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Letter from the Editor

Why This EIC Went MIA

09/25/2012
It's Me Again, Letter from the Editor, Motivation, My Story
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Hey all,

I know it’s been a while, but I’m back (I know, again). Truth is, starting this magazine (and trying to make it pop) has been a lot of hard work, even harder than I anticipated. Truth moment? I thought that having a good  great idea was enough. That all I had to do was to get the magazine finished (which took long enough), printed, and the world would recognize its awesomeness and praise/award me appropriately. Yeah. Welp, the world got me good. And for a minute there I got caught up in comparing my struggle to other people’s “successes” and I got bummed out. I doubted myself and I wondered if it was even worth it. I’m here, so what changed? Well, a few things. First, I met an amazing group of young women (Girls for Gender Equity, how y’all doin) and got excited about the mission of this magazine again. Like, I really got excited again. Then, I took a moment to honestly re-evaluate what I had done and why it didn’t work. And when I say I took a moment, I mean I read and researched and thought critically about what I was trying to do versus what I was actually doing. I switched up my game plan and recommitted myself to doing this work. So, I’m here. And I’m back to basics. That means, I’ve stopped focusing on all the awards I think I deserve and  all the great things to come and I’m working on reaching these girls, right now.

“Please help us find a home. We’re really good magazines. Honest.”

That said, I have a lot of copies of the first issue left. I’m not really concerned with making a profit selling them, as that ship has sailed. But I would like to get the issues out to some young women who might enjoy them. So, I’d you know of any groups, schools, programs, homes, centers, etc. where I can send a packet of magazines, please let me know.

Also, stay tuned. Because I’m going to be blogging about the process of getting this issue of the magazine out and, well, I plan to do so honestly, so you might not want to miss it.

~Until next time

What’s in a Name?

09/29/2009
It's Me Again, Letter from the Editor, Magazines
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When I first decided to do the whole magazine thing, followed by the whole blog thing, the first thing I knew I needed (besides a kick ass idea) was a really great name. And that was a lot harder than it may seem.

I looked at the names of some other teen publications that I read- from the most basic, like Teen (is that still around?) and Seventeen; to the junior women’s mags, like CosmoGIRL! (r.i.p), Elle Girl (r.i.p), and Teen Vogue; including the “niche” (read: ethnic) mags like, Young Sisters and Brothers (r.i.p.) and QuinceGirl (which, admittedly, I’ve never read).

Teen Magazine (still around, who knew?)

Teen Magazine (still around, who knew?)

CosmoGIRL! (r.i.p.)

CosmoGIRL! (r.i.p.)

Elle Girl (r.i.p.)

Elle Girl (r.i.p.)

YSB (r.i.p.)

YSB (r.i.p.)

And I thought, eh…nothing really snazzy about any of them. They get the point across that they are magazines for teens, but that’s about it. Since I was starting from scratch, on my own, and quite unknown, I needed a really good name. One word that just says it all. Like  Sassy and Fierce (not for teens, but still, young adults).

Sassy (r.i.p)

Sassy (r.i.p)

Fierce Magazine (r.i.p.)

Fierce Magazine (r.i.p.)

So I wanted the name to be jazzy enough that it would draw people’s attention (and make them want to pick it up and read or at least browse through it) but not too edgy that it would turn people off; a name that would speak to teen girls, but didn’t sound too cutesy; a name that was fresh, but not too gritty- in a way, I wanted something perfect, without playing it too safe.  I  wanted a name that would reflect what the magazine stands for and speak to the girls I’m trying to reach, the girls I’m writing about and the girls I’m writing for.

I wanted that. So I thought and looked words up in both the dictionary and the thesaurus until I found it. It was perfect! But it was taken. So I found another. Perfect! But there were too many incarnations of it online. I wanted something that was unique. And then it came to me- homegirl.

I knew what it meant. I used it to refer to a certain group of girls I knew from college who were from my hometown. We weren’t the closest of friends, but being from the same place was something that connected us, that endeared us to one another and set us apart from everyone else, from every place else. So I looked it up in the dictionary to make sure. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, a homegirl is:

1 : a girl or woman from one’s neighborhood, hometown, or region

2: a girl or woman who is a member of one’s peer group

3: an inner-city girl or woman

Right. Right. Kind of perfect, no? The only thing was, I wondered if it would it only appeal to a certain kind of girl. You know, the ones for whom urban, hip-hop, and at-risk are synonymous. So I thought about it and here’s the deal.  1) Yes, the name homegirl does bring up images of fly girls in their b-girl stances and I’m cool with that because I am writing for them. 2) But I’m also writing for girls who have no idea what a b-girl stance looks like and 3) I think the content of what and whom I write about will reflect the diversity of what it means to be a homegirl, and a Tri-state homegirl at that.

So, whether you’re from Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens, Harlem, Manhattan, Staten Island, Jersey, or Connecticut, come on in and get familiar. There’s something here for everyone. And if you don’t see something for you, email me (homegirl.nyc@gmail.com) and let me know so I can get right on top of that.

I’m here for you.

I’m In a “Get Right” State of Mind

09/22/2009
It's Me Again, Letter from the Editor
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Hey Homegirls!

I almost forgot to my weekly “Letter from the Editor.” Forgive me for my lateness, but it’s been a busy week. So let me rewind for a momentito, last week I had a moment. I think there were four days in there where I didn’t post anything. Not.a.thing. Troubling, since I had all sorts of things all lined up- a post on the start of Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15-October 15); a post on Stepfamily Day (September 16; did you know there was such a thing?); mentioning that it was Citizenship Day (September 17); I really wanted to get a post up about Ramadan (the last day was September 19); a post on this really compelling documentary about this teen hip-hop project here in NYC;  and I thought that a post on Georgia O’Keefe was be ideal. But I fell short.

