When I was a girl of 10 and already a writer in my own mind, I was frustrated that no one took my writing seriously. I nevertheless decided that I would be a Rhodes Scholar and a winner of a Pulitzer and a Nobel by the time I was 30, at which point I would move with my two children to a glass house in Aspen and start a magazine for aspiring writers, giving them the chance to be published that I had never had.

Although you haven’t heard my name on the list of Pulitzer or Nobel Prize winners and I’m not living in the glass house in Aspen, I am publishing chixLIT, a journal for aspiring young female writers.  My mission statement is: Let girls know that words are powerful and can make them powerful, too.

Few literary magazines are written entirely by those under 18, and even fewer are for girls only. chixLIT is the only one I know that focuses purely on writing in all its forms. Girls can submit poems, short stories, rants, raves, reviews, love letters, song lyrics, etc., anything as long as it’s honest and honestly by them.

I designed chixLIT as a place where girls can write about and share their feelings, ideas and experiences. It’s important that girls know and be reminded that whatever they are going through, they are not alone.  When I was young, words were my salvation in two ways. First, my parents, who were political exiles, stood out because they talked “funny.” I thought if I mastered the English language, I would fit in better.  Second, writing became invaluable to me as a way to release my feelings of alienation. If someone had validated me by publishing my writing, I might have felt less freakish a lot sooner. Although as a girl I knew intuitively that words were powerful, as a grown-up I have experienced that power often. I want girls to know and believe that words can protect them, rescue them and keep them from being alone because once they write, they are dealing with whatever’s on their minds or in their hearts.

Here is some sample writing from chixLIT:

Nina’s Pneumonia
By Lilia M., Age 9
Longmont, CO

Nina got a fever one day when she as two.
It scared me and then I didn’t know just what to do.
I went to school hoping she’d be home when I was (at 3),
But when Mommy picked me up from school, she had some news for me.
Nina had gone to the E.R., and there’s where Mom and Dad found out,
Nina had pneumonia; there wasn’t any doubt.
Mom took me to the hospital and up to Nina’s room,
And there she was, just lying there with lots of “Tubes of Doom.”
I call them that because Nina didn’t like them at all,
But they helped her really high temperatures slowly start to fall.
It took about a week or so for her to get better,
as she lay in the hospital room, her lungs getting less wetter.
The day she was able to come home we welcomed her happily,
and that just made me joyful and all filled with glee!

(reprinted from chixLIT, January-February 2004)

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 Western Pride
By Kellsey B., Age 12
Santa Ana, CA

I see the white foam,
Called forth from the mighty deep
As the boat cuts through the greenish-blue water,
I hear the soothing sound of the ocean.

As the foam sprays in the air,
And the boat makes waves,
I stand leaning over the rail,
Looking into that dark water.

I feel uplifted hearing the spray,
I feel happy,
All this I see, hear, and feel,
Aboard the ship the Western Pride.

On a Beach on a Fine Day
By Kellsey B.

The sand gritty and harsh,
The waves rippling and smooth,
The sun hot and glaring.
Sand in your pants,
Salt in your mouth,
Ah, the beach.

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How I Wrote the Poems
by Kellsey B.

I have been writing poetry for several years. I started because I liked reading poems aloud, hearing the rhyme and rhythm. I liked how some writers had a way with words and could make me feel what they felt. The first book of poetry I got is called, The Treasury of American Poetry. Some of my favorite poets are Robert Frost, William Carlos Williams, and Emily Dickinson. Poetry can convey many moods. It can be funny like Ogden Nash’s “The Terrible People;” sad like Emily Dickinson’s, “I Felt a Funeral in My Brain;” or interesting as in Oliver Wendell Holmes’, “The Deacon’s Masterpiece.”

