A magazine by girls, for girls
Girls inspire girls
Wut Hmon magazine was co-designed with adolescent girls from rural areas of Myanmar. The magazine was developed to put creativity in the hands of the community, connecting thousands of vulnerable girls across Myanmar by sharing stories and challenges from their age group in their local area.
Client
Girl Determined
Objective
Provide tools for girls to own the creation and production of a the first girl-led magazine issue for girls
Demographic
Girls from disadvantaged backgrounds in rural and border Myanmar
Type of work
Design, Workshop & Facilitation
Themes
Gender equality, Youth empowerment
Human centred approach
It was important that the medium we chose allowed the media team to express their creativity freely in the magazine. We opted for a hands on method where they can visualize, create, and make changes easily by drawing, cutting and collaging. Instead of trying to develop IT skills which can be complicated, we focused on providing them with leave-in-place co-owned project management and creative tools that will continue to sustain the magazine.
The “Game” Plan
Together, we developed a board game to steer the creative direction for the content, design and layout. As they played the game, the media team was faced with content topics, planning tactics, design problems, and other components to help them find inspirations and dictate their approaches. We also provided them with rulers, icon stickers, logos, simplified templates, graphic design basics and flash cards to help them visualize their ideas.
Because both the magazine design and process tools were handmade, the media team could iterate them in new directions as implementation rolled out and their experience grew.
The Magazine
The media team’s passion to bring attention to social issues and challenges faced by girls within their communities can be felt through the pages of poems, collages, and stories featured in the magazine.
Since the first magazine issue, created with our close oversight, there have been four more issues and counting released, all created solely by the young women media team using the materials and processes we had put in place.
Results
The media team have gone on to produce quarterly, with circulation rising 33% over 3 issues
Efficiency, cost saving and greater participation found in offline production method
“When girls see other girls’ drawing, poems, and stories in the magazine, they think ‘Oh, I can be like her!’ This creates a connection between girls from very different areas and inspires girls to try something they thought they couldn’t do before.”
— Phyu Lay, media team leader of Wut Hmon magazine
