Your Name: Grace Burns

Your Project Title: “By Grace”

My senior project will be the creation of a magazine, one I will design, edit, shoot and write for myself. When asked to define my project under the restraints of an “Essential Question,” I couldn’t pick just one; I wanted to use this opportunity to seak out my unanswered queries in the fashion industry, commencing with magazine production. I pitched my project with a confirmed internship at W Magazine and the questions: What does creating a magazine look like? What goes on behind the scenes? How do all the different components (writers, photographers, creative directors, editors) contribute to the final product? What is it like to create a magazine in this digital world we live in? 

This year I was also presented with the opportunity to travel to Kenya and Tanzania with Every Mother Counts (EMC), an organization that strives to “make pregnancy and childbirth safe for every mother everywhere.” Provided this trip away, I began brainstorming ways to incorporate this learning tour into possible project outcomes. I hoped to connect my experiences away with my community through the Four C’s, so integral to our mission: confidence, creativity, citizenship, and critical thinking. I landed on the idea to create a magazine entirely women-focused and social justice-oriented. I interviewed a few of the partners we visited during my trip to East Africa, such as the young leaders at Mwedo Girls secondary school in Arusha, Tanzania, and volunteers at FAME, the Foundation for African Medicine and Education. I also interviewed a few women who accompanied me on this trip with EMC, such as Alysia Montaño, Olympian athlete and founder of non-profit &Mother, and Clare Vivier, fashion designer and long-time partner of EMC.

With my internship meeting educational requirements, the EMC Learning Tour fulfilling experience and service, and creating the magazine’s content for creativity, this project meets all of the “Bucket” requirements. I am so thankful for the freedom and independent nature of this project, for it allows me to pursue an internship in my prospective career field. 

I feel strongly about my interest in writing, photography, fashion, advocacy, and design, but this project will test my ability to pursue their intersectionality. The production of a magazine involves the simultaneous contributions of the editorial and advertising departments, the printer, and the circulation department. While I hope to understand how a magazine is curated and learn from professionals, I also wish to develop collaboration skills in an environment of autonomy and manage myself professionally in terms of organization and time. 

In the same ways, communication, planning, and organization are vital in transforming ideas into a magazine; they will be crucial to the success of my project. The outcome of my project will be both a printed and digital issue of my magazine, but it will symbolize the intersection of my passions and tangibly represent my learning at W Magazine.