The poems I submitted to chixLIT were written when I was bored! That is one of my best times to write because I am completely free to write whatever comes into my head. It is very different from the writing I do for school, which is mostly essays with strict guidelines and for an adult audience. For poetry, I just write what I FEEL. I don’t worry about other people liking my poems because I write them for me. I also like to write poetry when I am angry. My feelings can finally be put into words. I can scream on paper, yet take it back if I want. I don’t need to make sense since I am the only one reading the poems.

I love chixLIT because it is filled with pieces written by girls my age. It is a great source of inspiration for me. That is why I decided to submit my poetry. I thought my writing might inspire another girl. I was also curious to see if someone else thought my poems were good enough to publish.

Finally, I am like the musician who makes music for the sheer love of it. I write poetry because I love the look of ink on a page. I love to feel emotions from writing. I love turning memories into poetry.

(reprinted from chixLIT, March-April 2004)

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I thought about the chixLIT project for a long time before I launched it in July 2001.  I wondered what the least expensive but compelling format would be. As a newspaper girl, I was sure I wanted it to be on paper and I thought that an 11×17 format would allow me to photocopy fairly inexpensively and still mail for the cost of a 1st-class stamp.  I made basic prototypes using my laptop and MS Word.  As a result, I was limited to a modular layout, yet that turned out to be a good thing, because it’s easy to track.

As I try to attract 7-year-olds without putting 17-year-olds to sleep, I started an inspirational corner called “From the Mouths of Babes,” which features a quote from a famous woman and can be clipped out and stuck in a locker or on a mirror. For example, the Winter ’02 issue includes a quote from Drew Barrymore, actress and co-star of “Charlie’s Angels”:  “I had just a miserable [high] school experience. …To be cool, to fit in, to feel comfortable, to figure out who you are and who you want to be and try to be graceful doing it.  It’s such an interesting, incredible time, and they just don’t make it very easy for you.” In Fall ’02, a quote by Martha Graham, a dancer and choreographer who changed the look and feel of dance forever, appears:  “Great dancers are not great because of their technique; they are great because of their passion.”

Being limited by funds to printing in black ink only helped dictate the look of the ’zine. Ultimately, I think it looks like it should–not always the prettiest, but trying its best without trying too hard and appearing confident of its content. That’s what we want for our chix too! Without PhotoShop or design experts, I might have made it harder than it had to be, but I put together something I feel good about.

I invited interesting, strong women I know to be on my board and asked them for support and ideas. I invited an RN in case a girl wrote about bulimia and a sportswriter to be available if athletic girls who wanted to know why they should care about writing. I asked a designer to help with cover ideas. We meet quarterly meetings to talk about issues that arise and to figure out ways to spread the word.  At our last meeting, we decided to make a big pitch for local (Orange County, CA) schools with a letter-writing campaign connected to chixLIT’s fall issue and to offer school visits. We’ll see how that goes.

To find content, in early 2002 I sent feelers onto the Internet to writing sites. It took a few months to get enough submissions to publish that first issue. Now we have just published issue 5 of year 2–the July/August 2004 issue marks chixLIT’s anniversary.

Our issues are bi-monthly right now and contain six to eight pages.  We hope to begin monthly publication within the year. A one-year subscription is $15 in the United States and $18USD elsewhere. When a writer has a piece published, she receives a free copy of that issue. We hope writers will buy extra copies for their grandparents, etc., and share their ’zine at school with friends and teachers as well as Scout leaders and others who might then want to participate.

Currently, in each issue we include writing prompts. Also, after individual poems and stories, we sometimes present a prompt or tickle. For example, a poem about fear might end with a question to readers asking what they are afraid of and suggesting they write about that and send in their results.

Sometimes the writing suggests a quick lesson:

Untitled
By Kerrilynn A.
Irvine, CA

Whispering wind
Will you come back?
…please.

After explaining that as a nine-year-old, Kerrilynn submitted the three-line poem she had written five years earlier when she was four, we offered:

Notice the use of the three “w” words?  It’s called alliteration when a writer groups words that have the same sound, usually at the beginning of each word.

