Dearest Readers,
I hope that 2012 is an amazing and wonderful year for all of you so far! This year began for me with a sense of hope and joy as we launched See Magazine last month. That trend has continued with See having been extremely well received. Our first issue had nearly 1,100 readers and generated over 12,000 pageviews, which exceeded our expectations in many ways. Since then, groundwork has been laid to bring you even more new features and voices in the near future. I am SO excited to see and share what the future of See Magazine holds! The month was not without its challenges - not the least of which was the painful realization that things would be so much easier if I could clone myself - but those challenges provide the framework to innovate and create opportunities for others - and in the end that’s part of the fun of working on a project like this. Another partner on this journey has been a bit of fear: would people like See? Would the finished product do justice to the vision and the mission? Could I re-create and improve on what we published in January? I think the answer to all of those questions is “yes”, yet that fear still lingers. Overcoming fear is par for the course with any new venture - an idea which new See columnist Monica Birdsong explores in her first installment of “Diary of a Tech Startup Gal”. This month - for Valentine’s Day - we also take a look at how single folks are often ostracized in a society that is seemingly obsessed with coupling and marriage; we offer up our list of “Ten Ways To Say I Love You - To YOU”; and columnist Shara Krogh shares what current law and the constitution have to say about nontraditional marriage - independent of partisan politics and subjective morality. We also explore how teens are using Twitter to reach massive audiences with supportive and empowering messages; how one young girl’s idea for a website has helped hundreds of kids see the heroes in themselves and positively impacted countless lives; and how two men have made it their mission to minimize violence and sexual assault and make dating and sex safe for everyone. Those topics, along with monthly columns old and new (“A+ Ads”, “The Goods”, and our new monthly, “Viralize This”) and a surprise or two plucked from my own past comprise the February issue, which we lovingly present as our Valentine to you. I hope you’ll enjoy it, that it will serve you well and that you’ll share it far and wide and help us spread our message of love and appreciation for yourself. To love yourself is the least you can do for you, and the most you can do for the world - it opens you up to freely and truly share yourself and your gifts - and once everyone can do that, we’ll change the world. With love always,
Lori
Lori Lewis Founder/Editor, See Magazine
www.seemagazine.org | pg 2