SESI Mag understands, respects, and appreciates Black girls in all of their glory. As the only teen magazine for Black girls in the country, the mag is edited and published by Andréa Butler.
“Sesi” means “sister” in Sotho, a Bantu language mainly spoken in Southern Africa. The only teen magazine for Black girls on the newsstands, Sesi reps to the fullest — filling that void in mainstream magazine media, in which Black girls and their voices are virtually invisible. As an independent magazine with very little advertising, they rely on the support of our community to continue publishing.
As conversations around Black girls and representation pick up on social media, SESI’s publisher Andréa shares why this print publication is SO important.
Why is it so important for a print media publication to exist for Black girls?
Black girls deserve to see themselves in the glossy, print pages of a magazine — be it on the newsstands, in the libraries, or in their homes. Print magazines are curated, quality, tactile experiences that not only provide information and entertainment but also give our readers a break from screens — something they have told us they appreciate. Plus, information is experienced differently in print, accounting for better recall, increased trust, better engagement, higher inspiration and fulfillment scores, and increased value perception. (In fact, even though we do offer a digital option, our teen readers prefer the print magazine by 97%.)
SESI Mag, the only teen magazine for Black girls in the country, needs some community care Share on XWhat impact have you seen Sesi have on young Black girls?
At book fairs and other community events, I’ve seen the way their faces light up when they realize there’s a cover girl who looks like them on a real-live magazine, and then again, when they realize the entire magazine is of girls who look like them. They’ve also sent in emails and shared their thoughts on social media — a few examples here, here, here, here, and here. Besides impacting our readers, it’s been so amazing to see the impact on our cover girls, as well. I remember the time Lyric Ross (from This Is Us) was on our summer 2018 cover. She posted that she never thought she’d be a cover girl and how excited she was that it actually happened.
How can we support SESI Mag as a community? Beyond donations, what are some tangible things we can do to support?
Beyond donations, subscriptions, and single copy sales, Sesi could really use our community’s support in helping us get the word out. Visibility is a must, but we don’t have the budget for a national ad campaign or even social media ads, and getting on TV shows and the like has proved difficult.
We would be grateful to anyone who shares about the mag on social media and with their friends/family/colleagues in real life. For example, when I shared the interview with Mr. Magazine about us reaching our 10-year milestone, I received messages from people saying they’d never heard of us. The same thing happened when I shared the Reel/TikTok about our 10-year anniversary. The majority of people, especially the people in our demographic, simply do not know Sesi exists.
Other ways the community can support us:
–Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok – engage, share, and tag friends in our posts.
–Write/share reviews about the mag.
–Understand our barriers. Regardless of the various promises brands made to advertise with Black-owned media, they were largely performative. I’ve reached out to hundreds of “mainstream” brands multiple times over the years, including the ones making those claims (such as Coca-Cola, L’Oreal, Target, Mars, and more — and nothing). I’ve also reached out to a lot of larger Black-owned businesses (including Mented, The Lip Bar, Aunt Jackie’s Curls & Coils, Mielle Organics, Naturalicious, The Honeypot, and more — all of which were not interested)
–Please extend grace to us. We don’t have access to the same resources as major magazines, so at times we may experience a slight delay in printing/shipping while in the process of raising money to complete the publishing process. (I’m currently working three extra jobs on top of the jobs I have with the mag to help obtain money.)
You can show your support by donating and purchasing a subscription for the Black girls in your life.
SESI’s official donation page! Every bit goes a long way, thank you in advance.