Magazines are so back, but I’m hardly the first person to notice this ongoing print revival. 

In March, The Guardian reported on the print return of i-D, a British magazine with a focus on fashion, crediting Gen-Z’s “nostalgia driven demand” with its return to UK newsstands. The Guardian further compared this revival to that of “point and shoot cameras,” and “vinyl records…” which have both recently made returns to mainstream popularity.

Our current social media landscape is one dominated by trends, which are often in direct conflict with the “slow media” produced by magazines.

To better understand these magazines and the creatives behind them, I reached out to six, all at various stages of development, to join me in our 21st-century centerfold. 

They are DreamWorldGirl Zine, Local Wolves, Jardin Zine, The Shuffle, Hauskatze, and Bitter Baby Zine. 

What inspired you to create a magazine?

Lola Rollins, Bitter Baby Zine (Portland, OR): I started BBZ because I was craving something that didn’t totally exist — a space that felt alive, electric, and deeply human. I’ve always loved the intimacy of print: how you can hold a magazine in your hands, dog-ear the corners, come back to a sentence months later and still feel its sting or warmth. But I also wanted to push what a magazine could be — not just something to read, but something that sparks, stirs, and stays with you.

Grace Yang, Jardin Zine (Boston, MA): I founded Jardin Zine out of a need for a slower, stranger space, one where work didn’t have to shout to be heard and where ambiguity could live without apology. I was drawn to zine-making because it resists polish and gatekeeping; it’s intimate, tactile, and often collaborative. There’s something radical in its quietness, in how it makes room for voices that don’t conform to conventional molds of authority or clarity… I wanted to create a medium that felt alive: layered, unafraid to contradict itself, and always evolving. The zine form lets us build that, with pages like petals or fragments, stitched together not just by theme but by instinct. So, you could say Jardin was born from both absence and abundance: the absence of spaces that felt open-ended and the abundance of people quietly making remarkable things. I just wanted to give them a place to grow.

Cathrine Khom, Local Wolves (Long Beach, CA): I’ve always been fond of magazines and Anthropologie catalogs, to be exact– I can see now where I get my love for all things fashion, home decor, and design. I remembered when my mom would give me past issues of Vogue from her co-workers, and I started to build a collection of magazines filled with Nylon, Teen Vogue, Marie Claire, etc.. I was immediately immersed in this magazine world… I began my love for scrapbooking and collage work when I was younger, and it led me to photography. During my high school years, I had the amazing opportunity to contribute to amazing publications as a photographer, where I covered concert reviews and interviewed artists that I admire as well. When I created Local Wolves in April 2012, we were primarily a music blog, and after a brief hiatus, we became a digital and print magazine. The rest is history, and we have never looked back since!

Daphne Bryant, DreamWorldGirl Zine (Boston, MA & Los Angeles, CA): I’ve secretly always dreamed of starting my own magazine or indie press. Zines, I think, are the perfect medium for those of us who aren’t nepo babies and want to create something accessibly DIY. A whimsical, nostalgic zine about girlhood felt like the perfect manifestation of my creativity, and I didn’t see a space like it in our origin city of Boston, so I made it.

Hauskatze (Chicago, IL): The magazine came about through all our members graduating from college, entering the “real world”, and maintaining a strong desire to have a shared outlet for creativity. We looked at this magazine as a way to delve into a wide array of media, from graphic design and photography to video editing and web development. It’s all new to us, but we’ve had so much fun learning and building things together. We came into this project with very little experience, but with the desire to learn a little bit of everything. We tested a few different starting points for Hauskatze, such as clothing and jewelry. However, it was important for us to have a medium through which to share the art we were consuming and creating. For now, we feel our magazine is the best outlet for this.

Sara A., The Shuffle (Edinburgh, Scotland): I’ve always wanted to start a publication because, as a young photographer, it’s hard to find a publication that will take your work. So I was already thinking about starting one when I brought it up to Iona [Bell] (The Shuffle’s co-founder/EIC) and I was just like “oh, what do you think if we started a magazine” and then it just kind of went from there… The main goal is to provide a place for local artists in Scotland, or smaller artists, to have a space where they can get their work published and also get to know other artists at the same time.

Why do you think print media is having its current resurgence?

Grace Yang, Jardin Zine: Print is having a resurgence because people are hungry for friction. They’re hungry for something they can hold, return to, and live beside. In a digital age defined by speed, disposability, and endless scrolling, print media offers a counter-rhythm. It invites attention rather than demanding it. It asks us to pause, to linger, and to reread. There’s also something powerful about limitation. A printed page has edges. An issue has a spine. You can’t hyperlink out of it; you have to stay with it. That slowness, that intimacy, is increasingly rare and necessary. I think people are also returning to print because they crave presence. A zine on your desk or bookshelf becomes part of your environment. It doesn’t vanish into an algorithmic void. It’s a memory you can touch and art that takes up space. To print is to preserve, to assert value in a world that wants everything to be instantaneous and forgettable. It’s saying, “This matters.” Someone made this work from the heart, and it’s meant to last.

