A full Magazine designed, written and edited by me.
Prompt
Choose an influencer that is using their platform to bring awareness to a social issue. Then, create a magazine, complete with articles and images, focusing on said issue and your influencer.
The Prep
I searched primarily on Instagram for my influencer because instagram not only offers short form video content but also static content like photos and carousel posts which I could utilize in my magazine.
After some searching I found Rachel Bender, a 21 year old influencer with juvenile arthritis, POTS, and Chron's disease who is an outspoken advocate for invisible disabilities. I was drawn to her colorful look and bright personality and my mind immediately went to the teen magazines I liked to browse in middle school.
To help with my research I also looked into other advocates within the Invisible disabilities community which led me to Alice Wong's book, appropriately titled, Invisible Disabilities , which features a collection of stories from other individuals with invisible disabilities. This source gave me further insight into the complex world of invisible disabilities and understanding what exactly is considered to be an "invisible" disability .
The Inspiration
As I mentioned before, Rachel's colorful aesthetic and personality reminded me a lot of the bright and eye-catching Teen girl magazines I used to enjoy in middle school. However, I didn't want to downplay the issues that she was fighting for or, even worse, infantilize her own struggles (which is a common issue within the disabled community). So, I sought to create a magazine with an artistic and colorful vibe that stayed true to Rachel, while still maintaining a sense of clean, ordered, professionalism.
After I had gathered enough information and inspiration from Rachel's Instagram I came up with the color palette you see here. Some colors like the pinks and greens were inspired by Rachel's hair dye while the others were inspired by some of her posts. I felt the pastel colors balanced with the darker tones would perfectly match that fun yet professional aesthetic I was going for. Finally it was time to start creating the actual magazine.
The color palette I created for this project
The Process
Of course beside the cover and table of contents I made sure to add a disclaimer as well as my information, so if someone was reading and thought that any info I added was false, misleading, or just poorly worded they could get in contact with me so I could discuss and fix it.
Next I started laying down the foundations to understand what an invisible disability was with a small "game" of sorts, asking readers to "find" the disability each character had. The next page/answer key made it clear that invisible disabilities were not something people could just spot in a person. I then took a deep dive into the subject first defining what a disability was and then moving on to specifically define an invisible disability. In the next page I provided just a few examples of specific disabilities that would fall under the invisible disabilities umbrella, along with a link to a much larger list.
Once I established my readers' understanding of the subject I finally dove into the "interview," a mock interview introducing Rachel and showing off her contributions as an advocate for the community. I continued with a segment called "What's In My Bag" which leaned more into the teen magazine aesthetic and was a fun way to showcase some of the more "personal" aspects of Rachel's day to day.
After that I took a more serious turn with a darker page (both aesthetically and metaphorically) that tackled some of the harmful stereotypes that those in the community face and the impact that those stereotypes may have on not just a person's personal life but also the kind of care they receive within the healthcare system.
Something else I noticed on Rachel's page is that she doesn't just advocate for invisible disabilities, she also fights for issues pertaining to wealth inequality and women's rights, each of which, while not directly affecting disability rights/issues, can influence how a person has to deal with these issues. I saw this theme of intersectionality continue in Alice Wong's book, so I decided to dedicate the next two pages to exploring how things like community, race, sexuality, and gender influenced how a person with disabilities were treated.
Finally with all of the knowledge I gained throughout this project I decided to again lean into the teen magazine inspiration taking from the "Fashion Dos and Don'ts" section, instead turning it into the "Do's and Don'ts of being an Ally." just giving one last piece of advice to my readers.