Hold up. Did someone just ask me what a girl zine is?
The editors define it as a "do-it-yourself publication made primarily by and for girls and women." (Don't worry, boys-- some of the content in here will definitely tickle your fancy. These gals can get nasty!) It's honest, bold, hilarious, smart, mean, sassy, talented, sexy and clever.
Each page opens your eyes to new perspectives and says those things you've always been meaning to say outloud.
These gals don't need advertising. They don't need big corporate honchos to keep them going. They put their thoughts on paper and spread the word-- sometimes even the hand-written, photo-copied, stapled word.
No boundaries. No deadlines. No profits. Just passionate girls and women tackling issues and debating about feminism, politics, sex, culture, and the media. There's one common rule: they say whatever the hell they want.
Get a load of some of the titles (in no particular order, of course):
Not Your B*tch
My Life and Sex Thrive in the J. Crew Catalogue
Hot Snot Pot
Fierce Vagina
Angry Young Woman
You Might As Well Live
Everything I Do Turns to Sh*t and Garbage
When Karen and Tristan started their project, they did not expect to receive
500 copies of about
300 different girl zines.
They're being produced all over the place from Austin to Memphis to Minneapolis, from the deep South, the Heartland, the Pacific Northwest, you name it.
But allow me to remind you of two things: This book was published in 1997 and there was no mention of a zine from Colorado. My goal is to spot as many local, underground, doing-it-for-a-passion zines that I can.
Will you help me? If you come across something awesome, if you know of a great place to find stacks of these hand-held treasures,
tell me. If you're just too tech-savvy for your own good and addicted to the Web like yours truly,
send me links. Post them in the comment box below. Make it known!
Now that you know my current fave piece of lit, this wouldn't be complete without a big, fat mention of
BUST: The magazine for women with something to get off their chests.
Believe it or not, these New York-based gals started out with their own photo-copied, stapled zines. And look at
them now.They're making it big and kicking some serious sass from Manhattan as an all-woman owned publication-- making their way to the bigshelvesand even across the pond. They even let me intern for them.Check out the
new issue.
Ann Magnuson, an actress, singer, writer and performance artist, mentions
BUST in the very first section of the book:
"But I get down on my knees every night and thank the Goddess for all the fresh talent popping out of her womb every day that can grab the baton and fly like a bat out of hell into the future. So, after a long relaxing soak in a hot bath full of herbal-scented epsom salts, I can recharge my battery by leafing through my new issue of
BUST-- which never fails to inspire."
Do you have your own zine? Have you always dreamt of having your own?! What would it be about? Post a story about it, or tell me and I'll tell the world for you.
P.S.-- Does anyone remember the magazine
moXie girL? It was the first publication to get me revved in oh, 5th grade?