By Holly McGuinness
Based in Brimbank, GenZine is a project that celebrates gender equity, providing a place for young people to explore, create, discuss and learn through art, connection and conversation.
They’ve just launched their third issue on Friday, July 8, with GenZine’s founders Hannah Veljanovska, Emily Bartush and Charlotte Cameron over the moon with the community response.
“It was emotional at the very end, once we’d all packed up and were rushing just to be on time we had a big group cuddle in the rain and went, oh my god, we just did that!” Said Miss Bartush.
“Our ‘why’ came from realising that gender is still quite a big thing in our society, and it really holds people back a lot more than I think it frees them. So we’re just hoping to provide a space where we can kind of explore that a bit more creatively,” said Miss Cameron
Front page artwork of issue three was contributed by Chandra Altoff who was provided with the theme “questioning” and allowed creative freedom. They created a piece reflecting their identity as a non-binary person, describing it as “a dance between all of the things” and creating an artwork that was quite fluid.
“Being non-binary, there’s sort of this thing where non-binary people are expected to be androgynous, but my sense of self is not my aesthetic,
“Having this chance and feeling like I’m a part of this growing collection of incredible queer artists and people who are exploring all of these things is really valuable to me,” said Altoff
The GenZine community urges anyone to get involved, no matter their age, gender identity or background.
“We’re just here to create a space for young people to have these kinds of conversations,” said Miss Veljanovska
