New Children’s Magazine for Girls Has Queerness in its DNA

A new children’s magazine publisher, helmed by a lesbian mom, has from the start brought a queer-inclusive approach to its highly praised magazine for girls.

Kazoo magazine launched via Kickstarter in 2016 as “A new kind of print magazine for girls—one that inspires them to be smart, strong, fierce, and, above all, true to themselves.” The quarterly publication is the creation of Erin Bried, a former Condé Nast editor and mother of two daughters, ages six and two. In its first two years, it’s met with rave reviews from publications like Vogue, Real Simple, and Amy Poehler’s Smart Girls. Family Circle named Bried one its “20 Most Influential Moms of 2017.” Bried spoke with me recently about her goals for Kazoo and its queer-inclusive, intersectional approach.

“I was in a bookstore with my [oldest] daughter,” Bried related. “It was a wall of princesses, dolls, and little girls in makeup. She was bored. I was mad. I realized that if I wanted things to change, I was the perfect person to change them.”

Her Kickstarter raised $171,000 in 30 days, making it Kickstarter’s highest funded journalism campaign ever. The quarterly publication, now about to send out its ninth issue, offers a fun and inspiring mix of content, including science experiments, comics, art projects, recipes, interviews with accomplished women, and short activities like secret codes, jokes, mazes, puzzles, and more, with lots of activities to take off the page and into the house. Every issue also features a short story by a major female author.

Unlike many other magazines, however, all of their stories are developed or inspired by real people at the top of their respective fields, including many who are queer. In one issue, for example, Alison Bechdel (Fun Home; Dykes to Watch Out For) drew a spot-the-difference game called “A Lab of One’s Own,” featuring two girl scientists. The girls’ names, Chloe and Olivia, are a nod to the characters in Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own who caused Woolf to observe, “Sometimes women do like women.” More overtly, in another issue, gender non-binary cartoonist Chan Chau drew a search-and-find of a two-mom family at home with their child.

Other queer people whose works or lives are featured include singer Lea DeLaria, photographer Catherine Opie, artist Mickalene Thomas, writer Jacqueline Woodson, singer Ani DeFranco, swimmer Diana Nyad, biologist Lynn Adler, and comedian Cameron Esposito.

Of course, most kids won’t know these people are queer unless their content speaks to this. At the same time, we shouldn’t assume that queer writers and artists must always depict queer themes. It’s a balancing act, but Bried emphasized, “We always show difference and celebrate difference.” She explained, “For Kazoo, it’s always been part of our DNA to tell our kids they can be whoever they want. We’re trying to celebrate every one of our readers for being true to themselves. As a parent of two daughters, it’s hard to find books with girl protagonists who are smart and strong and loud. As a lesbian mom, for my kid to find pictures of their family in stories is exceptionally hard.” That attitude will inform the magazine going forward.

Over the past several years, more established children’s magazine publishers such as Cricket Media and, to a lesser extent, its competitor, Highlights, have also been including LGBTQIA+ people in their content. Children’s magazines may thus offer families with queer members—and all families—additional places to find queer representation, even as book publishers are slow to produce queer-inclusive children’s books.

On the non-queer front, Kazoo has featured a short story from author Joyce Carol Oates (them; Blonde), an interview with author Margaret Atwood (The Handmaid’s Tale and more), advice from Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and thoughts on dancing from American Ballet Theatre Principal Dancer Misty Copeland, along with advice, ideas, and inspiration from other outstanding women in STEM, the arts, politics, and other fields. And instead of depicting these amazing women as grownups, dispensing advice from on high, Kazoo shows images of them as children, so readers can more easily see themselves in these role models.

Best of all, there’s never an assumption that there’s only one way to be female. And while Kazoo has yet to feature transgender women or girls, Bried says they have “no hesitation” about including them, or people at other places along the gender continuum, in future issues. She notes that the next issue (out June 1) will feature nonbinary poet Eileen Myles.

Given the blurring bounds of gender today, I asked Bried about positioning Kazoo as a magazine for girls. “I thought it was important to talk to girls specifically,” she answered. “The media landscape for girls is such a wasteland. It’s so hard to find strong role models. I think it’s okay to say we’re a magazine for girls because girls are absent from so many of their bedtime stories.”

“When you’re written out of your own stories, it has lasting consequences,” she continued. “We wanted to make this space for them.” At the same time, she said, “We certainly would welcome more boy readers.”

Bried hopes Kazoo will help its readers, whoever they are, to know that “What makes them different makes them unique and amazing,” whether that means being at different places along the gender continuum, or being of different races or backgrounds. She wants the magazine to be as intersectional as possible, and asserted, “That’s not just something we’re dipping a toe into. It’s who we are.”

See samples and subscribe at kazoomagazine.com.