Editors' Letter: New Beginnings
Welcome to Uniquely Aligned!
(New and Improved!)
Welcome to Uniquely Aligned!
(New and Improved!)
We started Uniquely Aligned two years ago. It began as a simple blog for four girls to express their ideas, discoveries, and love for creativity. Now it is an online magazine for photography, writing, art, videos, books, films, music, and fun- anything that makes us smile, cry, dance, or feel.
We are sick and tired of sitting still, and we hope you are too. The literary world is changing. The magazines we grew up with are folding because frankly, people don’t consume writing the way they used to. Teenagers aren’t looking for the same impersonal articles. This generation wants a mirror for themselves. Accuracy and authenticity. We crave a space as genuine and interesting as we are. This magazine is open to all kinds of expression, and we can’t wait to see where you will take it. From writing essays about our favorite books and films, to drawing random comics about being a teenager, Uniquely Aligned is for fun and for love and for doing something rather than nothing. (Because, to be fair, we’ve done nothing for a long time- too long of a time.) This is not for perfection. We’re not here to offer social cues, or tell you how to act or what to love. This is not a guide to growing up, nor are we experts on the subject. With this magazine, we hope to document a generation that is creative, loving, fearless, and unique. Uniquely Aligned is for being a teenager, simply enough.
This time, things are different. Not only are we publishing more, but we are publishing your work. We are accepting all kinds of submissions in our four categories- Diaries & Essays, Photos & Eye Candy, Music & Movies & Books, and Fun & Misc. We accept anything- from writing, rants, photos, art, videos, and whatever else you can come up with. Obviously, we cannot publish everything you send in, but please feel free to visit our submit page if you are interested. Uniquely Aligned is just as much yours as it is ours, so here is your formal invitation to take part. Not just as a reader sitting behind a bright screen, but a part of the team. We’d be happy to have you; take this and run wherever you want with it. We can’t wait to see.
We create what means something to us, and it is our hope that it will mean something to you. You can read us on your phone when you’re tired of scrolling through Instagram. Read us late at night when you should be doing math homework. Read us when you’re bored- when you’re happy, sad, indifferent or somewhere in between. We invite you to laugh with us, smile with us, cry with us, and simply put, grow up with us.
We are not perfect. We are young- not just in age, but spirit. We are teenagers. We make mistakes and we have fun while we learn from them. We go through hard things, and we go through good things, but we are free. We’re learning to dance- this time when everyone is watching. We are all just a ton of kids trying to figure out how to be adults, and yet never grow up. Here, you are free to do just that. You are free to be a kid, and you have a voice that is heard. You are free to learn. You are free to make mistakes, and you are free to live. Here, you have freedom. Use it and smile. Dance and scream if you want. Watch the sunset. Watch the sun rise again. Hug your friends. Smile at your family. Run off on your own. Then come back home. Be a kid. Be an adult. And most of all, be free.
Here’s to new beginnings,
Savanna and Vivian