I BET YOU HAVE ALL BEEN IN A CULT: GLOWING UP "Glow up with me for back to school!" is the same phrase that gets repeated and over done way to many times. It is also the indicator that summer is only your fantasy and school is about to set into your reality.
I cannot deny it, I binged watch these youtube videos for such a long time one would consider it part of my back-to-school ritual. And with all honesty, who would have not fall into this trap of pealed makeup and ironed-fresh fast fashion and eyelashes extensions and glossy nails and. And I could go on forever. It never ends. The "glow up" routine cult never stops.
It got so tiring at one point that I had to step away and soon realized how powerfully toxic these types of videos are. They are subconsciously consuming Looking back at these "glow ups" with an outsider and running loose in the minds of so-called teenage lense I started noticing how this trend is just a feminists, in me. micro-size version of the beauty industry, carried out to hunt down vulnerable girls that just want to look pretty. Whatever pretty means.
First of, it feeds us this mindset that there is something wrong that needs needs to be fix with us physically. It tells us that throughout summer, while we were having fun and living our best lives, we have consumed a lot of horrible stuff and had gained some very "large" amount of fats. I usually just call these memories.
Anyways. Secondly, it convince us that there is we have something wrong that CAN be fix. That is can be fix through brand new blush, eyeliners, lipsticks, nail colors, extensions, tanning, haircut, shoes, clothes, workout subscriptions.
The cult that hides under the facade of boosting girl's confident before a new year of school is ruthless. It is ruthless to the people who follow all the steps and in the end are "prettier" and gets compliments at school but still feels empty. It is ruthless to the people that tried all the new stuff and try to get "fit" and somehow still "failed" and feels disgusting about themselves. Beauty is not about trying to conform yourself to a standard. Beauty is not tying yourself “upright” with measurement tapes, indulge yourself in diets, painting your body in cosmetics products in order to achieve dive beauty before school start
Why is it that it has become a tradition for girls to stress, cry and break down over how we looks on back-to-school eve?
𝑴𝒂𝒍𝒆 𝑮𝒂𝒛𝒆 𝑴𝒐𝒗𝒊𝒆𝒔
The lives (and death) of 5 sisters, through the perspectives of the neighboring group of boys
Gentlemen prefer blondes An employee under Fox News file sexual harassment lawsuit against CEO, what follows was a liberation movement
𝑴𝒂𝒍𝒆 𝑮𝒂𝒛𝒆 𝑴𝒐𝒗𝒊𝒆𝒔 Lorelei, a showgirl, go on a trip to Paris with her friend Dorothy, before her wedding with the rich Gus Esmond. Her father-in-law sends a private detective to keep an eye on her.
Jordan Belfort rises to a wealthy stockbroker living the high life to his fall involving crime, corruption and the federal government.
FFF (FEME FALL FASHION): Essentials Number one on the list is……skirts! Skirts are a girl’s best friend in the season of autumn. There is just something so melancholy and soft and “girl” about skirts. To sum up, skirts are an absolutely need for any girl when the leaves start to fall..
Shin length (midi) corduroy skirt
Number two on the list is……dresses! Short school girl like dress or long straight-down dress are both suitable upon the season of autumn. Layer it with a beret, some tights (if you wanna be fun go for bright color like red) and some loafers,Mary Janes, Converse
Plaid mini dress
Schoolgirl dress
Mini dress with belt
Floral, plaid print mini/knee length skirt
Denim maxi skirt
Fall pleated striped short (mini) skirts
Tip: search “baker boy hat” and “newsies boy hat”
Tip: search “mod shift dress”
FFF (FEME FALL FASHION): Essentials
off the shoulders
Number three on the list is……long sleeves! I’m talking off the shoulders, cashmere/wool, mini, big, and the list could go on. Long sleeves are consider the basics of autumn, like how you alway need to have a white shirt on hand. Long sleeves paired with jeans, shorts (with tights), long skirts, short skirts, even dresses….And for this you can go wild, not sticking to a specific color/style, although having one or two brown, navy blue long sleeves is always a good idea.
mid rise loose zara jeans
Flare sleeves Sweater
Turtle neck
adidas samba OG black white gum
Collar
Number four on the list is……pants! Most people usually stick to long jeans or pants for autumn but mixing some shorts into your closet is also a great choice to spice up your wardrobe. For long jeans, we recommend straight leg, and baggy. Flare are cute too but for a relaxing, chill style straight and especially baggy is preferred. As for shorts, wearing tights are a necessity to make it work. Inspired by Janes Birkin fashion sense, pair some shorts with black (or colored) tights on top of some basic shirt. For shoes, go for Mary Janes vibes.
