Hello friends,It's been a minute. How are you?I hope you're up and running into 2024. January always drags a bit for us, but I still love the winter sky, the promise of a new year, and the chance to begin again. So, I'm right back at it: putting the finishing touches on Kazoo's 32nd issue. (!!!) When I'm writing a new issue, I say goodbye to the kids in the morning and sometimes don't look up from my computer all day. When my alarm rings, "School pick up," I yell, "Already???" It's fun to get lost in the flow, but it can feel a little, well, isolating, so I'm happy to take some time today to look around and catch up with you. Here's some good I've come across in 2024:
• You're Not Hardcore (No, You're Not Hardcore!): If School of Rock is as popular in your house as it is ours, it won't surprise you to know that it was also written by Mike White, the man behind White Lotus. And if you ever wondered why you love Jack Black so much, too, maybe it's because he was raised right: Jack Black's mom, Judith Love Cohen was a NASA aerospace engineer and an advocate for women’s rights, and even wrote a children’s book titled You Can Be a Woman Engineer. Way Hardcore! • Speaking of Rocks: Really fun story about a dad who noticed something peculiar on his 2yo's bedroom wall that led him to a "profound cosmic revelation." • Can AI buy all the books, too? They might have to. Seems like everyone is really jazzed about this AI stuff. Even the new CEO of Random House says, "Hopefully, A.I. will help, making it easier to publish more titles without hiring ever more employees." Wow, books without writers or editors? Okaaaay. To my surprise, my very own books, How to Sew a Button and How to Build a Firewere used to train AI without my knowledge or consent, in order to ... teach the computer how to write more books just like mine. (Ok, I don't totally understand the purpose of all this. Or want to.) Perhaps the robots can indeed pirate our grandparents' wisdom which I spent years learning and reporting; it wouldn't be the worst thing to teach them. I have my doubts about them serving the grandkids a slice of pie, though. • Kill Your TV 2.0: A groundbreaking study shows kids learn better on paper, not screens. Now what? (Ahem. May we suggest a subscription to a certain magazine?) • The Little Magazine that Could: I'm pretty proud of this piece I wrote for Pages magazine about why I launched Kazoo. Please read, and share, and send to anyone who might want to subscribe--or give me a pot of gold. We could really use help keep this thing going!
*I did not choose this pull-quote.
• What would you do if your child refused to go to school?: When editor Lauri Hornik's daughter Ruby was struggling with anxiety, it inspired her to start a new book imprint focused on mental health books for kids, and Rocky Pond Books was born. Ruby says she hopes her mom's books, such as, Where to Start: A Survival Guide to Anxiety, Depression, and Other Mental Health Challenges, will help other kids, too. • Protecting Families: Mayor Pete says, "Our family deserves to be protected ... I will admit it's a little bit difficult driving the family minivan to drop our kids off at daycare, passing the dome of the Capitol knowing the speaker of the House doesn't even think our family ought to exist." I hear you, Pete.• Speaking of All Families: GLAAD-award-winning website Mombian wrote this very kind review of Kazoo. She also keeps a database of great books for LGBT+ kids and families, so if you'd like to diversify your library, check out her list. She's collected over 1,400 books! • Do you think you're a cool parent? "On the internet, being a parent seems outrageously lame." I'm not sure I've ever been "cool" IRL (and my 12yo would likely agree), but I don't think I got into all this for the cool factor. Did you? • And if you're not a parent: Lynda Barry says, "At least once a month, I spend a whole day in bed, and I read comics and drink beer." Which is not something a parent can do! But doesn't it sound sort of AMAZING? If you can do this in your life, please tell me all about it.
* We love our GIRL POWER issue.
What did you think of it? If you missed it you can still get a copy here.
• Sorry, not sorry: Do you start your work emails with an apology? Journalist Caitlin Moran says, "The first advice I gave my daughter, when she started working, was to delete the first and last lines of her emails. 'Why?' Because the first and last lines are where you apologise for sending the email. No emails I get from men start or end like that." Sorry to bother you with this, but I was just wondering what do you think? • Tradwives are making men ... sad?: Turns out the hot, new online trend of "traditional housewifery" which sells a very certain kind of ideal wife (think taking toddlers apple-picking while wearing a full make-up, a flowing white dress, and heels, and then later meeting your hubby at the door with a cigar and scotch) is "exacerbating male loneliness." Like all things on the internet, making content for the most popular tradwives accounts take a lot of work, and their purpose is to get clicks and make money. But, in Salon, Amanda Marcotte wonders if because so many men are subsisting on a steady stream of social media delusions, it's actually discouraging young men from developing the skills and mindset they need to get an actual real-life girlfriend.
