Our project is the concept of a zine, called Timeless Beauty. In this initial prototype, we want to explore our relationship and own definitions of beauty and body image.
Throughout GK Girl Hack we talked about a lot of different topics around women’s rights and issues including representation in media and healthy relationships. When thinking of project ideas and topics, we realized body image and beauty is something that encompassed a lot of what we discussed. We are all students from the High School for Art and Design and thought a zine would allow us to not only use our art skills but allow us to each tell our own individual story while still working together. Body Image and beauty are extremely broad so to scope the project, we needed to focus on something smaller and more specific. To brainstorm and find inspiration, we watched videos from both Dove and Allure that focused on women and young girls talking about their own stories, struggles, and definitions. We also looked at an article that showcased 5 different illustrators who were asked to draw what body image meant to them. That’s when we decided that for the zine, or at least the first prototype, we wanted to focus on ourselves and our relationship with body image and let out stories be told.
What is great about a zine is that it can be as short or as long as you want it to be. Just using our art and our definitions create a personal zine for us. But if we continued to work on the zine, we could create a larger one, or a short series, where we explore body image and beauty in relationship to culture, social media, mental health, and so much more. Then not only would it be a personal zine, but one that would break down the negative influences around us and build up the women and young girls around the world. We want to normalize imperfections and celebrate everyone. We want women and young girls to know that they are not alone.
The link to our project is a folder. In the folder, are all the images that are both in the slides and the art attached above. In the folder, you will also find a Brainstorming Doc, which is where we answered questions that go alongside and inspired each of our art pieces and sketches.
Emoti-Con 2020 has ended and leaving new reactions is now off.
Great job! This is a very important topic; "beauty" has been defined and redefined as a form of oppression and objectification. I am especially interested in how you are envisioning an expansion of your project into body image and its relation to culture, mental health, the media, etc. The illustrations are beautiful! I would like to see some prototypes of the final artifacts (zines), in terms of printing process and mechanics (folds, panels, etc).
Alyssa, Jalyn, Jeilyn, Tracy -- congratulations on a job well done. This is absolutely amazing. Art has been around since as long as we've been around and has been used throughout the ages for so much and I am so happy to see you all calling upon that form in order to portray such deep and thought provoking topics! The colors, style and concepts are all very well executed and so is your pitch. I believe that your first prototype is definitely heading in the right direction. Currently, I work for The DreamYard Project in the Bronx and we are an arts and social justice organization that aims in helping young artists find a way to turn their creative abilities and skills into amazing careers that can lead to amazing social impact in the future. A lot of the work we do is around equality, racism and identity, and seeing you all produce such meaningful work and put so much thought into the concept of turning it into a zine to create awareness is amazing and very personal to me. Your idea to produce content during a time when everyone is mindlessly consuming it is the sign of a budding entrepreneur and would love to see this project come to fruition. I think that if you all continue doing this you should think about continuing to develop that google drive folder that you sent over as evidence and start to develop some social media content with that work being that zine's are not consumed the way they used to be. Down the line, it would be so awesome if you could put calls out for other young artists who identify as women around the world to also produce work and join the movement... You have so much potential here and am so excited to see what's next!
This work is beautiful and sends a strong message. You are all very talented artists.
This is a great way to bring the spotlight to an issue that is constantly talked about. Highlighting the companies that have taken the front lines for this issue was a great choice. Showcasing how different mediums portray these images is definitely a great way to expand and get other creatives to collaborate. Great job!
Hi, Alyssa, Jalyn, Jeilyn, and Tracy! I’m so happy to see a project focused on dismantling stereotypes about women’s bodies and the definition of “beauty.” Have you considered selling prints of each page of your zine to support an organization you care about? I would totally buy prints of these—especially the page “I don’t live for the male gaze.” Y’all nailed it. The style of these graphics is so cool, and I like that you’re focusing on collaborating as a team while also highlighting each of your perspectives. We definitely need to see more variation in the perspectives shared by art and the media, so I love seeing all of yours together.
I think that this project is a very inspirational one. I think that it is a great idea to normalize all imperfections and make girls feel confident and happy. I also think this can encourage others to spread joy and love to people everywhere.
I think this is absolutely great! Wonderful artwork and a fantastic message. I would love to see this zine out in the world! Great work!
Your artwork and message are beautiful! I also appreciate that you shared your design and research process to show that your prototype includes both personal reflection and experience, as well as research on the current and historical context. Great work, GK!
Very beautiful designs! They look very personal but universal
