By Michelle Schmidt Inland360.com
HaveHeart Magazine just launched its first online issue. The women’s magazine has yet to show up in glossy form at the supermarket checkout, but when it does — and the hope is that it will within a couple years — it’ll stand out from its surroundings in one distinct way.
We connected with the magazine’s founder and Editor Heather Evans, a Moscow native, to find out what makes this magazine unique:
360: What is the focus or mission of your magazine? Evans: Our mission is to provide the first meaningful media/positive body image magazine for women. We cover everything from how to love your body “as-is” to DIY projects. We give the reader honest, positive media; you’ll never see something like “Why Men Cheat” or “How To Lose 30 Pounds In A Week.”
360: What sets you apart from other women’s magazines that cover similar topics? What is your policy on models? Evans: Currently, there’s nothing quite like HaveHeart. When we use photos of women for the magazine, we don’t use models, we use everyday women of all ages, shapes and sizes. We’re realistic. At the end of the day, we’re all just trying to do the best we can.
Our policy on models is this: We filter photos for the vintage HaveHeart look, but we will never Photoshop the patina or inches away from anyone in the magazine. We will feature women sized 0 on up, any age, and that includes transgendered people. There’s no one definition of beauty at HaveHeart.
360: Positive body image is a strong focus for this magazine — what influenced this? Evans: I’ve been in the magazine and advertising industry for years. Constantly seeing unrealistic versions of beauty everyday got to me. I feel this sort of ‘false beauty’ puts a lot of negative pressure on society, especially in women. … I’ve received hundreds of emails from people telling me that the world needs something like this.
360: Where did the idea for this magazine come from? Evans: I’ve always wanted to have a female-based magazine, but have been too scared to take that leap. I have an incredible fiancé who encouraged me to go after my dreams. I kept telling myself to try and to have heart. On one particular frustrating day I said to myself, “That’s it, I’m going to create this magazine and name it HaveHeart because women desperately need something they can read/look at and feel good about. Something to inspire them. Someone’s got to do it, why not me?”
360: How long has this idea been in production? Your first issue debuted Jan. 1, but what all went into getting it there? Evans: I began in October. I was lucky to get Ricky Lyman from Lyman Creative to create the site for me. I wanted HaveHeart to be mostly images and be different from most websites. At first I tried to make HaveHeart a national print magazine, but couldn’t raise the capital quick enough. I had to learn everything, from design software to editing my own website in a few weeks. I’ve worked exclusively in print for years. It was difficult to start again from scratch.
360: What are your long-term goals with this project? Do you plan to stay online or move to print? What about other media platforms — apps and tablet formats and the like? Evans: It’s our two-year goal to become a national magazine. We’ll stay online, but I’ll always believe that people love a tangible magazine. I’d like to create an app for HaveHeart in the future … something along the lines of an inspirational story every day.
360: What does it mean for you to be a national magazine? Do you think the magazine has international appeal? Evans: I began my search for writers in the Northwest, but now I’m proud to say that we are international. We have writers all over the United States, in Australia, and we have begun to branch out into India as well. Our subscribers come from all over the world. When we move to print, we will begin testing out our markets in the countries and cities with the most readers. So far it’s the Northwest, New York, Australia and Los Angeles.
360: How often do you release issues and what is the cost? Evans: We change content every month on the first. Subscribing is always free, and ultimately helps us in our goal to becoming a print magazine. We’ll be featuring advertising on the site in the upcoming months, and we will only feature businesses who agree with our no Photoshop policy.
Schmidt can be contacted at themichelleschmidt@gmail.com or at (208) 305-4578.
