The World of Finance is More Engaging Thanks to Julia Rothman’s Illustrated Reporting

Last fall, illus­tra­tor Julia Roth­man and writer Shaina Fein­berg launched an illus­trat­ed col­umn in The New York Times called Scratch. Pub­lished in the Sun­day Busi­ness sec­tion every oth­er week (and appear­ing online the Fri­day before), the series focus­es on finance as told through human inter­est sto­ries. The illus­tra­tive report­ing fea­tures Juli­a’s paint­ings with hand­writ­ten text—often told in the first person–that reveals the cost of doing things like open­ing a cof­fee shop, being a drag queen in New York City, and hav­ing a baby through IVF. Her style gives this series warmth to dol­lars and cents that can some­times feel so cold; I find the series fas­ci­nat­ing and enjoy read­ing it every time it’s published.

Fol­low Julia on Insta­gram to see snap­shots of Scratch, and see the past columns here.

Here’s a snippet from one of the latest Scratch columns, “What They Paid to Make a Baby (or 2)”: