[1] Iwaoka started her career as a professional manga artist in the early 2000s, when she released several short stories to critical acclaim.
Two of her short story collections were jury-recommended works at the Japan Media Arts Festival; Shiroi Kumo in 2005 and Yume no Soko in 2006.
[1][2] Some of her work was included in the 2004 Takashi Murakami exhibition "Tokyo Girls Bravo" at the Marianne Boesky Gallery, where her artwork was compared to that of A.
And the science fiction series Saturn Apartments, published in Ikki and licensed in English by Viz Media, won the festival's Grand Prize in 2011, making her the third female artist after Makoto Isshiki and Fumiyo Kōno to win the award.
In 2009, she formed a doujinshi circle named "Harapeko Sentai Hashi Ranger" together with fellow manga artists Takako Shimura, Fumiko Tanagawa, Aoki Toshinao and Ishide Den.