerability with authority?

Chari Pere: I find that honesty and high-quality materials are the way to advocate. I created a universally-friendly art style that appealed to a wide-range of people so that the viewer can feel like they are experiencing the story through the eyes of each main character in my comics and animations. Creating content to appeal to the masses and not “art for art’s sake” is very important to me. And creating sound bites and important lines the resonate are really important.

In my first comic, I had a frame that showed different images of women with their children, for myself, I depicted one woman with 2 children but had it labeled, “2 KIDS, 3 PREGNANCIES”. It showed women with different numbers of women their actual number of pregnancies, including one woman with no kids that read “0 KIDS, 6 PREGNANCIES”.

When it was posted, women from all over began sharing their own number of children and pregnancies. It gave me chills to show the bravery of others, many of which opened up publicly for the first time ever about their own experiences.

Beyond reproductive health, you mentioned wanting to explore topics like ADHD, autism, and loss. How do you envision scaling your impact while maintaining the personal, intimate nature of your storytelling approach?

Chari Pere: Yes! My goal is to turn “UNSPOKEN” into a project like Chicken Soup for the Soul; to create different anthologies and collections on exactly the topics that you mentioned (ADHD, autism, loss of parents/family/friends) as well as cancer and other issues.

I hope to reach as many people as I can through this powerful medium.