Kerrilynn is also using the tool that is every writer’s favorite word, onomatopoeia, which is words that sound like what they are, like buzz. Read this poem out loud. Can’t you just hear the wind whispering?

Most submissions are poetry; we also have received and published song lyrics. We get almost an equal number of fiction stories and nonfiction essays. The essays are my favorite, probably because of my journalism background. We published a call for critixCHIX to review movies and books, but so far no response; I’m surprised–I would think it would be an attractive offer for girls aspiring to writing careers, although we try to make the ‘zine be more about writing as a personal journey than as a vocation.

Since the beginning, I have created features to further enhance and connect girls. The writing advice column is the only part written by adults. In “Ask Rita N. Ryder,” Rita responds to readers’ question about writing. If I can’t answer a question myself as Rita, I find a professional who can, but in Rita’s voice.  In the January-February 2004 issue, a teen from Hawaii asked about creating children’s books, wondering if she had to be good at both writing and illustrating.  Rita explained that publishers pair up writers and illustrators, so one need only be good in one area.  If, however, a chix is talented in both areas, Rita said, she should go for it. In addition, Rita suggested that the letter writer read about the chixLIT art contest advertised in the same issue.

We also have Pen Pal Place, a hook-up service. A girl who wants a pen pal supplies us with her age and contact info.  It’s important to stay close in age for pen pals, so it might be a while before we have a match. When we have two about the same age, we share the contact info with both girls, and then they are on their own. In March, we hooked up a girl from Russia with one from Texas. We asked both girls to let us know how their correspondence goes, and I hope we will hear back from them.

I’ve noticed that most of the foreign submissions are from non-Spanish-speaking countries. It makes me think that maybe English as a second language is not as much of a priority in Latin America as it is elsewhere in the world.  In addition, California schools are filled with Spanish speaking-bilingual kids; therefore, I want to launch a Spanish-language bilingual edition called chicaLIT. But I need more marketing time to get enough submissions to launch it, and I feel like I have to grow chixLIT to stand on its own before I move on to future spin-offs.

I also plan on having a full editorial board of teens.  My goal is to have older girls mentor younger ones and essentially train the next generation of chixLIT writers/editors.  If I had three or four girls around 15-17 years of age who could spearhead the ’zine’s production, I could act as advisor and shift my energies to promotion. The chix editorial board would “meet” online, and I would help to develop the girls’ editorial skills.  With graduating staff mentoring the up-and-coming generation of editors, girls would learn teamwork, communication skills, and leadership as well as the concrete skills involved with production tasks. Eventually, I’d like the chixLIT universe to include writing contests and regional conferences, merchandise such as bumper stickers that say, “My daughter is a published writer,” chixLIT T-shirts and anthologies of works culled from the ‘zine.

Today, we have a small web presence at http://www.chixLIT.com thanks to one of my old college roommates, and maybe one day we’ll be a huge global Internet community with a free email domain and chat boards and so on.  For now, I’m looking for help spreading the word to girls, teachers, and Scout leaders. I think adults who want to write for children or teens can benefit from subscribing and reading what’s on kids’ minds.

I think every girl who has been published in chixLIT has felt thrilled to see her words and name in print. I feel great humility when girls one-fourth my age articulate ideas that impress me. We have had submissions from girls in Russia and Japan and Trinidad. I love the idea of girls realizing that their global “sisters” have similar hopes and fears. I also am proud that non-native speakers of English have had their hard work rewarded by getting into print in English.

A mom told me that the day her 9-year-old daughter received the chixLIT issue with her story in it (historical fiction yet), she carried it with her everywhere and showed it to everyone saying, “Look, this is by me. This is mine.” Her mom said, “She was so proud!”

And just that is enough to keep me editing the ’zine.

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(If you know a girl who writes, encourage her to share her writing by submitting it to submit@chixLIT.com.  To subscribe, visit chixLIT.com . Mention WRITING IT REAL and get one free issue with a paid subscription. If you’re interested in helping Maria spread the word, contact her at chixLIT@earthlink.net.)