week_48

This week we’ve started making the content for the magazine!! WHOOOO
I’m super exited to make this happen, we have such good ideas about what to make and how to design it. I’ve made a magazine flatplan to secure a clear structure and to see what we want to do. We’ve decided to not put our entire essays into the magazine, but still want to make sure it connects to our personal experiences so we’re all going to write a short column about our own relation to privilege to create some different perspectives on the subject. The other piece of writing is a column about exploring identity. I going to write mine about the representation of women in popular media. I want to shine a light on all the expectations women are supposed to live up to and how the representation of women effects the position of girls in real life.

The 'Conversation Starter' is a cut-out tool from the magazine. Sometimes its hard to get into a deeper conversation with your friends, especially when your 15 and have a have a lot of other stuff going on like growing up. But for young girls, their friends are super important, sometimes even more important than their families, so i've tried to give them some lighter stepping stones to create deeper connections in their relationships.

Normally, you see a lot of more superficial role models or 'hotties' like a member of a boyband of an actor. But why should we worship them only because of their great hair or 'perfect' bodies... We've tried to reshape the classic hottie page and shine some light on celebrities that are actually doing something good for the world, like Yara Shahidi.

The first draft of the
flat plan for the magazine

I've looked at how classic teen magazines are structured and what the key components are. I've tried to get a diverse and surprising content, but still try to make it a whole. Because we've divided all the content over the group, i tried to mix everything everyone made up to make sure there's a mix of everyones work in every set of 6 pages.

It’s hard to recognize and acknowledge your own privilege, because if you do, you also acknowledge that your accomplishments aren’t 100% yours. This is difficult to deal with. Are the milestones and accomplishments I have achieved over the years really mine? Or did I just achieve all these things because I benefit from certain privileges? I reflect on my own recent experiences with my privileges. For example, in recent years I have realized that I have the privilege of learning about oppression and exclusion based on race and skin color, rather than experiencing it. I also have the privilege that within my own education and field of work, "my culture" is understood and represented. I even have the privilege that my culture is represented as neutral, or even ideal. But there’s a paradox within being a white woman. On the one hand I experience a lot of privileges because of my whiteness, but on the other hand I’m still a woman and women face inequality and oppression every single day. I’m hyperaware of my position but I find it hard to speak up sometimes. The last thing I want is to silence people. So I wonder: can I say certain things as a white woman? Am I allowed to speak up about injustice that has been done to me, if my position and my privileges may have unknowingly wronged others? I’m constantly wondering how I can best contribute to this as an individual because without being "the white savior”, I want to be a good ally.