Discover alternative female voices in One of My Kind zine

With each edition, One of My Kind (OOMK) throws open its immaculately designed and illustrated pages to voices and perspectives that rarely get space in the mainstream.

OOMK highlights the imagination, creativity and spirituality of women, while exploring ideas of faith activism and identity.

It began life focusing on young female Muslim artists and writers but has since grown to include women of all races and religions, helping to push for a more inclusive view of female identity in an engaging and thought-provoking way, such as through its widely circulated alternative Page 3 illustrations.

We spoke to co-editor Rose Nordin to get the lowdown.

When and why did you start making zines?
I made zines as a part of my illustration degree programme but the process was divorced from the magic, energy and immediacy I feel from zine culture now. It wasn’t until after uni that I fell into making zines the way I feel is relevant to OOMK and in the true spirit of the culture. I met with the Alternative Press collective who embody the entire DIY ethos and energy of the culture that I totally fell in love with. They organise zine fairs and workshops with such energy, inclusivity and encouragement. Zines and the surrounding do-it-yourself publishing culture feel like a very free, supportive way to produce work and has been a fun contrast to art school for me.

What do you like about the medium?
I like the immediacy and the autonomy. I like that there is a space where I am free to make printed things with massive room for error and honesty. I think it’s too easy to be so fearful of making bad work that it prevents any work happening at all –  but I like that zines are so forgiving and that stylistically anything is valid.

What’s OOMK all about?
OOMK is a zine about creative practice, critical thought and activism of women.  We document and share the visual work and ideas of women with an emphasis on being inclusive of women of colour and faith.

How do you go about creating each issue and how do you chose the stories and artwork?
We base each issue around one creative theme that accounts for half the content. We are free to overlap and intersect with our ongoing themes of women, activism, faith and creativity. We work quite intuitively and approach individuals who we want to contribute to the magazine as well as having an open call for submissions.  As a team of three, we all consume the content and we tend to find it easy to agree on what fits  – it’s not a meticulous process in any way.

What do you do for a living and how does zinemaking fit into your life?
We all work collectively on freelance design and illustration work but in addition to that, Sofia is an Arabic teacher in a primary school, I’m a graphic designer for an agency, and Heiba is an archivist. Our day jobs inform and compliment our zinemaking. We aren’t sure how it all fits together but it seems to work.

Have you swapped OOMK for any other good zines?
Yes!  Always.  Recently: The Chapess and Polyester zine. We are really open to swaps – our address is on our website.

What are your favourite zines?
Home Brew by Adam JK, The Gym, Cardigan Heart by Lizzie Stewart, Motherlands Zine, STRIKE!, Shape and Situate: Posters on Inspirational European Women, Occupied Times, BDS: What it is, Why it Matters, Agua Pura.

Find out more about OOMK.