Zines

I‘ve always been intrigued by what it must be like to date a musician — especially growing up a massive fangirl — and I‘ve always loved reading about famous relationships, learning all about the romance and the drama. Last spring, the trend of “Rockstar Girlfriend” took over online — a trend that started purely in fashion and aesthetics but unfortunately quickly morphed into glorifying unhealthy behaviours [TW!!!: eating disorders & drug abuse]. The trend mainly drew inspiration by the likes of Kate Moss and Camille Rowe, who are not only professional models, which makes young girls comparing their bodies to theirs harmful enough, but also blonde and white. I found myself captivated by the trend as well, which is why I wanted to do more research on actual “rockstar girlfriends” and their real relationships, not the romanticised versions on social media. I also wanted to explore the possibility of “rockstar girlfriends” who aren’t blonde nor white (sadly most of them are exactly that). I picked out a few women that sparked my interest to research further, additionally making sure different decades would be present. Naturally, I had to include Kate Moss and Camille Rowe. My overall goal was to create a zine that changes the narrative of women who are involved with said “rockstars” and therefore often discredited for their own careers — all the women covered are proof that they work as hard, if not twice as hard as their (ex-)partners.

The cover photo was taken by my friend and incredibly talented photographer Lucy Brown.

In the process of creating the zine, my best friend Hope Kensall reminded me of the quote “A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle” by Irina Dunn, which I agree with and find extremely fitting for the zine and its narrative so it eventually became the back cover — the last takeaway the reader should have.

I finished my undergrad the same way I started: obsessed with pop culture and boys in bands.

For one of my final assessments at BIMM, I created another zine. As I‘ve been a part of different fandoms since I can remember — from when I first saw Miley Cyrus in her blonde Hannah Montana wig, One Direction jump around on a beach for the music video to their hit song 'What Makes You Beautiful', Matty Healy being adored by girls in a music video to a song with exactly that title ('Girls') to Halsey running around a motel and ending up in 'Room 93' — and I experienced all of them moulding my identity and self expression, I wanted to explore the origin and development of fans, as well as their object of fandom, and how both set significant trends, make important statements and impact culture & society.

My research confirmed my prior existing belief: being a fan means power. The kind of power that one only benefits from if it‘s on their side. The kind of power that connects people and shapes generations. The kind of power that lasts for a lifetime and beyond.

This one is for all the kids out there, especially young girls, that are made to feel silly for what they like or to what extent they like something. For the ones having the strongest connections with like-minded people online, even though those are the furthest away. For the ones that feel suffocated by their hometowns, where most people just don‘t get it. And most importantly, for my younger self.