• Real Life vs Social Media: One tweeter says, "True trad wives are from the Midwest or Appalachia, and we know how to make taco casserole and also how to use all parts of a pig. We wear pants and cook aggressively." Here's one such trad-wife making "Taco Tater-Tot Casserole." I don't know that I would attempt this dish, but I kind of love her.• Comfort, food: The news of the world is mostly terrible, again. (What is it with you, world?) And so I've been trying to focus on what's good. An easy (perhaps not world-changing) way is making some overly-complicated food. I made this Butternut Squash Lasagna, which took forever! I made a lovely Apple Tart! I made a French Onion Soup! I made Puppy Chow! (Okay that last one did not take forever, and it did not last for long, either. But it was comforting.)
*Maybe the prettiest tart I've ever made.
• Remember the heroic librarian, Martha Hickson, from our Brave issue (Kazoo #27) who told us about her fight against book bans? She has recently been subjected to threats, hate-mail, and efforts to have her fired, and videos attacking her have been posted to extremist websites! And though she is still 100% committed to protecting the right to read, she said on Twitter: "Promise me, library community, that if any harm comes to me or my co-workers, you'll raise hell." We stand by you, Martha. See Hickson's inspirational interview on PBS Thirteen.
• Wait, maybe she's addicted to PR? I used to think these book-banners were nuts, and sure some of them probably are, but they’re also opportunistic. See the story of the “mysterious woman” who confessed that a Scholastic book gave her a porn addiciton. She also happens to do PR for a competing right-wing book fair company. Huh? After her compelling testimony, the school board voted to ban that particular book, and switch all their book fairs from Scholastic to her right-wing book company. • See, also: “Burr, since when are you a Democratic Republican? Since being one put me on the up-and-up-again.” Which is the exact thing I think every time I hear one of these stories, courtesy of my kids' love of Hamilton, and the 387+ replays on our long car trips. • Do you think people do this to GQ?: Another bit of reader mail asking me to kindly point them in the direction of a boys magazine just like Kazoo—and if I can't, then please explain why? I really don't know how to answer this! If anyone wants to give me an editorial staff and 24 more hours in a day, then maybe I could do it, but it's only me and I'm pretty busy here already! I think of Lin-Manual Miranda saying, "“Every time you make a frame, people are going to point out what’s not in the frame," (Well he might sing this part,) "And you go and you make the next thing. That’s all that you can do, keep your head down and keep making --it.”
Her 2nd Broadway show! We've been singing Nonstop nonstop.
• What we're watching: Our 12yo went to see Mean Girls (but preferred the original), and our 8yo is not watching much TV really. If she has any screen, she's being a Warrior Cat on Roblox or following drawing tutorials. After the kids are asleep, we recently laughed all through Quiz Lady. We finally felt strong enough to finish the latest season of The Handmaids Tale, and we just started The Feud, mostly to see the great cast (though I can barely stand Truman). Oh, and we're trying to stay awake during an entire episode of True Detective, because we love you Jodie, but you know—WHAT IS EVEN HAPPENING? • What we're reading: Lisa Yee (who wrote the short story for our Fun Issue (#29) hit the NYT bestseller list with a new book, The Misfits. Friend of Kazooand frequent contributor Lucy Knisley has a new kids picture book out Ride Beside Me (and she's going on book tour so you can actually meet her and get a book, too). Veera Hiranandani, who wrote our short story in our DIY Issue (#20), has a new book out, Amil and the After, which is getting all starred reviews. At bedtime, we're on the second Wild Robot book (stressful but beloved) and the Diary of a Wimpy Kid.
• Another banger: Put a Google alert on “kazoo magazine” and you'll get some interesting stuff—though not all of it is related to our magazine (and some of it makes me wonder why oh why I ever chose this title). But this hit was nice: Sheryl Crow, Jimmy Fallon & The Roots Sing "All I Wanna Do" (with kazoos!) Brings me back to the days, when I interviewed her. The last time I did, I got scared to back out through her security gate, so instead I made a 497-point turn in her narrow driveway, while desperately hoping she wasn't watching me through her kitchen window.