Why, you ask? Well, to be honest, I got discouraged. See, I’ve been planning this magazine for a long time and even planning what I want to do in and with this blog long before I started it (I have an editorial calendar and everything. yes, I do.) But when things started to fall through (like the Muslim teen who I was going to interview about Ramadan or the interview I had with Miss Teen New York), I went through what I will call my four stages of pissivity, which lead to inactivity. That is : 1) I got annoyed. I had a plan, I did everything I could to make it happen and people were messing me up. I don’t like that. So 2) I got pissed. Especially since it was beyond my control. That made me 3) frustrated and feeling like the devil was trying to bring me (and my idea) down- blast him! Which made me 4) sad. I doubted myself, my idea and fell into a mini-sleepression. Which meant no blog, no posts, no anything really. I wasn’t eating right and just couldn’t get myself right side up again. What, you ask? What brought me out of it? Don’t laugh, but it was actually the Jay-Z/Alicia Keys song, “Empire State of Mind.” Really. I had never heard the song, as I don’t listen to the radio (shocking, isn’t it?) and didn’t watch the VMAs. But after reading so much about the much ballyho0-ed performance (and song. and tragic error that was Lil” Mama’s involvement), I decided to watch it. And I got SO inspired! So I went through the four stages of “get right.” That is I 1) Got inspired! which made me 2) remember my purpose, my reason for doing all of this- the youth! the girls! creating change! doing something I love! so I 3) re-focused my energy and remembered what my mom always says (hi mom!) why get upset and stress yourself out about something you can’t do anything about? You need to focus on what you can control. Which I did, and in doing so I 4) got off my ass and went to work. I mean all that thinking and being excited and inspired is all great. But at the end of the day, it’s really about the work. you have to do.the.work. full stop. So I went out to the Bronx Native American Festival, came back, passed out from fatigue, got back up and went to work.

And yes, I’m still bumping the song on my ipod. Thanks, Mr. Carter!

You can look up the VMA performance with Alicia Keys if you want to, but I’m definitely feeling this Bridget Kelly chick on the hook way more! Now doesn’t that make you want to “get out your dreams,” as Kanye would say? Bright lights, skyscrapers, concrete…doesn’t the incredible challenge make you want it more? I know I do.

I’m back

Something New

09/09/2009
Beauty, Letter from the Editor
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Hey homegirls!

Today is a good day to start something new. For most of you, it’s the first day of a new school year; for me, it’s the first day of my new blog. So Yay! for everyone.

Now, here’s the thing about me—I love magazines. And by love I mean, buy, read, save; repeat. At one point it was so bad I was buying at least ten magazines a month. I couldn’t control myself. I needed help. I was something like a junkie—a magazine junkie. Now, not so much. Don’t get me wrong, I still love magazines like crazy I’m just not as inspired by what I read like I once was. Hence, the blog.

When I was 16, I helped create a magazine for other high school girls and I loved it. The idea was to encourage girls to just feel good about being themselves, whatever they looked like. Here’s the cover:

IMAGE magazine

IMAGE magazine

With Image, we wanted to represent ourselves and the girls we knew—different races, ethnicities, hair textures, and body shapes— all equally worthy of being on the cover of a magazine.

A few years ago I was in a program where I had to design a brochure for a dream magazine. Here’s what I came up with:

Clutch cover Clutch partial outside

CLUTCH brochure

CLUTCH brochure

This time, it was a teen magazine called Clutch, for black and Latinas who were underrepresented in a lot of the teen magazines I read (this was back when CosmoGIRL!, Elle Girl, and Teen People were still around).

And later, during that same program, I was the editor-in-chief of a mock teen magazine for Christian girls, called Gracie.

GRACIE magazine

GRACIE magazine

GRACIE Table of Contents

GRACIE Table of Contents

GRACIE Table of Contents

GRACIE Table of Contents

Again, focusing on an underrepresented group of girls and creating a magazine for them. Pattern much?

So, here I am again. Only this time, I have another idea. One that I’ve been told can’t and won’t work by some people. And one that I’ve been encouraged to try by others. Has that ever happened to you? You have an idea, but you aren’t sure if it will work? You’re excited about the possibility, but scared at the same time? Well here’s some advice I was given by a not-so-favorite professor last year. He said: 1) figure out if this is something you really want to do. If not, just do something else. If so, 2) be prepared to stick it out through the hard times—and there will definitely be hard times. And 3) start it now! Find something you love and blog about it. Everyday. Now, he was giving us advice about journalism, but I think it can apply to almost anything.

So that’s my plan. I’m going to blog about the lives of teen girls in the NYC metro area (yes, that means Jersey and Connecticut, too) everyday, because writing about teens is my passion and let’s face it, there’s just something special about NY girls.

But here’s the thing- I need your help. See, I’m coming at this from a certain perspective. I’m a black, 20-something writer chick who lives in Brooklyn. It’s not ALL that I am, but it’s part of me, so naturally it informs my perspective. I’m going to do my best to be representative (of all the boroughs and the girls who live in them) but if you don’t see yourself or girls like you represented, email me and let me know. If there’s something going on in your life (religious holiday or cultural event) and you want to share its significance with other teen girls, please do. If you’re just going through something (body image issues, dating problems, violence at school) and want to talk about it or if you are doing great work in your community and want to pat yourself on the back, get at me. And we can do this thing together- like homegirls should.

Until tomorrow