Meet Meg Wachter of Got a Girl Crush in Silverlake

Today we’d like to introduce you to Meg Wachter.

Meg, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Hi there! I am a newly minted Angelino as of nine months ago. I’ve had family in Southern California my whole life and finally made the move with my husband (and tattooer, Dan Bones – danbones.com) in October 2018 after 13 years in Brooklyn, New York (by way of Ohio and Massachusetts, respectively).

We’re excited for the next chapter of our lives here and so inspired by access to nature, good food, and so many creative folks doing their own thing. Having a car again is a big adjustment–but I’d like to say we traded winter for traffic!

My background is in photography (megwachter.com) but Got a Girl Crush all started in 2009 as a blog by my then-internet pal Andrea Cheng who lived in San Francisco. In 2011 when I was “underemployed,” we brought this project to its physical form and got started on Got a Girl Crush Magazine. Partly because it was the perfect excuse to meet our lady crushes in real-life, but mainly to celebrate the inspiring women out there today who are doing cool amazing things. In 2015 Andrea stepped down her involvement and my good-friend Amanda Stosz stepped in as our Creative Director. We are now LA & Brooklyn-based, with help from all over the globe!

To better define: Got a Girl Crush is a magazine about women, by women for everyone. We disrupt the broken narrative of most women’s publications and tell stories of all ages, races, and backgrounds of women all over the world. We believe that print is not dead and that there is value to having a tangible medium to read, digest, and share–rather than sharing a link online that is easily forgotten tomorrow.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Funding has always been our biggest challenge since we are a small independent print mag. We print on 100% recycled paper with a small press in Winnipeg, Canada, pay all our contributors (both on our site and in print), and put on events — with little to no advertising or sponsor help. Print is hard — especially in this digital, instant-gratification age. We’ve been told that the “women’s celebration market” is “oversaturated” (big barf to that) and when we do seek outside funding (besides our very loyal readers), we find we are competing for the same ad dollars with “social influencers” and such. It’s hard to convince the worth of investing in a print mag (but often win folks over once they actually SEE a physical copy).

At its current stage, the magazine is an annual independent publication featuring beautiful intriguing work by artists and interviews with women. Amanda and I devote all our free time to continuing to give a platform to women to share their stories and accomplishments. We met working as photo retouchers and have both worked in the industry for over a decade. After having constant moral issues with contributing to unrealistic body image/standards for women in media, we’ve decided to leave behind what we don’t believe in and invest in the future of women in media. In Got a Girl Crush, we represent that future as inclusive and inspiring.

Please tell us about Got a Girl Crush.
Living somewhere between a magazine and coffee table book, rather than something disposable, Got a Girl Crush is something to keep and re-visit. We’ve been a blog since 2009, self-published eight magazines, and have interviewed hundreds of women from all over the world. To date, 10,000 issues have been sold throughout the United States, Europe, and Australia.

For ten years, Got a Girl Crush has been a labor of love of its founders. As we consider the future of the magazine at this crucial point in the struggle for women’s equality and voice in media and the world, we aim to increase our presence so that more people may discover the accomplishments and perspective of the often unsung women we feature. Our target audience is anyone with an interest in learning more about diverse, compelling women, and their role in social justice, science, arts, and various aspects of life. By interviewing women of all backgrounds, we give voice to those often marginalized by or left out of mainstream media.

Some folks that have been featured in past issues: Amy Goodman, Dr. Rebecca Gomperts, Jessica Williams, Ayelet Waldman, Jane Jacobs, Grace Lee Boggs, Ada Calou, Portia Munson, Shydeia Caldwell and so so many more.

AND some of LA’s own like: Kiran Ghandi, Alice Bag, Feminist Library on Wheels, Janaya Khan, Chelsea VonChaz, and Emma Robbins. Right now I’m taking a year off from producing another issue while we think about a BOOK!

Pricing:

• Magazines retail for $18 (but are on sale online for $12! – gotagirlcrush.com/shop)

Contact Info:

• Website: gotagirlcrush.com
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: instagram.com/gotagirlcrush
• Facebook: facebook.com/gotagirlcrush
• Twitter: twitter.com/gotagirlcrush

Getting in touch: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.