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It’s Been A Long Time, I Shouldn’tve Left You…Without a Dope Issue to Read Through

10/15/2012
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Yup, that’s a legal pad. Respect the technique.

So, remember that magazine I told you about? The second issue that’s supposed to be coming out soon? Yeah, that one. Well, since it’s been a minute, I thought I’d share a few new developments ~

  • I finally found a home for all those extra issues I was trying to give away (yay!) I sent about 100 or so magazines to the NYC ACS Youth Detention Office (major shout out to them btw). Believe it or not I still have a lot more (I was very enthusiastic about publishing my first issue and it actually costs less to  publish more, so there you have that). One step at a time.
  • Also, I got the first article into the designer and am expecting the final layout any day now (can’t hardly wait)! Now, this issue isn’t going to be as long as the first one, but there is going to be an online component to each print article. I say all that to say, I don’t want to give up too much about the first article, but a little teasing never hurt anyone, right?

Hint: It’s “contagious,” blends passion and practicality and the creator very much wants you to catch it. Ok. that’s probably not such a good hint (especially if you’ve never heard of it before) but our Striver’s Row piece this issue (the business/entrepreneurship section) features Erica Purnell, the creator of Pink Eye, a custom graphics and design business that specializes in shoes and athletic wear.  If you have any questions you’d like to ask Erica, please let me know so that I can be sure to include them.

  • I’ve also finished working on my editor’s letter and I think it’s pretty good. My first time writing one, I had so much to say that I didn’t know where to start…so I ended up all over the place. Since then, I’ve been studying other letters written by editors I admire and I think I did a much better job at focusing and tightening mine up.

So, although I thought I’d be much further along by now, I’m still plugging along. It’s difficult when you have to wait for pieces (interviews/photos/information) from other people who are working on their own schedule. Since we’re a start-up it’s hard to be more demanding, but I think the final product will be worth it, we have some really good stuff here.

~Until then~

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