BY LISA MARIE BASILE
There are literally countless gorgeous, intelligent and necessary blogs/mags/collectives out there, and we hope to one day discover, read and feature all of them, but lo & behold, time is not on our side.
So for now, we present some of our favorite magazines out there, each run, edited or funded by women.
To get a sense of each magazine, we offer up a representative article and a personal note on why we're into them. But even that can't do them justice. Please do check out these sites. You will wake up a better human being for it.
Oh, and if you have suggestions for other magazines we should feature, please leave them in the comments!
The Establishment: We're a multimedia company run and funded by women that’s predicated on a simple, yet radical notion: the world is a better, more interesting place when everyone has a voice.
The Inevitability of Creative Jealousy
Note: The editors over at The Establishment are unapologetic, brave and consistently devoted to progressive voices. They're exemplary at publishing high-quality work rather than clickbait, which is always refreshing. Also, they're funny. We here haven't quite nailed that yet.
Brown Girl Magazine: Founded in 2008, Brown Girl Magazine, LLC is an online publication tailored and targeted to young South Asian women living in the diaspora.
What Happens When You Write About Dating in a Culture Where Relationships are Taboo
Note: This magazine is dedicated to their demographic by always publishing really smart + service-oriented content that pushes boundaries and inspires readers. Also, I worked with Kamini, their managing editor, once upon a time. Kamini is veritably amazing.
Witch Craft Mag: Founded in 2015, Witch Craft is a print magazine and micropress with the goal of publishing work that moves us to believe in magic again.
Card of the Week: The King of Pentacles
Note: The coolest thing about this magazine, aside from its wonderful editors Elle & Catch Business, is that it really does create a sense of peace, creativity, magic and dedication to aesthetic. The tarot articles, poetry and overall vibe is a dream. It's a safe little place on the internet that makes life better.
The Slutist: Slutist is a sex positive feminist collective that was founded by Kristen Korvette in 2013. Slutist aims to uncover and undress the intersections between sex, gender, sexuality and feminism in art, entertainment, and politics while breaking down binaries of style/substance, brains/beauty, masculine/feminine, and virgin/whore.
Great Moments in Historical Sluttery: Messalina, Excess and Disgrace in Imperial Rome
Note: Luna Luna's staff attended the Slutist Legacy of the Witch party in Brooklyn last year and we can tell you: these ladies are badass, radical, and smart as hell. We read their brilliance on the regular.
For Harriet: For Harriet is an online community for women of African ancestry. We encourage women, through storytelling and journalism, to engage in candid, revelatory dialogue about the beauty and complexity of Black womanhood. We aspire to educate, inspire, and entertain.
Dr. Linda Chavers on #BlackGirlMagic and the Article that Started a Firestorm
Note: This is such an important publication. Its content is always of the highest quality, really pushing readers to think--they also have a badass fashion sister site, Coloures, which is really cool (they really make fashion + beauty work well). All the content has a thread of power, opinion, race, society and gender. So smart.
WEIRD SISTER: WEIRD SISTER explores the intersections of feminism, literature and pop culture. We feature essays, interviews, comics, reviews, playlists, secret diaries, and love letters written in invisible ink.
Three Pieces of Feminist Advice From Jackie “Moms” Mabley
Note: We love the pop culture aspect of this site. It's always on-point. But the most rewarding thing about WEIRD SISTER is the rotation of voices: it's diverse, always sincere, and really fun to read.
Smarty Mommies: Smarty Mommies is a website dedicated to intelligently discussing the experience of being a smart, thinking mother.
There's Hope: Clothes for Girls
Note: Our staff isn't made up of moms over here, but we sure do appreciate reading Smarty Mommies because it is a progressive blog for mothers who want to shatter stereotypes and gender roles--something plenty of other parenting sites are ignoring. Not to mention, a few of our own writers/former staff work over there, and it's nice to watch them bring the badassery to others.
Autostraddle: Autostraddle is an intelligent, hilarious & provocative voice and a progressively feminist online community for a new generation of kickass lesbian, bisexual & otherwise inclined ladies (and their friends).
Rebel Girls: 9 Queer, Feminist, and/or Gender Theorists (Who Aren’t Judith Butler)
Note: Autostraddle is just the best site. Honestly, if you're ever looking to read progressive voices or you need to be reminded that humanity has a soul, this is the site for you. Every article is smart and fun and cool, like this one about Dana Scully, everyone's favorite investigator.
Lisa Marie Basile is a NYC-based writer and editor. She’s the founding editor-in-chief of Luna Luna Magazine and keeps a blog at Ingenuex.com. Her work has appeared in The Establishment, Bustle, Bust, Hello Giggles, The Gloss, xoJane, YourTango, Good Housekeeping, Redbook, and The Huffington Post, among other sites. She is the author of Apocryphal (Noctuary Press, Uni of Buffalo). Her work as a poet and editor have been featured in BuzzFeed, Amy Poehler’s Smart Girls, The New York Daily News, Ravishly and Bust. She currently works for Hearst Digital Media, where she edits for The Mix, their contributor network of more than 1000 writers. Previously, she was the director of content for a marketing platform, and a managing editor at a social content platform. She earned her Master's degree at The New School and attended Pace University for undergrad as well as Columbia University as one of 20 selected for an editorial workshop. She has spoken about writing or read her work at universities, such as NYU, Columbia and Emerson College.