• Thank you for being here.I'm diving back into Kazoo #32, which will be in your mailbox in just a few weeks. I really hope you love it!In the meantime, if you come across anything interesting, please send it my way. You can always find me at erin@kazoomagazine.com. xo,ErinKazoo magazineFounder & Editor-in-Chief
Hello friends,Sometimes it's hard to pay attention to how interesting the world is, and how fascinating people can be, and then you stumble upon a 1,000-pound pumpkin. One of our neighbors continues his long-standing tradition of hoisting the biggest pumpkin he can find onto his Brooklyn stoop every fall, just so people can come see it and get whatever joy a huge pumpkin brings them. It's magnificent! This year's giant gourd, which took ten people to roll it up his steps, is not even the record holder. The biggest pumpkin in the world, named Michael Jordan by the farmer who grew it, weighs almost three times as much! People go to great lengths just to spread joy. The trick (and treat) is to actually look around to see it. In that spirit, I'm putting the finishing touches on Kazoo's 31st issue this week. I know I say this every time, but this might be our very best one yet. I can't wait to share it with you! Here's more of what I've been thinking about this month:
• File under Can't Win: It seems that there is a now consensus that we are harming our children by being so attentive. As New York mag reports, "Childhood Independence is a Mental Health Issue." But do you remember just a few years ago, when parents were straight-up being arrested for letting a 9-year-old child play at the playground solo? That story terrified me. "There is nothing more shameful than a careless mother—we all know this down to our toenails," says New York writer Kathryn Jezer-Morton. But but but ... now we are careless because we're too careful. Perhaps shame is meant to be our constant state? • The Daily WHAT? Ultra-Conservatives have been saying for years that the very worst thing "The Left" does is "indoctrinate children" through woke entertainment, like, you know, Disney and Sesame Street. (Some critics might have even accused our sweet little magazine of doing the same.) So, in response, The Daily Wire, a company funded by Republican fracking billionaire Farris Wilkshave, just announced a $100 million commitment to develop "entertainment for kids that parents can trust." The "Bentkey" app will cost $99 per year and include shows like, "'Kid Fit Go," an original series about having fun while exercising." I suppose it's not "indoctrination" if it's coming from ultra-conservatives and backed by 100 million dollars. Anyway, sounds ... so fun. Watch out, Bluey! • What's Up? Dolly Parton and Linda Perry TOGETHER, that's what. My kids have been indoctrinated with this song on many a long car ride and I plan to indoctrinate them with this new version, too. (Dolly switched a few of the lyrics, which I liked.)• Let's All Make Noise: As you know, Kazoo's tagline is "A Magazine for Girls Who Aren't Afraid to Make Some Noise," and we've gotten criticism for it, over the years. I wonder if the author of this new book, The Noise Inside Boys (which I haven't read, but it looks really cute), has gotten the same sort of criticism? • Woopsies. We were all taught that of course, "Boys will be boys," because boys will grow into men and men are the way they are, because they evolved to be the hunters, while women were made to primarily tend children. The problem, says Scientific American: “It’s wrong.” Scientists now say, "The fossil and archaeological records, as well as ethnographic studies of modern-day hunter-gatherers, indicate that women have a long history of hunting game.” Oh well. If the response to this article on former-Twitter is any indication (people were MAD and most of those people were men), I'm sure we'll all correct ourselves in a really reasonable way and quickly realize that there are acceptable ways for all people to be. • Last call: Speaking of former-Twitter, in the early days you could bump into anyone, and it felt like a clever cocktail party, open all night. I first came across Roxane Gay on Twitter, and she became an early supporter of Kazoo (only because she heard about it, also on Twitter.) Now @rgay has a new book out: Opinions, featured in the Guardian here. “We don’t have to agree," she says. "But it would be great if you just listened.” That listening part of Twitter? Gone now. Increasingly, it seems gone from the entire internet, actually. Where are you all going to keep talking? I need to find you so I can keep listening, too. Some of our favorite costumes over the years...
• Settle something for me: This "You don't need to pre-rinse your dishes!" story has been following me around the internet for years. I can't help but wonder if the people who wrote this *also* unload the dishwasher. Do they know it doesn't actually fill up with water? It just hoses the dishes off. Do youpre-rinse? I am the only fool?
• I can barely even watch the clips of what is happening Israel and Palestine, and I'm horrified that is has already spilled over into our politics in the US, as propaganda that continues to stoke divisions in our increasingly divided country. I know so little about this that I don’t have anything to add, but I did find this piece illuminating. Since so many of us don't understand the complex history of the whole situation it's curious that everyone feels they need to make a statement about it. Of them all, I think Sesame Street had the best social media response: "All children deserve a safe childhood free from violence and terror." • Can you dig it? This summer, both kids spent two days building a "brick wall" out of clay from the beach cliffs and, though we went to amusement parks and on special hikes, I think it was among their happiest days of summer. They were so proud of their creation, which withstood several rain storms before finally washing away. This fellow digs his own clay and makes pots out of it, and though I complain about what "the algorithm" is doing to my kids' heads, this is the sort of thing I will watch on repeat until all my brain cells die.
