The last few months have been busy, busy with finishing University, but I’m back with a vengeance now and I’m going to try to make this blog a bit more interesting. Previously I’ve only really blogged about my journalism, but that’s only such a small part of my life. We all prefer our hobbies to our professions, I guess. Inspired by some of the blogs I regularly read, I’m going to start blogging about everything else I am, like and do. I hope everyone will keep coming back.
Firstly...
An edited version of this interview appeared in Notes Zine. Thank you to Amber for being the best interviewee ever.
How did you first become interested in zines?
I have vague memories of reading about zines in old interviews with Nirvana, Hole and Bikini Kill. When I was thirteen or so, there were a few girls around town distributing a zine called !Hey! although I don’t think I called it a zine at the time, as it was the first one I ever saw. I probably called it a pamphlet or something. I can’t even remember what they wrote about anymore, but I remember that they had crosswords and featured poetry by local teens. They were distributed at high schools and various local businesses. Anyone could contribute, though I was much too shy. I totally wanted to make my own though. A few years later, I starting posting on Hole.com and got into zines hardcore through the girls on there. Maranda (my sister) and I started making zines together and trading with our new friends. I think the first zines I received were Tantrum, Broken Hymen, Pink Collar Ghetto and other riot grrrl type zines.
What motivates you to create zines?
Without zines, I don’t know where I’d be. They’re my main focus in life, it seems. I’ve learned a lot from various zines, and I’ve made an incredible amount of friends that I never would have known of otherwise. I’m almost always motivated to make zines, especially when I’ve just had a fun day of riding my bike or whatever, or when I’ve just finished reading a really great zine. I am constantly writing zines in my head, even imagining the layout and such. I’m inspired by my zinester friends and I’m inspired by my anger and I’m inspired by love.
What inspired you to start Culture Slut?
Maranda and I had been making a series together for about a year or so, some of it was about feminism, and a lot of it was just silliness. We were doing print runs of only twenty or so. We were seventeen, and just felt like we needed our own creative outlet, so we decided to start up our own zines. I started writing Culture Slut and she started writing Telegram Ma’am. I’m actually flipping through some old issues right now, reminding myself of what I wrote about, what inspired me… I wrote about various experiences of sexism in my life, how much I hated working at 7-Eleven (although I did make some good friends with a few customers there, and managed to scam quite a few free copies), my first trip to England, my love of Oscar Wilde and mixtapes… I think I just felt like I had a lot to say and no one to say it to. Zines were a good way to make new friends and connect with people that shared similar interests. I’m a bit embarrassed by the naivete of earlier issues now, but who isn’t?
How did Fight Boredom begin?
Small town boredom, mostly. I was tired of people constantly complaining that there was nothing to do and blaming it on being in a small town. I don’t think being in a small town really limits anyone’s possibilities too much, you just gotta be creative about it. I’m one of those annoying people who always says, “Only boring people get bored.” I thought that maybe if I could make a zine that was inspiring and specifically pertained to the kids in Lindsay (and small towns everywhere, really), then maybe I could change the world a teeny-tiny bit. Also, I wanted to get people in my hometown into zines, but didn’t necessarily want to share Culture Slut with them, since it often gets quite personal. I just wanted to do something fun. I see now that that’s what the girls at !Hey! must’ve been going for, too. I wonder what ever happened to them… People all over the world have been buying Fight Boredom and I’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback from it. Now my goal is pretty much to round up all of my favourite zinesters and have them write about their favourite ways of fighting boredom, and the things in life that inspire them.
Tell me about what you’re planning for the next issue?
Issue #3 was Fight Boredom With Feminism, and I’m currently working on #4; Fight Boredom With Action! Hopefully it’ll be done early in the summertime. I moved to Montréal recently (the polar opposite of my small hometown), but I’m visiting Lindsay soon and I want to have a stack of zines to sell at local shows. There are three zinesters that I know of in Lindsay right now, which is more than ever, haha. I gotta keep the momentum going!
