issu
e 01
adolescence
d e a r c r t o r, ea I have thousands of words I’d love to tell you but sadly I would not have enough pages to do so. When I started Unpublished Magazine nearly two months ago I did not expect this much love and support from our readers, let alone being able to publish a zine so quickly. This community of readers has made me the happiest person in the world these past two months and I can’t wait to see how everyone grows as artists. I started Unpublished Magazine because I wanted to give you guys what my younger self never had - a platform to express herself on.
I chose Adolescence as our first theme because I truly believe it is one of the most important times of your life. Everything you go through during those years is so raw and real that I felt it needed to be showcased, even the worst parts of it. You’re a grown-up, but still a kid at the same time. Whether it’s the people you meet, confronting loss, or learning more about yourself, adolescence is so much more than just ourselves and those years. What we learn in our adolescence can stay with us for our whole lives, and the memories we have often stay in our hearts for years and years.
with love, Unpublished Founder + Editor in Chief Rebecca Bloch
This magazine is dedicated to yours, mine, and our adolescent experience. Our team wants to celebrate the anguish, the euphoria, and everything in between... … like those car rides with your friends, screaming the words to your favorite songs at the top of your lungs. Staying up to watch the sunrise and saying “I love you” but not knowing if you really meant it. The pile of butterflies fluttering around in your stomach and the 3 am dance parties in your room. Deep conversations about the universe and your heart skipping a beat at the sound of a text message. Writing love letters you’d never send and sticking your head out of the window and letting your hair go crazy. Doodling in the margins of your history notebook and smiling so much your jaw begins to hurt. That hug that you never wanna let go of and the ceiling staring back at you as you lie awake at
night. Falling in love way too quickly and getting your heart broken just as fast. Feeling like you’re on top of the world one minute and hitting rock bottom the next. Discovering new answers to the question “Who am I?” every other week and being blinded by the flashing colored lights reflecting off of your friends’ faces at a party. Doing something for the first and last time, and feeling like the world is yours...because it is. Adolescence feels like both everything and nothing, all at once. We feel alone, like no one understands what we’re going through. Yet, even in our extremely unique experiences, adolescence is universal — a universal rite of passage that makes us laugh, cry, feel, and grow into being. This magazine was created for you, by you. And we hope you enjoy the journey.
20
Unpublished Magazine
by Lauren Knabel in an age where our innocence was robbed from us as quickly as possible, where flirtation became child pornography, where “jokes” became racial and homophobic slurs, where best friends turned into your worst critics, and where the neglect of falling into the trap of desensitization are shamed for it. in a time of life where we’re so close to finding that sweet craving of freedom, just to be told that you would become a slave to the government if you weren’t born in the right family to not have to worry about the ever-lasting tax on your education. in a new era with an unprecedented record of this time of life, constantly shown comparisons of what the world thinks you should be like, constantly talking to everyone and updating them on your day, seen as an outcast for not doing so. but what if, we stepped away from everything we thought we knew, what if we learned to put down the soul-clenching screen, and talked, and shared our stories, and went out and noticed the flowers, the smile on that strangers face, and the simplistic beauty of life and all the flaws and misdirections it brings us? would we all be happier? or is it too late for us? will we just become another generation of misfits doomed to die a meaningless product of a life pre-determined to fail?
it’s all up to us now.
iss
e 01 u
Adolescence
21
by Lauren Vogel If trauma is a tornado, I’m dorothy. Swap the ruby slippers for reeboks, Keep the dress. Red hair rotted brown And fragile bags like woven baskets under my eyes My limbs belong to someone else, Much like my friend the scarecrow. A botox needle in a haystack that she’s stuffed with, I’ve pulled cattails from her mouth sewn shut. Apples make a hard clunk! When they hit you in the head. Punished for being hungry And blamed for being fullThat is the life of a woman Our job is our weapon, The housewife flies on a broom Scared of water like her daughters Glinda is good and pretty Trapped in a bubble blown by teenage boys We traveled through hell, all of us, To find a Wizard who only knows heaven And beg him to heal us Click your heels as much as you’d like You’ll never find home If you haven’t already got one.
48
Unpublished Magazine
iss
e 01 u
Adolescence
49
50
Unpublished Magazine
iss
e 01 u
Adolescence
51