A guest article by freelancer Kimberley Bright.
The mainstream magazines available for sixteen year old girls aren’t a lot different than the lame ones I remember — lots of pink and perkiness — except now the music is worse and there is an alarming emphasis on serious relationships and orgasms (I’m looking at you, gURL).
The short-lived Sassy was the one alternative magazine for girls with a riot grrrl ethos. The fact that there were no weight loss articles was pretty revolutionary. Of course, that was 23 years ago. What the world needs is a goth version of Sassy.
‘Gothic Beauty’ is a lovely, aspirational, well designed publication. Its focus is obviously on clothes, jewellery, and makeup, mostly staggeringly expensive stuff that teenagers with $20 a week allowance or a minimum wage job can’t afford. It would be great to see a magazine for young women with cheap beauty resources they could reasonably find, but also discussing other aspects of the goth subculture as well, such as:
- DIY crafts, clothing, and decorating (for example: the Vampire Knits book)
- Etsy shops and product recommendations
- Other shopping resources, including classifieds
- Music, podcast, blog, zine, film, and book reviews.
- All-ages clubs, cons, festivals, gig reviews
- Original artwork
Finally, some moderated boards and comments sections. Networking used to be so much more of a challenge if you were somewhat isolated from any kind of scene. Star Hits and Maximumrocknroll had pen-pal sections based on what bands you liked. A close knit, safe, social community would be an excellent resource.
In an ideal world where investors would fall over each other to start up publications promoting creativity and freethinking in young girls, the perfect magazine for my Scorpio daughter and her friends would have all of these elements.
The Blogging Goth 