Being Left-Handed in a Right-Handed World

I’ve always heard that left-handed people are supposed to be creative. Maybe there’s science behind it, maybe not. What I do know is that being left-handed forces you to adapt creatively in ways most people never think about.

My siblings are left-handed too. Both of our parents are right-handed, which makes the whole thing even stranger. We talk on a regular basis about what we can or cannot do with our dominant hand. They’re more ambidextrous than I am. My right hand is here for moral support and not much else.

There’s ONE exception though. A computer mouse. I can only use it with my right hand. I cannot draw with the mouse using either hand. I have tried. It is equally terrible both ways. And that small detail has shaped my entire design career more than I ever expected (or care to admit).

For years, I avoided digital illustration because I physically could not do it well. The tools never worked for me. In middle school, there was one left-handed mouse setup in the entire computer lab. Guess who never got to use it? The habit stuck and by the time I wanted a career in digital art, the limitation was already baked in.

College and the Creative Wall

When I was in college, digital drawing was still entering the mainstream. iPads weren’t widely accessible yet and Wacom tablets required drawing while looking somewhere other than your hands. For a left-handed person with my wiring, it felt impossible. I did what I could. I drew by hand, scanned assets, stitched things together. It forced me into a mixed media workflow that I actually enjoyed. If I had been able to stick with that, I’m convinced it would have opened a different creative world for me.

During my long creative hiatus, this issue was a major reason of staying there. Mentally I knew exactly what I wanted to create. Physically I could not make it happen. That disconnect was painful. Now technology has finally caught up. The Apple Pencil changed everything. Screen mirroring lets me use my iPad as a drawing tool without contorting my brain. It feels like someone finally handed me a key I’ve needed for years.

The Practical Annoyances People Don’t See

Most people don’t realize how annoying it is to be left-handed. Your back is twisted from right-handed school desks. Spiral notebooks dig into and ink smears across the side of your hand. Scissors are practically unusable. Left-handed scissors are a lie and I will not be convinced otherwise.

Sports were a disaster. Baseball made no sense to my body in either direction. I could only catch or throw with my right hand but batting felt wrong no matter how I stood. In high school, I may or may not have told a gym teacher to shove it because 17 years old was too late to learn and I was not risking my teeth for a sport my brain refused to process. I stand by that decision.

All of it influenced the creative paths that felt accessible to me. The tools that were meant to help often made things harder. I learned to workaround everything because the world wasn’t built for me.

Looking Ahead

It’s funny how something as simple as being left-handed shaped my entire creative life. It guided what I avoided, what I embraced, and what I had to invent for myself along the way. Now that the tools exist to support me, I really want to dive into digital drawing and illustration properly. Not to prove anything. Just to finally give my creative brain what it’s been asking for.

I’d honestly love to talk with another designer who dealt with this same limitation. There have to be more of us out there.

And if not, at least I know I’m not alone in navigating a right-handed world with a very stubborn left hand.