• All the Single Ladies: While the new Speaker of the House (with his increasingly bizarre and hateful/creepy backstory) blames no-fault divorce for everything, I'm thinking more about Rebecca Traister's recent exploration of the current wave of marriage boosterism. As Traister concludes: "Those single women that Republicans rail against? They vote against Republicans. And Republicans know it. On Fox News, in the days after 2022’s midterm elections, Jesse Watters was explicit: 'Single women are breaking for Democrats by 30 points … So we need these ladies to get married. And it’s time to fall in love and just settle down. Guys, go put a ring on it.'” • So, Get Married, Now: "Apparently, we have moved on from transphobia-for-clicks to shrieking at women for not giving birth," says Rolling Stone. Someone alert the "Tradwives," the self-described anti-feminists who promote a 1950's lifestyle. (Or maybe we don't need to inform them since they are probably trending on former-Twitter. Were #1950swomen also overly online?) But, you know, unrelated to anything, and just because it's fashion, Elle tells us that "full skirts are everywhere this season!" and The Wall Street Journal tells us Dressing Like a 1950s Housewife is just "in" right now. It just is. • Speaking of Fashion: Even though he is yet another Republican politician who is actively working against my rights, I am a big enough person to be increasingly worried about how uncomfortable Ron Desantis must be, all the time. But, I'm also 6 feet tall, so ...
• When friends become friends: It's true that maybe I need more excitement in my life but it is ABSOLUTELY THRILLING TO ME when two people we've featured in Kazoo get together in real life. I scrolled across a picture of the @QueenofMantas Dr. Andrea Marshall (from Kazoo #25) with Dr. Sylvia Earle (Kazoo #6). I'm just sitting here smiling like, I LOVE BOTH OF YOU! (If you do too, donate to Mission Blue, like we did in honor of Kazoo's Ocean Issue. It's great.) • Speaking of amazing Kazoo contributors: Artist Ashley Longshore, who you might remember from our Happiness Issue #11, just opened a shop in Soho, and it looks like such fun! I hope to drop by this weekend. • Shake it Off!: My 12-year-old woke up the other day and said, "I'm so excited, because 1989!" When I looked at her confused, she explained through much exasperation: "Taylor Swift!" I got to interview Taylor Swift (and also hang out with her lovely mom) when I worked at Self, and though she was only 19 years old at the time and had a meager million online fans, she was already a force. I'm even more impressed with her now for a multitude of reasons. One big one is that she's begun to take a stand against Trump and for democracy, women, and the LGBT+ community. (Seriously, click that link. I can't watch her impassioned plea without tearing up a little.) I do remind myself of the lyrics to "Shake it Off" more than I'd like, these days. • Related: Here's how an astronaut washes her hair, in space!
• What We're Reading: We still read bedtime stories to our 8-year-old every night, and we all JUST LOVED Dory Fantasmagory, who calls salami "floppy cookies." We read every book in the series and can't wait for more. The Teeny Editor's now taken to reading (and re-reading) graphic novels on her own too. We keep a copy of Smile in the car, which, even though we hardly drive anywhere because we live in NYC, she's probably read it a dozen times. She's doing the same with Be Prepared. The 12-year-old has timed reading for homework and since she can choose any book, she's started reading aloud to her little sister from a series about cats, who are also ... warriors? It turns out there are about a million of these Warrior Cats books. I can't speak on the quality but walking in on a big sister reading to her little sister is maybe the sweetest thing ever. Any new books your kids are really loving? Let me know. • What we’re watching: Our 12-year-old is making her way through Friends, which isn't as funny as I remember it. Is anything? (And of course it's heartbreaking now too.) After the kids are in bed, we're loving Lessons in Chemistry and The Morning Show, both shows on Apple TV with excellent opening sequences. (Though I hope Herve Tullet got some credit from The Morning Show because its opener is basically Press Here animated.) So excited to check out All the Light We Cannot See on Netflix. It's one of my very favorite books ever, and I'm hoping the series somehow lives up to it. • What we're doing: Though we all love to play sports—I even played soccer in college at Penn State—we rarely watch other people play them. But the Teeny Editor's soccer team got tickets to a women's professional soccer game, so we drove to New Jersey to watch Gotham FC, which was so much fun! Inspired by our new fandom, we decided to go to the WNBA championship game too. Even though our team, NY Liberty, lost by 1 point—at the buzzer!—it was a wildly exciting show, complete with an elephant hip-hop dancing at the half, which somehow really worked. Yay, women's sports! We can't wait to support both teams next year.
