The First (And Only) Editor's Letter
When I started thinking about the possibility of The Coven a year or so ago, it seemed like a good venue for pure aesthetic enjoyment and smart, fun writing. As my freshman year of college progressed, I found myself needing something that could be more than that. I suppose that was a result of some experiences specific to me, and some more typical among females my age. But I don’t want to even think about what makes someone “just your average teenage girl,” or whether I fit that mold, or if that’s who will read The Coven. It seems that entire industries are based on answering these very questions. Who is the typical college girl? What does she want? (And, a lot of the time, How can we get her allowance?)
I don’t have the answers. The Coven is not your guide to Being a College Student. It is not a pamphlet on How to Be a Young Woman. (If it were, it would be published by American Girl and your aunt would’ve given it to you in the fifth grade.) It is, quite simply, a bunch of writing, videos, and art that depict the multidimensionality of the feminine experience. By seeing and reading about the struggles every woman goes through to become who she is today, college women will no longer want a pamphlet on being some college chic. They will have their own, unique manual on How to Be Their Bad Ass Selves.
While there’s always danger in generalizing a whole group of people, I do think some experiences are somewhat universal to being a college student, specifically a female one. The Coven is a place to make the best of the beautiful pain and cringe-worthy awkwardness of being a college girl. When it becomes harder to appreciate these things, we also have good plain fun and visual pleasure. When you’re sick of having to be happy all the time, we have lots of eye-rolling rants, too. Any and all of the content we publish will, hopefully, demystify the highlight reels of being a woman in college. Anyone can take a picture in front of some fratty American flag. We want to see the experience and emotion before and after that highlight snippet. Real recognizes real, and we want to romanticize your reality.
On that note, do feel free to mosey on over to our Submit page, where you’ll find out where to submit your writing, brag about how great your friend is, ask questions about college life, and much more I won’t list here in case it overwhelms your brain.
We post two types of content, each of which discusses and demystifies a college experience: Witch Trials (panels and conversations with other collegiate or inspiring women) and Witch Files (written and artistic content). Every month of this site will be a differently themed issue, and our theme for August is “Coven.” Girl gangs and empowerment, etc. And, of course, the beginning of The Coven.
From here, you write your own handbook.
Love,
Alexandra