Before I learned about Memunatu, I had (and of course still do) a blinding admiration for women’s fashion magazines. A combination of two of my favorite hobbies, writing and fashion, these magazines provide me not only with entertainment, but also with some bits of newfound knowledge. Maybe what draws us to magazines is that they are less “intimidating” than full-length books and more specialized to our interests than newspapers. During middle school I long awaited the day that I could graduate from Teen Vogue or Seventeen to Vogue just as much as any girl would long for her first tube of lipstick or pair of “grown up” shoes. But as do most of us, I took for granted that I had the privilege to have a surplus of reading material, to the point where every book we read in school soon became a fleeting memory when we opened the first chapter of the next. So when I learned about Memunatu, its intended audience, its goal, and its message, I felt as though it was a way to bring to the desks of young girls in West Africa a combination of different types of writing that serve different goals.
As writers we all strive to be able to entertain and inform our readers, and magazines like Memunatu that are targeted for young girls strive to do just that and a little more. What’s the “little more?” Well the third goal on that list of: to entertain and inform, is to comfort. A magazine is often like a wise friend – while your conversations are slightly one sided (in that the magazine is doing most of the talking), it answers questions that you didn’t even know you had and gives you advice you didn’t even know you needed. I know that Memunatu will be able to serve all of the functions that every good magazine, and good friend, does and more.
-Eleni S.
Fall Intern, Memunatu Magazine