• Thank you for being here. • I'm a little tired this morning from our epic trick-or-treating. (We walked 6 miles—and collected THIRTEEN POUNDS of candy!) But, it's honestly one of my very favorite days. I hope whatever you did, it was fun. I'll leave you with a very strange Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater craft to brighten your day!If you come across anything interesting, please send it my way. You can always find me at erin@kazoomagazine.com. xo,ErinKazoo magazineFounder & Editor-in-Chief
Before / After: The last wild ride of Summer 2023.
Hello friends,What I really want to know is where did this summer go? I blinked, and the kids are suddenly back in school. But, September, its promise of new pencils and fresh notebooks to fill, still excites me. And, it's nice to have a quiet moment to sit and write to you, so, Hi. For the first part of the summer I was working non-stop to get Kazoo's 30th issue off to press. The rest was spent at our family cottage with the kids, where I built a cabinet! (Scroll down for the results.) And, we discovered new things to do in the country, like hitting all the best local ice-cream shops, hiking, and swimming in Lake Erie as many times as possible. Here's more of what I dove into this summer:
Spreading the Light:Kate DiCamillo, who I interviewed for our Light issue #7, told me that "Stories ARE light" and that "light is precious in a world so dark" so I wasn't surprised (but was so touched) to read that she still writes by candlelight every single morning. In a recent feature, she also tells The New Yorker that before she was published, she received 473 rejection letters. "She lived off beans and rice; she pinned some of those rejection letters up in her room and threw darts at them" before she ever wrote a word of her break-out success, Winn Dixie. But she never gave up. And thank goodness for that.
Speaking of not giving up: Ms. magazine turns 50, and my friend Anna Holmes reviews a new book about the magazine that ignited a revolution in the NYT. Did you know Ms. had a kids section?
Write this down, on paper: Sweden's classrooms are going off-line, because “there’s clear scientific evidence that digital tools impair rather than enhance student learning.” Which, yes! (This is part of the reason why Kazoo is print-only by design.) I wish my kids' NYC public schools would do the same.
Lovely Artist Lisa Congdon, who you might remember from OUR VERY FIRST ISSUE, and the feature in Kazoo #25, has her own museum show, Hold it Lightly, in homage to another of my favs, artist Sister Corita Kent. It's all about "radical love & hope," which, don't we all need more of?
WHAT IN THE WORLD? Child marriage is legal in most of the USA, and many republicans hope to keep it that way. ???
Into Tweets Again: This summer I stopped scrolling twitter but discovered the free Merlin Bird ID app by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology (featured in Kazoo #4) and began a little obsessively collecting birds. Upon our return to Brooklyn, the girls tried to fool the app with bird calls of their own. (The Teeny editor does a great owl impression, which I'm sure all our neighbors enjoyed.) But alas, Merlin was not fooled.
Hiking, baking, kayaking. These memories will keep me warm this winter.
Do we even know what we like anymore? I was blown-away to learn about the manipulation of Rotten Tomatoes, like when misogynist trolls hijacked the platform, coordinating to tank women-led movies before they even opened. But, I suspect that this just the tip of the iceberg. Twitter view count, likes, etc, also untrue. And though I consider myself kind of media savvy, I often I decide to watch or read something because "people online are talking about it." I wonder how many things I might have missed because they've been artificially buried in the wreck?
Diving into the Wreck, online. I have to set aside a bit of time every week to search and untag Kazoo in inappropriate (adult or just gross) facebook posts, which seem to pop up again immediately, then check google to report spam or naughty sites, using "Kazoo magazine" as a keyword. The other day I had to remove literally thousands of fake duplicate accounts from our Shopify store. (I don't know who is doing this, or if we are specifically targeted, or if every business has to do the same.) With so few print opportunities left for actual reviews or features of our magazine, our online presence matters. But, what are these tags doing to Kazoo's reach, when someone else looks for us? I wish it didn't matter, so much. Any digital marketing experts among you feel like offering any advice?
Shout it from the Rooftops: Stumbled upon this old clip of Sarah Paulson saying “I love you Holland Taylor” and it reminded me how much I loved Peggy Peabody on The L Word and ALSO got me wondering if she would invest in Kazoo the way Peggy did in Bette Porter’s Art Center. I should ask costume designer Cynthia Summers (who we featured in Kazoo #6) to get me some cufflinks, so I can try out a pitch. (If you are a Peggy Peabody type, click here. And if you got all those references you should call me immediately because we should probably be best friends).
Is this all inside-softball and too negative? Maybe this Red Panda eating grapes will cheer us up.