Straight leg 70s flare baggy
Tip: search “cowl neck”
Tip: search “brown leather vintage belt”
FEMINIST OF THE MONTH
Noor Hindi is a poet and reporter of Palestinian descent. Her poems have been and will appear in Poetry magazine, and Hobart, among others. Her writings have been or are forthcoming in the American Poetry Review, Literary Hub, And the Adroit Journal. Dear God. Dear Bones. Dear Yellow is her first book of poetry. scheduled to be realized in 2023. Her poem “Fuck Your Lecture On Craft, My People are Dying” broguth her well deserved reginizaiton on the internet Colonizers write about flowers. I tell you about children throwing rocks at Israeli tanks seconds before becoming daisies. I want to be like those poets who care about the moon. Palestinians don’t see the moon from jail cells and prisons. It’s so beautiful, the moon. They’re so beautiful, the flowers. I pick flowers for my dead father when I’m sad. He watches Al Jazeera all day. I wish Jessica would stop texting me Happy Ramadan. I know I’m American because when I walk into a room something dies. Metaphors about death are for poets who think ghosts care about sound. When I die, I promise to haunt you forever. One day, I’ll write about the flowers like we own them. All information is taken from https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/154658/fuck-your-lecture-on-craft -my-people-are-dying
CO JE NFE BE ALO SSI DO ST US ON: ME ES FRI OF I’ FE A THA END MY M MI BA T , NI D MA ST KE ?
It gets impossible to not foster jealousy when she is skinny, and pretty with curly voluminous hair. It starts to messed with your brain when you does your makeup in the morning and the image of her pops up in your mind; makeupless and still the most beautiful girl you’ve ever seen. How is that possible?
Dear, Female friendship are the epitome of enigma. It gets hard when the guy you like starts to talk to your best friend more than you. It gets so much harder to stay nice and kind when she gets a good grade in the subject you apparently are the best at.
dn't l u o I sh lous, a be je m a but I
JEALOUSY, GOSSIP CULTURE: In highschool, everything FEMALE FRIENDSHIPS becomes a popularity contest, and if you’re not careful you will become the annoying pageant contestant that everyone hates. There are cameras and ears everywhere, one in your pocket, one at your lunch table, one in your brain. Those lips are very agreeable, mob mentality they would call it.
Why do girls pit themselves against one another just for validation of a dude. Why do we degrade one another with horrible names. “I heard she tried to get with your boyfriend” So she become a wh*r*. “I heard she is such a pick me” So she become a b*tch. But it is never the boy’s fault.
You lay in your bed, uncertainty pounding. What’s wrong with you? So does that make you a bad feminist? Do you really wish your women’s downfall just so you could feel better?
You scroll through her IG, your fists starts to ball up, teeth crunched down onto your lips. You cringe as you type “ATE”. Each letter feels like a needle you have to prick your finger pressing down each keyboard. The reflection of yourself in the screen show your bloodied hands, greasy unwashed hair, acne filled skin and wrinkled pajamas. Ladies, think before you fight! If the reason you want to bring other women down is because of men, THINK AGAIN.
Then you justify your jealousy to explain that your emotion. She’s not perfect, she is always so annoying. These thoughts pile up and you realize that she make you go crazy, mentally insane. Even worse, you starts to form alliance with other with the same vengeance. How does the loudest cheerleader turn into the sabotaging villain Don’t get hooked into the patriarchy stupid joke
Instead just crush a can of coke!
In my bones, all I want is to become a star. That is my existence. In this large and infinite universe, I am its queen. The indescribable feeling of transformation. Every night I sit by my window in this rotten room on my knees, eyes closed, chin up, tightening my grip as if it would manifest my desires faster. deep inside, I know, I know who I am destined to become. Become the symbol of this world. So much that I cannot pass because my soul and mind are forever brought up, for better or worse. Call me a daydreamer call me insane. To have an impact you must go to the extreme. To be noticed you have to be different. And one day I will be out of here. Burned down the house that gave birth to a monster. An unmannered human starved and lusted for fame and the yearning to be something. The day I come back is the day the world bows down to the ugly creature that was once hunted down, now celebrated.
LITERATURE: RANT
I’m a hungry wolf A disgusting monster
Illustration by Jorge Mascarenhas
Mother traced her fingertips in the murky water, with grace quieting the whispering forest, melancholy twists my breath, mother strokes my threads through the winds Mother, mother, my mother The lipstick feels like a knife stroking my molden lips The blush feels like blood I spread on my face with my animal claws The mascara extends the weeds that killed my father How does a pig with lipstick looks better than me And I can feel them laughing, underneath my skin and I can’t rip it off
LITERATURE: POETRY
Who’s looking for its mother For her scents that lie in the woods Beneath the trees where the guns Were aim at her Where it will aim at me
Remnants of my childhood rush back like a flood in a forest fire In a chokehold position, the falling leaves fell into the flow of desires I sob and grieve My teeth ache the ache of misfortune I used to want to be so many things I wanted to be a writer Maybe that’s just an excuse to make me look smarter
Chokehold position, I just want to look smarter
Her hair smells like cigarette A doll with a teared up dress The way she walks leave trails of unmarked sweets Unexplored territories Rumours of those who dare to follow Gets haunted by the coast Of madness and lust But she is just still, a girl
Sanguinetti, Alessandra. “The Adventures of Guille and Belinda and the Enigmatic Meaning of Their Dreams.” Time Machine, Photography, 2000, www.zoltanjokay.de/2011/08/alessandra-sanguinetti-fairy-tales-of-childhood-and-growing-up-3/. Accessed 29 Oct. 2023.
