Zines are having a moment right now, you might have noticed. With DIY culture increasingly growing, it seems we all want to have a creative side hustle alongside our 9-5 jobs. We decided to seek out the girl doing it seamlessly to show us how it's done. 24-year-old Georgia Murray, is the creator of Girls Club Zine, a publication made by and for self-indentifying women.
She spends her days as a junior writer for ASOS magazine, and nights (late late nights by the sounds of it) creating Girls Club – where her moto is 'no boys allowed.' We could get down with this. This is Georgia's Day In A Life, or rather 'month in a life,' 'cause if she worked a 9-5 AND made her zine all in one day she'd be superwomen.
This is me in a lift at DIY cultures, a zine fair exhibition. Fairs are a really fun chance to meet people who read your zine, meet your fellow zine makers too. GIRLS / CLUB is a printed publication showcasing the creative talents of rad young self-identifying women. It started as my MA final project and is now on its third issue! I was finding more and more wrong with the glossy and monthly women’s magazines I’d grown up with, so decided to explore archives of zines and alternative magazines. I loved the idea of something you could identify with - with no advertising or body-shaming or advice on how to please your man - and decided to make my own!
Juggling GIRLS / CLUB with my 9-5, my social life, my other ‘hobbies,' (like making badges and posters) and my boyfriend can definitely prove challenging. The week leading up to printing Issue 3, I was up at 5am until 12pm trying to squeeze in last minute edits around my job. Coffee and understanding housemates got me through the delirium!
Look at my glittery sign! I love making crafty bits for fairs and launches, but it does mean I’m definitely out of pocket. I make a small profit on each issue sold, but then I spend extra on zine fair tables, making badges, posters and stickers, hiring venues for issue's launch, and paying for p&p for mailouts. It’s hard when money is already tight, but I absolutely love doing it and I’m not really making it to run a business or make a profit.
Another month, another zine fair! Running my own zine has taught me so much about self-publishing and the different ways you can do it.There’s a beauty to making what you want without certain restrictions, and there’s nothing better than when someone reads what you’ve made and tells you they feel exactly how you feel, or that it spoke to them in some way. It’s also a great way to write and commission work you wouldn’t be able to put elsewhere.
This was taken right before the Issue 3 launch at Blondies in Hackney. It was a super fun night, with Girls DJ spinning tracks and Audrey Krako taking pictures. Things get a bit manic closer to finishing an issue! It’s about managing working closely with the graphic designer, replying to contributors’ emails, keeping a strong editorial eye on everything, getting details 100% correct etc. The stress and adrenaline of the whole thing is kind of fun though.
This was the first fair I did after printing Issue 3 - it's so nice seeing all your hard work laid out for people to browse through. I rarely get time alone to myself, and I’m definitely one of those people that keeps going until I snap and have a big breakdown then eat everything in sight. But when that happens, I have a long bath with a glass of red and a book – it’s a good way of shutting everything out of the room and taking care of yourself. I emerge like a newborn mole all clean and calm and clear-headed!
You can buy issue 3 of Girls Club Zine right now, so what are you waiting for?
Like this? You might also be interested in…
**Meet The Girls Behind The UK’s Growing, Female-Led Zine Scene **
**5 Easy DIYs You Can Do With Stuff You Have Lying Around At Home **
**Meet The Girls Who Say They Can Cure Your Quarter Life Crisis. In 6 Weeks **
Follow Alyss on Twitter @alyssbowen
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.