"This is custom": Mary Oliver said: "I have never at all built anything perfectly, or even very well, in spite of the pleasure such labor gives me." It me, Mary. But, this little wine cabinet turned out OK. I know very little about carpentry. But when I get up from my desk, I love stretching another part of my brain, and I'm already thinking of what I can (try to) build next summer.
Back to School Fashion: I went to a MALL in PENNSYLVANIA to take both girls clothes shopping for school. (We don't have malls like this in Brooklyn, so my daughters had never been to one.) I was hoping for an Orange Julius, but no. The 12-year-old is suddenly *very* interested in fashion, which is a surprise. (I am trying to advise her, but I realized I haven't really purchased new clothes since 2020 and suspect she might know it, too.) Alas, this sort of fashion commentary makes the most sense to me.
Back to School BLEED KITS: Our 8-year-old had her first- week-of-school lockdown drill, where they all learned to “RUN, HIDE, FIGHT” and watched a video which reportedly also included the specific instruction to “fight off the intruder with a chair or a curtain rod” which caused her whole class of to laugh hysterically. The average 3rd grader is under 4 ft tall and weighs less than 70 lbs. The kids are little but already know the comical futility of the situation that many in government refuse to address, so they are being taught to fight ... with curtain rods. "Isn’t that so funny?” she asked us. No, no, it is not.
Someone Please Do Something: Friend of Kazoo Valerie Best, who sadly decamped Brooklyn for a little town upstate, is now running for town council and needs support. Kudos to her, to Mom's Demand, and anyone who decides to run for something.
Can you hear that? The universe is humming with gravitational waves that one scientist calls, "a choir or orchestra," most likely from black holes merging. Now that scientists can hear it, it'll help scientists understand how the universe formed. They say it's "a whole new way to observe the universe.”
What We're Reading: New books from Kazoo contributors: •Renee Watson (author of the story in Kazoo #21) Ways to Build Dreams. •Karina Yan Glaser (from #28) Vanderbeeker’s Ever After. •Molly Brooks (from #23) Growing Pangs.•Sophie Escabasse (from #24) Witches of Brooklyn: Spell of a Time.Any new books your kids are really loving? Let me know.
What we’re watching: The 8-year-old has now made her way through Bluey multiple times (and can tell me in detail how the "Flat Pack" episode is really about evolution). The 12-year old watched Glee all summer in its entirety. (Which she enjoyed but I was slightly sad, knowing what tragedies await the young cast.) And yes, we took the girls to Barbie, which we all liked. I cried??? (It was during that montage—and not just because I was imagining the size of their marketing budget compared to Kazoo's.) I was surprised by how much I liked it. I'm more excited about this new The Color Purple movie, though I already loved the first one.
More importantly, what is this stink bug trying to tell us?
Thank you for being here. I'm now hard at work on our Winter issue, our 31st. We are going hard on "Girl Power" for this one, which I'm excited about. Simone Biles said: “It's important to teach our female youth that it's OK to say, 'Yes, I am good at this,' and you don't hold back.” And obvs, I agree!Tell us what your little one is great at, and we may feature her in the winter issue of Kazoo. Does she love to play soccer, paint, or sing? Encourage her to write and tell us why, or draw a picture of herself doing that great thing. You can send it to us: readermail(at)kazoomagazine(dot)com.In the meantime, if you come across anything interesting, please send it my way. You can always find me at erin@kazoomagazine.com. xo,ErinKazoo magazineFounder & Editor-in-Chief PS: After a summer of trying, I have almost perfected my rhubarb pie recipe. If you want it, write to me and I'll send it to you.
Hello friends, I hope that you're already weeks into an amazing summer! My NYC school kids have still got a few days left to finish the year (WHY??? It is the end of JUNE!!!) which is driving my kids a little crazy but it gives me some extra time to get this newsletter out to you before they're off for the summer. Hi. June is Pride month, so here's a favorite photo of my wife and kids at the magical beach in Provincetown a few June's ago. If your family looks like ours, or doesn't, Happy Pride to you, too. Our Spring included a ton of kids' birthday parties, including a SLIME-themed one for our own Teeny Editor (our best slime recipe, below). Scroll down for more of what I've dipped into this June:
• But first, a sale: 25% off our new "Go-Getter" bundle. 256 pages of summer fun! Use code STARS at checkout.
• Someone (who I’m betting is not a parent) handed out crayons to children who were touring a historic property in England. The kids used them to color all over a two-centuries-old statue.
• The new Barbie movie inspired these IRL examples of “She’s Everything. He’s just Ken” tweets. Which (like everything on Twitter), people got mad about. The tweeter Lizzie Logan replied, “It’s not an insult. If you’d like a ‘reverse’ list of accomplished men who had benefited from the support of their less adored female partners I refer you to any history textbook.”
