Graduate Gives Young Women a Voice...
Andrea Nelson
Northfield News
Passion, adventure and joy. These three words are what the founders of Alive Magazine, developed for and by young women, hope their product exudes.
Alive is the creation of St. Olaf College graduate Heather Scheiwe, and is a division of the non-profit corporation Alive Arts Media. It began as a senior project in the spring of 2004 and has since developed into a magazine for the Internet and a quarterly publication.
The magazine is funded through ad sales, subscriptions and donations.
"Magazines impact young women's lives," said Scheiwe, the founding editor, adding that she noticed many of the magazines for young women are written by older women and men who didn't have the same connection to the issues as those of the same age and gender would. "There was no place for young women to have a voice for themselves. I wanted to step into the medium and make a change from the inside instead of outside."
Although Scheiwe said she saw potential in developing her senior project into a full-fledged magazine, she didn't feel she had the capability or resources to do so by herself.
When she presented her project, handing out 200 copies of the prototype for the magazine that would empower young women and let them have their voices be heard, she did not expect to hear people offer to help in whatever way possible.
"Once people offered to help, I knew it would garner other resources and passion to go further," said Scheiwe.
Jen Dotson, a fellow St. Olaf graduate, saw potential and decided to help.
In the beginning, she said a lot of spare time was spent working on the endeavor.
"It was a total process of discovery," said Dotson, the magazine's creative director.
Through mostly word-of-mouth, the magazine has grown. Now 1,000 copies are printed in-house each issue and distributed to bookstores, churches, businesses and individuals.
In May, the Web site underwent a redesign. This redesign, Dotson said, allows the site to be updated more frequently, which readers enjoy, and gives it a cutting edge look and feel. On average, the site receives between 3,000 and 5,000 hits per month.
Since Alive Magazine's slogan is "by young women, for young women," the contributing writers and artists are young women between the ages of 13 and 25. Yet, the magazine does have a department that allows young men to weigh in with their opinions.
"The content is always new, fresh and relevant," Dotson said. "It's all original writing by young women (25 years old and younger)."
Dotson said that even though the magazine excludes those that are older than 25, their voices are still important and there is a place for them to be heard. Alive Magazine is especially for those that don't have a lot of experience in the industry and this allows them to get out there and started on their own careers.
With this in mind, there will come a time in the not-too-distant future when Scheiwe and the others on staff will have to walk away and let the younger women step into their positions.
Scheiwe is 25 and said that she will continue to be on the board of directors when she turns 26. Yet she is confident that those following her will do wonderful things with the magazine.
"They're taking the magazine places I could never do myself," Scheiwe said of Dotson and Lauren Melcher, the managing editor.
Scheiwe said new challenges will need be faced that she knows younger women will be able to solve more easily.
"My vision was to keep it in the hands of young women, and get as many voices into each issue heard," she said.
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