Stylish new teen zine a P.E.I., U.K. collaboration

Attending primary school together in Nigeria, Mo Odegbami, Aima Aig-Imokhuede, Molly Johnson and Tolu Faromika weren't even that close but fast-forward a few yearsand the girls, all 16 years old, are co-editing a stylish new zine together with another friend, Yasmin Birch.

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Childish Zine began this summer as Odegbami's passion project one she knew she couldn't do alone, so she enlisted the help of her friends, now all based in London except for Faromika who lives in Prince Edward Island.

I'm just going to try and take this as far as I can, see how big we can get.Mo Odegbami

"The earlier you start to do big things, the more success you'll have in the future," said Odegbami by phone from her London home.

Faromika, a Grade 12 student at Charlottetown Rural High School, was visiting London this summer and reconnecting with her old schoolmates, and eagerly volunteered her time and talents as a writer and photographer.

"I was already interested in writing and I knew that I wanted to, later on in life, work for myself," said Faromika.

"It seemed like a great opportunity."

Featuring P.E.I.

The friends got busy taking photos, doing interviews and writing articles about artists, musicians and entrepreneurs most are teens or young adults from the U.K. and P.E.I..

For the debut issue, Faromika penned an article about Lacey Koughan, a P.E.I. entrepreneur and Rural grad who started a girls' empowerment group, 24STRONG. She also took photos of budding P.E.I. model Chase Scantlebury, and profiled Island musician Logan Richard.

The girls crowdfunded online and raised about 175, about $300, using the money to start their website.

The result is a visually dynamic, fun and readable 100-page online magazine or zine, which was free to read online through September and October now, it's 3 to download.

The team has also printed some copies, available at some London bookstores and by mail at a cost of 10.

Hundreds of readers

"We trust each other's judgement," said Faromika, noting the girls edited each other's work. They also get advice from family and mentors including Odegbami's mother, who works in television and runs her own business.

Childish Zine has been downloaded hundreds of times, Faromika said, and the team has received lots of positive feedback, as well as inquiries from young people looking to submit articles or be featured themselves.

We just want to be able to show people the future is doing something currently. ToluFaromika

The girls are all students and have other interests too Faromika scores sports games for her school, for instance.

"Obviously, my studies come first, because that's my future," Faromika said. "But the magazine is also a priority, so we put a lot of hard work into it but we make sure to keep everything balanced."

The editors hope the zine will gain artists exposure and open readers' eyes to the power of young people.

"I hope people realize a lot is going on outside their own environment," Faromika said.

"We are the future we just want to be able to show people the future is doing something currently ... the youth are busy!" Faromika laughed. "Youth are doing things that are very important."

'Something bigger in the future'

A long conversation with celebrity Willow Smith about the over-promotion of under-talented pop culture superstars at the beginning of the summer inspired Odegbami and the team to showcase hard-working young poets, artists and photographers they believe have unrecognized talent.

"It's really hard for people to get their things out there," Odegbami lamented. "My friend Molly, who's a part of the team, actually has her own poetry society, which we got poets from."

"If you're good enough, we're going to put you in and get you recognized," Odegbami said she hopes being published will give artists cache, something to add to their portfolio.

"It can build them forward, and let them move onto something bigger in the future."

Childish Zine is quarterly, and the next issue is expected in January.

"I didn't think it was going to get as big a response as it actually did," said Odegbami. "I'm just going to try and take this as far as I can, see how big we can get."

"This isn't really something for me this is something for the people that we feature in the magazine," she said, adding she'd like to reach 10,000 readers.

"It's literally my biggest dream to have talented people in the magazine go really far because we have the readers and the popularity we want."

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