Who Am I? An Interactive Zine to Help You Explore Your Ever-Growing Identity
Reflective Zines (Mary)
https://www.instagram.com/reflectivezines/
https://www.etsy.com/shop/reflectivezines

Who Am I? is a full-colour US half-fold zine full of questions and prompts to help you explore who you are.

I like a bit of self-exploration at any time, but the fresh start of a new year feels like an especially good time to do so.

Who Am I? opens with an introduction about identity, how it can change, and the influence of mental illness on a person’s sense of identity. From there, we dive into pages of questions, prompts, and other activities to help you get to know who you are at this point in time.

Mary starts gently with a ‘draw yourself’ prompt followed by basics like hair and eye colour. But it slowly gets more introspective with questions about your role models, the past, and how vital certain things are to you for your future.

Reflective Zines are so full of colour and personality that makes them easy for me to engage in. All of the questions and prompts are set on the pages amongst colourful art as well as various quotes about identity. Winner all around for me.

This is the kind of zine I would like to fill out, put away, and take out again in a year’s time to see how I’ve changed (and no changed) over time. I had fun with most of the questions (thinking about the past is difficult but valuable) and liked how many questions there were about things I don’t usually think about.

This is a fun zine that offers a lot. If you want to find out more about yourself and/or make a record of where you are at a specific point in time, pick this up.

Postmodern Witchcraft: How to Brew Calm, Hex Stress, And Exorcise Your Social Media
Imogen Dall
https://www.imogendall.com/
https://www.instagram.com/bigfacegoods/

Postmodern Witchcraft is a full-colour A5 zine about “how to brew calm, hex stress, and exorcise your social media”.

It’s a stressful, stressful world, and a little calm can go a long way. From the moment I opened this zine to see a primarily lavender purple table of contents spread, I started to calm down.

Postmodern Witchcraft is comprised of five sections: Magic Potions, Ache Enchantments, Digital Exorcisms, Stress Soaks, and Conjuring Spells. Each section is set up beautifully with easy-to-read fonts, colourful art to accompany the easy-to-read text, and a nice layout overall.

I enjoyed every part of this zine both aesthetically as well as in content. A guest to de-stressing is always welcome and valuable to me. I’m looking forward to trying some of the suggested brews as well as putting some of the digital suggestions into practise.

One thing that played on my mind a little is that I’m not a practising witch. With that said, I think this zine is a ‘lighter on’ take on witchcraft and shouldn’t be approached with the expectations you might have with a zine like Brainscan 35. For example, one of the ‘stress soaks’ involves pouring a glass of wine to drink while taking your bath. But hey, wine in the bath can be its own ritual, and I like some humour in my zines. But I don’t know if a practising witch will take it differently or whether Imogen is a practising witch.

This is a fun zine with a beautiful design and layout. (What can I say? In another life I studied graphic communication.) The suggestions sound good (bring on the comfort brew), sound fun, cover a range of things, and make for a chill reading experience overall. Definitely called for today.

Another one to check out from Imogen and Big Face Goods.