18. November. 2008 (original pub. date)
I designed this magazine cover when I was 16 years old. At the time, I was working at The Young Women’s Project (YWP) in Washington, D.C. as part of the Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP). I was a member of The Body Image Team and we were five deep. We decided that our summer project would be to create a magazine that would promote healthy body image. During the previous school year, while working with Teen Women in Action(TWA), we discovered just how pervasive low self-esteem was among our peers (and even ourselves). The thought process went a little bit like this:
1) Many teen girls have low self-esteem.
2) Most magazines help promote the unattainable beauty ideals that create such low self-esteem.
3) Teen girls like to read magazines.
4) So why not create a magazine that promotes healthy body image instead?
It was definitely an inspired idea. It was also feasible- a project we knew we could accomplish over the summer using the resources already available to us- and one which we hoped would have an immediate impact. I had never written an article before (and it was decidedly more difficult than the essays I wrote for class or the occasional poem) but I learned. I worked so hard on this magazine that summer because I was excited about what we were doing and I wanted to contribute as much as I could. So I penned the advice column, wrote two articles and compiled a list of resources in the area for teens in need. I recently re-read those articles and I was proud of my 16-year-old self.
I came up with the name of the magazine and designed the cover because, as I recall, no one else showed up to work on it once all the content was written. I remember wanting the name and the cover art to reflect both our mission and the girls we hoped to reach- young women who were like us and the girls we knew; girls we went to school with, confided in, competed against and compared ourselves to. Looking back over our work, I’d say we did an impressive job.
Years later, after graduating from college, traveling a bit, and living a lot more, I find myself still inspired by the work I did at 16 and still dreaming similar dreams. I’m excited to see where they will take me this time around.
