There’s absolutely no denying that diverse representation in mainstream media and advertising has been unbalanced, favouring white consumers, and representations of, over all else. Yes, in the past few years we have started to take small steps forward in un-whitewashing the media, but front covers, inside pages, spokespeople, and ad campaigns are still uncomfortably lacking in a range of faces, backgrounds, skin colours, and body sizes.

With a DIY publishing scene on the rise and tools like Kickstarter at our disposal, young creatives, sick of waiting around for publishing houses and media conglomerates to do so, have taken matters into their own hands. If you’re looking for the most honest and genuine representations of young women of colour in print, here are five titles to stack on your shelves.

GAL-DEM (@GALDEMZINE)

GAL-DEM has been on our radar – and opinions editor Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff a regular contributor to Dazed Digital – since launching its online platform last year. Introduced as a much-needed space online with content produced exclusively by young women of colour and in the lead up to their first birthday, a delightful announcement that GAL-DEM is set to publish its first print issue has come through – out September!

HANNAH (@HANNAH.MAGAZINE)

Last October, Hannah was successfully Crowdfunded and since, we’ve been patiently waiting for the arrival of their first issue drop. Promising to be “a beautiful biannual print book that will add important voices to the ongoing narrative about Black women – our own”, you can join the queue and pre-order here.

CRWN (@CRWNMAG)

Finding dissatisfaction with the way black women's beauty is represented in print magazines, CRWN Magazine’s aim is to celebrate the hairstories of black women by providing, what it dubs, the most honest representations of black women.

BORN N BREAD (@BORNNBREAD)

With the recent release of their latest issue, “African Tales” – a nod to their heritages and experiences of being African – as well as their monthly radio show on NTS, Born N Bread are a fixture on the London scene determined to have their voices heard... and we are so glad it’s working.

AUTHORRISING ZINE (@AUTHORRISING)

“Trying to fit into a mould that just won’t flex”. That’s the description given for Issue 01 of Authorrising Zine whose ethos is steeped in interviewing and profiling “the political, psychological and the social of the people under the failed category of the ‘mixed race’”. Issues of identity and a sense of belonging are found amongst its pages (available to read online) and Authorrising Zine opens difficult discussions and raises the concerns of people of mixed race backgrounds. Above all, Autthorising Zine explores that it’s certainly never as easy as “are you black or white?” and proves why it should never be.

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