• Speaking of Twitter, writer A.S. King (author of the wonderful story in our Art issue) visited a 5th grade science show featuring cool projects relating to plastic pollution, recycling, and fictional animals who might help us make a better world. Some young inventors created an Elon Musk 2.0 animal: “It benefits the earth by eating glass.” Better than the real thing.
• HUGE PUPPETS! "The Giants" are part of a street theater company called @royal_de_luxe_compagnie. They travel around the world bringing their puppets to the streets. All of the performances tell a different story. I want to see them at Brooklyn Pride next June. Spectacular!
• Curiouser and curiouser. A grown man interrupted a track meet to complain that a 9-year-old girl competing must be trans and demanded to see evidence otherwise. Everyone loses in this fight, but I can't help but wonder how much of it is also about reinforcing girls as "the weaker sex" by an implicit threat: "Don't be too strong or fast, or else someone is going to make you prove you're a girl." (In an update, man denies he yelled, but maintains he had every right to demand proof. A mess, basically.)
•In every issue of Kazoo, we include some sort of activism (because we're not your parents' kids mag). I've been a magazine writer for over 20 years, so I've gotten pretty good at boiling almost anything down, but these are the hardest pages I write. It's extremely challenging to tell more sophisticated stories about our complicated world (without being a downer) for our very young readers. On the "Rally" page in our latest, the Fun issue, I wanted to explain how humor can be a powerful antidote to hate, and in writing it, I got a little in the weeds researching the amazing history of anti-racist Clowns. This video mocking a white nationalist “Patriot Front” group with ABBA's Dancing Queens is sort of a modern-day TikTok equivalent. Sometimes you have to laugh.
•Are we pushing our kids too hard? In the wrong direction?
“If we taught our kids softball the way we teach them science, they would hate softball as much as they hate science, but if we taught them science as we teach them softball, by practice and absorption, they might love both.” In the NYT, Adam Gopnik on the pleasure of learning something you're not very good at. I can't play piano but as a self-taught guitar-player who still knows "Closer to Fine" by heart, this hit.
•I laughed way too hard at this! Even more so because I startle easily. "WHAT? WHAT? WHAT IS IT?"
• Why is an Eggplant is called an Eggplant? Am I the last person to know this?
• “Rural people are so angry they want to blow up the system.” sayeth Barbara Kingsolver in this interview about her excellent book, Demon Copperhead, which I just started and, since I'm the world's sleepiest reader, hope to finish this summer while we're staying in a lake cottage down the road from some of the very types of people she writes about, here. Not too many two-mom families from Brooklyn in rural Pennsylvania, but we all seem to get along. As Kingsolver says, "I feel like I’m an ambassador between these worlds, trying to explain that if you want to have a conversation you don’t start it with the words, ‘You idiot.’"
• What we're listening to:
Since we've been traveling a lot by car (and we can't bear Hamilton for the millionth time) we've discovered family-friendly podcasts! We love the excellent Ologies, (and the curse-word-free Smallogies, though TBH the adult one is not anything kids don’t hear at school), and the weird Everything is Alive!. Also, audio adaptions of graphic novels are good, more like old-timey radio shows than books. The kids love Stepping Stones by friend & frequent Kazoo contributor Lucy Knisley. On my own morning walks I'm excited to start Dykes to Watch out For by friend-of-Kazoo Alison Bechdel (who was there for our very 1st issue, and the Light issue) and also Rachel Maddow's newest, Deja News. So much I'm excited to learn about in the most pleasant way possible.
FLUFFY SLIME: 1/2 cup glue, food coloring, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, 3 tbs contact lens solution, 1 cup shaving cream.STRETCHY SLIME: 3/4 cup glue, food coloring, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, 3 TBS contact lens solution. * Trust me on this. We've spent years perfecting it. Use contact lens solution containing Boric Acid, that makes it really work. Stir everything for longer than you think you have to, and if it's still too sticky to handle, add more baking soda and contact lens solution as needed. Use too much, and your slime gets less stretchy. **Also, I know making slime is something that parents are supposed to hate, but it's not that much clean-up and it's actually kind of fun for a summer rainy day. Enjoy!
