Prompt #33 - The Zine

Like a punk rock song on paper

Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash

I recently rewatched the fantastic movie Moxie. It's about 16-year-old named Vivian who discovers her mom's punk rock past, including her cool leather jacket, her incredible mix tapes, and the zines she and her friends used to create to add their voices to whatever needed protesting at the time.

Enraged by the daily sexism and misogyny she sees at her school (somebody please explain the logic behind American school dress codes to me again), Vivian handcrafts a badass zine - Moxie - in protest.

Sidenote: a zine is basically a non-commercial homemade magazine, often with a mix of political and cultural content, poetry, fiction, art, etc.

Moxie - Source imdb.com

She anonymously leaves copies of Moxie in the high school bathrooms, and through her publication eventually starts a movement of girls fighting to fix what is wrong.

Bad. Ass.

I can't tell you how much I love everything about this movie - the music, the sisterhood, the feminism, the crafting, the style of the zine.

A zine is a great format to express your ideas and opinions through a variety of mediums, such as writing, drawing, and collaging. So today we'll be creating our very own zine.

The Activity: Create your own Zine

All you need is a sheet of paper, a black marker, and some scissors. On top of that, you can add anything you want, stickers, tape, colours, and paints. There even are some great examples of lino-printed zines, so feel free to get creative.

Step 1 - The Theme

Decide what you want your zine to be about. Choose a topic that is important to you. Maybe a zine about your favorite band, or about plastic in the oceans, or a collection of Haikus or most inspiring quotes?

Step 2 - Prep the empty Zine

Fold your piece of paper multiple times, so that it's divided into 8 pieces. This is much easier to show than to describe, so here is a handy image I found that explains it better:

Photo by Andrew S Yang on ResearchGate

Step 3 - Fill your Zine

You can now start filling your zine page by page. Draw, scribble, write. We're looking for that handmade, imperfect feel, that still communicates your values and what it is you want to share with the world. Like a punk rock song on paper.

Step 4 (optional) - Publish

Once you're happy with your zine, you can either just keep it for yourself, or you can make a bunch of copies and give them to your friends, or leave them in your local café. You have things to say? Then the world has a right to hear them.

My Example

I decided to make my first zine about the things that cheer me up when I'm having a bad day. If I'm stressed or anxious I can sometimes forget about the things that would actually help to improve my mood and do unhelpful things instead - like watching useless videos and eating yummy but crappy food (I'm looking at you golden arches).

So here is Lollo's Cheer Up Zine:

I'll keep it on my desk as a reminder to turn up the music.

I hope you enjoyed making your own zine. I'm definitely going to further indulge in this new obsession of mine. A monthly The Stress Less Pencil zine anyone 🤩 ?

Love, Lorena