As for Culture Slut, I’ve actually been working on a few issues at once. I’m writing a lot about IBS, which I was diagnosed with last year, and I’m writing about sex, queer identity, alcoholism and other heavy subjects that have been on my mind lately.
I know your sister also makes zines. Is there some friendly rivalry or is it purely inspirational?
No rivalry here, she’s my best friend. I’d say we inspire each other to some extent. We just wrote our second split zine together a few months ago, all about being twins. I just find it to be a really fascinating subject. We sometimes write to each other for zine advice, for proofreading and stuff. Also, I’m working on something of a queer zine right now, and the idea of spilling all of my secrets is a bit nerve-wracking, so I definitely wrote to her for some encouragement. I think our zines are completely different from each other though. Sometimes people will order my zine, then they’ll realize I have a sister so they’ll order hers too (or vice versa), but I hope they can see that we are two very different people. I hope that people can appreciate our writing, and that they aren’t just collecting our zines as some sort of novelty. It can be difficult to establish one’s own identity when people only want to see you as someone else’s twin sister.
What are your favourite zines?
Ah, where to begin? Doris by Cindy Crabb will always be one of my favourites. I bought the anthology a few years ago when I needed some decent reading material for a road trip, and have since acquired every issue. I love Brainscan by Alex Wrekk. She manages to write really important and personal things in this conversational tone that makes you feel like you’ve been friends with her for years. Nothing Rhymes by Chelsea Gunn is a sweet and happy zine that always cheers me up. Motor City Kitty, Your Pretty Face Is Going Straight To Hell, Queer HOH, High On Burning Photographs, Truckface, Not Sorry, Dirty Love, Kiss Off, List, The Empire Is Falling (a zine by another girl in Lindsay!), Echo! Echo!, Glossolalia, Honey Tunnel, everything ever by Niku Arbabi and Katie Haegele. I really could go on forever here, but these are the ones that I can read over and over again.
Who are your heroes?
The authors of the zines listed above, people who exchange long letters with me, my mom and my sister, Oscar Wilde, Jack Kerouac, Sylvia Plath, Inga Muscio, Gloria Steinem, Kathleen Hanna, George Carlin, Jessica Valenti, Betsey Johnson, Karen O, Joan Jett, Cyndi Lauper… Feminists everywhere and people who are doing cool stuff in small towns.
helloamber.etsy.com
And yes, this does mean uni is over and I’m back…
They don’t teach much English history in British schools. Historical education here is all about the war-mongering bogey men of twentieth century Europe and greed inspired conflicts in Eastern sand-pits. I’m ashamed to say everything I know about the Britain of the past two thousand years I learnt from watching Time Team. That is however, excluding the Royal house of Tudor, which was taught to me in primary school by a scary elderley lady with wrinkles in her tights. I guess old Henry and his scandalous six wives are perfect for enchanting the enquiring mind of an eight year old. They certainly made an impression on me. Of Henry’s six wives staring back at me from a crumpled text book page it was always Anne Boleyn who excited me the most. It could have been because she seemed the most glamorous of an exceptionally unglamorous bunch, or that my Mother has always maintained she named me after Anne’s daughter, the first Queen Elizabeth, or maybe it was just the circumstances of her untimely demise… Anne just seemed interesting. As a grown up I stumbled across season two of The Tudors and my love of Anne was re-newed. Natalie Dormer’s Anne was, while not entirely historically accurate, the most mesmerising creature. It inspired me to begin reading about her life and background, even inspiring a fruitless treasure hunt around London’s National Portrait Gallery, in search of her most famous portrait. I could write all evening about the colourful life of the daughter of the Earl of Wiltshire and eventual Queen consort, but instead I’ll leave you with some pictures from The Tudors and the answer I received upon taking the Which wife of Henry VIII would you have been? quiz on Facebook. I think it sums her up well.
