For ten years, if not more, I have been searching for reading material that is both easy to digest and also appealing. After buying many well-known women’s glossies in my late teens and early 20s, I came to the conclusion that the majority of the content is massively recycled and there really are very few new ideas. Even if I did still want to read about ‘how to keep your man’ and ‘get the perfect beach body’, the articles are practically the same as they were last year and so reading them again will teach me nothing new. In 2003 I wrote about a new magazine for women called Be Unlimited that appeared to be more inspiring than most, but sadly there weren’t many issues produced before it closed. Aside from the weekend supplements of quality newspapers, things weren’t looking good.
These days, the ability to publish a magazine online without the need for physical print runs, distributors and retailers (plus the complications that each of those bring with them), has ensured that it’s easier for those who have the vision to be able to keep going. It’s been nearly 3 years since BitchBuzz was started by Cate Sevilla and, as soon as I found it, I wanted to not only read the site but to write for it too. Varied, intelligent and original, BitchBuzz gives women interesting content without assuming it knows what’s best for them. It’s an honest magazine, but it will never claim to know how to ‘fix’ you because… as we all know, you don’t need fixing! The BitchBuzz Manifesto says:
“All we wanted was a funny, informative, feisty website for women that covered all of the things we were interested in. After years of looking, all we found were websites that were either overly snarky, ridiculously serious, or disappointingly fluffy. This proved especially difficult when trying to find like-minded women’s websites and magazines for us to write for.”
BitchBuzz still aims to fill the gap in the market for magazines aimed at intelligent women with varied interests and I hope that it continues to do so for meany years to come. Not just because I enjoy writing for the site though. If it ended, what on earth would I read?
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