Feeling ugly on an important day like prom or dates or celebrations can be so discouraging. We would try so hard to make ourselves look better but it just never worked out. Under the layers of makeup we still look so unfixable and feel disgusting about ourselves.
As an asian girl that doesn’t live in the
Olivia Rodrigo “GUTS” West but primarily consumes all types of media of the West, I do not often and girlhood come across much representation, as “GUTS” is probably the ultimate girlhood album of this decade, embracing the ups and downs of girl culture with nicely interlace discourse on the hypocrisy the world demands from women when it comes to our behaviour, our appearance and looks, our relationships, and our identity.
discussed on page 16. I had a similar expectation for Rodrigo’s sophomore album “GUTS” as her debut album, all about heartbreaks and romance, did not resonate with me at all. I continued to hold this faith when the two singles “Vampire” and “Bad Idea Right” came out, with both discussing similar themes of love and manipulation. This changed, however, as soon as I heard All-American Bitch. The rest, is all in my guts.
o I’m built like aks s e p s a mother and a ke it” t is right i l t c Ia total machine ha t w ’ d n n w a o o D y age ms to kn rstand” “ m w o gh to de see kn u n I o y u “ n d : e o o t h b n Bitc irl. Every oo young re not old ou. I know a c i r t g a y me All-A o me as a . “You are old” “You hat scare t e look o? Does t close ong for m u o y r Id es , airy y and w at it mak ll what if ave. p s i e h th The w y lyrics ” wear tand it”. W how to be e m i g) t w rs ngst n a i k c e unde and I kno ve to fu th a h e I h h t t l i ( f l w fu all myse grate lap me, ired a teful e a p b r g e to le you s ’m und can’t I v I o a , r . e h g e I k m i . d m c h he ti e ba s girlhood e gent w u spit on me a ma h t “All t n b ake to ulate le yo e to dy i melo ly encaps ind I hav it me, whi t would m hy does c a ct be k le you h se th he patriar perfe u a i c h e w hat t ate b retali , we all w an wom women. mad
Teenage dream: As a girl, we deal with a lot of
pressure, internally, externally, societally, culturally god there is pressure everywhere and we can’t seem to escape it, get away from it for even just a few minutes. And when we finally break down and starts to deteriorate at the age of 15 it is as if we have done something wrong to the world. All anyone does is keep encouraging us to keep going, life will get better but the truth is it’s not life it’s me, I don’t think I can get better. I think I have given everyone my all and “They all say that it gets better but what if I don’t”.
Lacy: This is one of the song that I immediately fell in love with. The acoustic strings and gently voice with passive aggressive e c undertone just hits in all the right man d place personally. It also bring up a topic o e r c d n a e y a s o experi to that I think should be discussed more, l r a e ig ly cl s is ion Rodr tes deep i n h t gh twee efemale relationships and friendships, na lat u e o u o b s p i h e p r n i v T cal: t the ma nship, it elationsh hy we ha how it is almost always bound with i g o L abou ic relatio k of the r t grasp w tionship jealousy. g n o ’ n nt s rela oma e me thi ich I don r a in hen I me and ak wh W m n sked few days she would i d a I n t d i d a n h a an me would nt later on her child? Aal way and odrigo’s ther o m R u ile to my a cas ve me. In hat I bad r. it in s er do this t n s i a s e h m o o l h o d suc ch othe n mot n to my m ause she t she w a o h a e e w c t with unger sh ould uestio e did it be good what she hi q y h e w h o w t h n y I s o o Was ch time , that e reas was s quals g h e r t e n I o i u h h w s o S a t t a y . e s ” lem? W after how could ised wo plu ulator t b ve “ p o i r t n a p a h t a at I ha ring he m r e t lf, h t v I e d e l i d s s l u a n y e a o w m so fat wonder, sta e me b yself, ds I w same d r m m a a a m I w r e w , afte t ho ? Sh I still y the master u e . l o a g b y mom b s n a a i e m s k g v i t l y a “ o a l r a n h a t d he alw he is estion ogical lain an oo lazy for l s p t i , m s d o i r c u t always w q o d m wo l h a o u I t d o n t e w a u b ed in, she and th iling in my a start cause I’m ly g A . t a e ” h ce n r logical e like t me, b ow she o at the e v m e t n a s e i r ve ne e, t .N ne of “lo i five” oo much ac l love m e h t g lon way t ething a he s m i a l c who somreply with
I d Me id in to
nking about what did i h t d be called a pig by my mother be
Pretty isn’t pretty: If I have to choose, I would say this song is the overarching theme of this issue. It is our roman empire, to think about how we look 24/7, having to spend money to fix the way our lips sit, the way our cheeks blushed, the way our lashes flatters. And it doesn’t help that the world seems to have set up thousands of alarms everywhere, from our mother’s mouth, men’s brain, magazines, social media, schools, the mall, to remind us that “You are still super ugly, try harder”
Thank you for spending time reading the first issue of ARIESKWE EN.MAG. As this is the first issue and I have no prior experience making content, designing magazines or anything closely related, there will be mistakes. If you have feedbacks on how to make issue 2 even better, please send a message via
THANK YOU