Daphne Bryant, DreamWorldGirl: I think people are sick of technology taking over. We’re sick of AI, we’re sick of censorship, we’re sick of staring at our phone screens all day. We want to make tangible media, we want to read and look at art that’s made independently, locally, by people like us, for us, we want it on our bookshelves and hanging on our walls. We want to get up, get out, and meet like-minded people face-to-face. We want connection that feels authentic, and print media fosters that in a really unique way.

Lola Rollins, Bitter Baby Zine: In a world that moves so fast it forgets to breathe, print gives us something to hold onto — literally. It’s not curated by an algorithm, not gone in 24 hours. People are hungry for something real, something they can feel between their fingers and revisit without a swipe. I think the resurgence of print — especially in the indie scene — is about craving depth over dopamine. It’s resistance to disposable culture. It’s about making space for slow, meaningful engagement with art, writing, and each other. Print doesn’t just deliver a message; it creates an experience.

How do you see your magazine as working within or against the trend cycles? How do you cultivate your brand and identity amidst a space that requires near constant change?

Sara A. and Iona Bell, The Shuffle: Well, it’s kind of hard to stay relevant if you’re not following the trends all the time so we try to keep up with that kind of stuff on social media and keep the print stuff [the themes] something that can last a long time. With [issue #1] Nostalgia, that’s a thing that’s always going to be there. So we try to pick things that are constant. We don’t want to go with the trends all the time, especially not in the print magazine.

Grace Yang, Jardin Zine: The magazine was never meant to keep pace with trend cycles, because trends demand urgency, replication, and often erasure. We’re more interested in work that lingers. The kind that may not go viral, but will still hold weight a year — or ten — from now… Each issue isn’t a reaction, but a conversation — sometimes with the world, sometimes with the past, sometimes with the contributors themselves… But instead of constant reinvention, we focus on coherence — making sure everything we share, even online, feels rooted in the same ecosystem: thoughtful, slightly off-center, and alive with intention…

Cathrine Khom, Local Wolves: It was a huge component when we took a short hiatus to re-center the type of content and how frequently we publish the issues. I started to feel like a nonstop machine to crank out a new issue every month due to the trends of trying to keep up with running a monthly magazine at the time. I realized that it’s quality over quantity– so we’re focusing more on quarterly based print issues and occasional digital features. When running your own independent magazine, it’s nice to be able to go at our own pace while focusing solely on what fits best for Local Wolves. For cultivating Local Wolves’ brand identity, we stuck to what we know and have been incorporating different types of content from behind the scenes, short-form content to sharing more about our team that makes everything possible. We had to learn how to adapt to the ongoing change, lots of brainstorm sessions, and discover ways to stay innovative while also being authentic to who we are at Local Wolves.

How do you see or use your magazine as a way to foster community?

Hauskatze: This project has allowed us not only to connect personally with our inspirations—through interviews and concert photography—but also with people who just share similar interests. Both of our issues have been accompanied by a release party. One of our favorite things about the parties is meeting people who have discovered Hauskatze organically. We’ve had fun bringing together like-minded people through music, art, and everything else that comes with us. Along the way, it’s been fun to be put on to cool, new stuff through our community.

Cathrine Khom, Local Wolves: Local Wolves is all about community– listening to our readers, receiving submissions from across the globe, and working with a fully remote team. We’re grateful for this community of ours and the incredible friendships and contributors who we’ve featured in the magazine. In the future, it would be amazing to expand the community with in-person events and connecting with others face-to-face. Not only would it be impactful, but also bring opportunities to inspiring creatives.

Sara A. and Iona Bell, The Shuffle: Well, when we started the magazine… one thing [we] really wanted was to be able to have the community we’re creating online but we also want the community in Scotland to grow… we want to do our own events in our community [and to] grow the community as well.

What’s another magazine/creative you’d like to shout out?

Cathrine Khom, Local Wolves: I’m a huge fan of Jardin Zine, from the inspirational content of stories that they share on their platform to their stunning graphics on Instagram. I’m always in awe of their work and excited to see what’s to come for the zine!

Sara A. and Iona Bell, The Shuffle: CherryPicked magazine… they have a whole retro feel about them, they’re also based in Scotland… The Midnight Chronicles … and Mind Matter Journal they’re a digital magazine.

Daphne Bryant, DreamWorldGirl: JELLi [Zine] is great for trinket lovers, …  Chapstick Magazine is a favorite amongst lesbians, and Antifragile Zine, though currently on a hiatus, has the most beautiful spreads and art I’ve ever seen.

Lola Rollins, Bitter Baby Zine: The Devilla Diaries and Runt

Hauskatze: Tenzin Che Miyahira, Cult Classic, & Glitzy

In an era that attempts to calculate and curate our every desire and interest, it’s refreshing to pause for a moment and take refuge in the cultural oasis that is print media. Print is back, and because of magazines like these, I can’t wait to see where it takes us next.