Free Zine Friday #9

Sometimes on Friday I highlight a few zines I love that are free to read! For more free zines, check out my big free zines page.

Turn Up The Radio
by Ronan a.k.a batlike

I found this zine through the Zine Crisis Mutual Assistance Group's print-at-home zine library, but it turns out it was done by fellow Neocities webmaster batlike! I'd call this zine a brief homage to independent radio as an alternative form of media consumption. A quick and fun read. I love the striking black and white and kinda crunchy photocopy textures used here too.

12 pages, B&W

Pretty Girl Look So Tough
by Olivia Pepper

A really cool make-you-cry gender zine from 2003 on what it really means to identify as femme from a gender/queer and body-positive perspective. It's such an interesting look at the tangles between femme identity, appearance, and societal expectations both within queer spaces and societal norms. It's done through brief article-style reflections on topics the author finds related to her femme identity (many of which are kind of intense so CW, especially for SA and ED). There are so many good quotes I feel like I could just quote the whole thing, but I really like "Sometimes people inaccurately attribute certain behaviors of mine to my identity".

What is honestly uncomfortable for me but especially powerful is the way in which the sections don't have much "conclusion" to them. Olivia reflects on complex issues and feelings she has around shaving, EDs, but doesn't end with a "solution" or "answer". It's a good lesson for me personally that not everything has to or even can end with an answer.

The format is really cool in this zine too--it seems to be a half-page zine but folded along the short edge instead of the long edge, so it's a tall zine.

28 pages, B&W