• Thank you for being here. I'm now hard at work on our Fall issue (which will be our 30th! Can you believe it?) because it turns out the calendar never stops when you independently publish a quarterly print magazine. In between sending the pages to the printer and worrying over postage rates (which are going up--again!) I'm going to try to enjoy this summer with my kids, and star-gaze as much as possible. I hope you do, too. If you come across anything interesting, please send it my way. You can always find me at erin@kazoomagazine.com. xo, ErinKazoo magazine Founder & Editor-in-Chief
Hello friends,Even though it happens every year, Springtime in New York is so beautiful, it takes my breath away. The Teeny editor and I got to spend a day together at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden, with the Cherry Blossoms in full bloom. She found beautiful places to sit and sketch and I got to watch something just as beautiful, her losing herself in the flowers. (Is there anything better than watching your child do something they love?) I always try to remember poet Mary Oliver's instructions: "Pay attention. / Be astonished. / Tell about it." and I hope I've passed that along to my daughters. In that spirit, here's more of what we've seen this May:
• DYK honey bees sometimes sleep cozied-up together in flowers? Even in the hive, they entwine legs for their 5-8 hour nightly snooze, and scientists think they do it so they don't fall off the honeycomb, but I like to imagine they just like to cuddle. (pic via jmneelyphotography)
• If girls can be anything, then why can't this one be what she wants to be? She said what she said. She wants to be Barack Obama. I don't know how I would've handled this, as a mom, but I agree we could use more people who want to grow up to be him, or more like him, anyway.
• This is a real-life wild thing is called “Kukeri,” a very serious Bulgarian custom intended to ward off evil spirits. In a new film, one says, “If you do not believe in something, it cannot exist.” Kukeri extends back centuries, so far into the past that its origins are obscure. The costumes are amazing. Maybe we should start this in the USA?
• A Rube Goldberg machine is a contraption designed to perform a simple task in an overly complicated way. I love them so much, I even asked artist Ellen Forney to draw one for issue #14, (which was, well, awesome.) This one plays the song from Up! (see more @enbiggen.)
• Are you a “BoyMom” with the keychain to prove it? An op-ed in the Washington Post says the term is "a cutesy, nuance-annihilating addition to parental vocabulary ... that makes its users nearly as childish as their offspring." I sort of cringe at "GirlDad" for the same reasons. But, I'm a "GirlMom" which is not a thing, apparently?
• Let your PFLAGs fly! Fifty years ago, standing up for equality was considered radical activism, but to the founder of PFLAG, it was just part of being a parent. (This was before the term "BoyMom" but what a wonderful example of love.) 2023 update: A Republican Rep in Montana grabs the mic to say: "I prefer my transgender daughter commit suicide." Horrifying. It is still hard for LGBT kids, all over this country. It's time to dust your PFLAGs off, people.
• Peanut Butter and What??? Dwight Garner, a book critic for The NYTimes, calls the PB and Pickle sandwich “a thrifty and unacknowledged American classic.” Yes or no?
• New Books by Contributors: Alison Bechdel drew the cover art for a new edition of To the Lighthouse (which is almost as great as the Virginia Woolf-themed Spot the Difference she did for us for issue #7). Joy Harjo's Remember, encourages readers to pause and reflect on the wonder of the world. (You might remember Joy from issue #17). Lucy Knisley's sweet You Are New is now a board-book!
• What we're watching & reading: Friday Night Lights with our 12 yo, and upon rewatching, this show is very problematic! From the underage drinking to the criminal activity (do you remember when that Lance kid killed a man?!) it gives us a great deal to discuss. And, with our 7 yo, we're taking a break from Harry Potter, and have been dipping into Shel Silverstein to compliment her school poetry unit. I'm not sure which of us likes it more. Let's hug it out.
• I'm taking myshow on the road. I had an amazing time visiting Greenwich Academy, a girls school in CT, where I spoke to the 3rd an 4th graders about Kazoo and some of the coolest stuff I've learned while making it. I made a whole slide show (with help from my 12 yo who has become a total computer whiz). It was such fun to get to see our readers in person, and hear them ask questions, and laugh at my terrible jokes. If you are within driving distance of NYC and want me to come to your school or club, let me know.
• Thank you for reading. (And looking. As you can see I added pictures to this newsletter, what do you think?) I'm so happy you're here.We just sent the summer issue to the printer (more on that soon!) and I hope you are looking forward to summer as much as I am. If you see anything wonderful this month, please send it my way. You can always find me at erin@kazoomagazine.com. xo,ErinKazoo magazineFounder & Editor-in-Chief
Hello friends,This month we celebrated our Tiny Editor's 12th birthday. We took her to a place called Dave & Buster's, which made Chuck E. Cheese seem like a meditation retreat, where of course she and her sister had a blast. She was only 5 when we made these cookies in our launch video, which went viral, but I can't really call her my Tiny Editor any more. We also celebrated our 7th year of publishing Kazoo. If we were a kid, we'd be as old as our readers. So, I can't really say we're a NEW kids magazine any more, either. (What should I call us?) Through these 7 years of deadlines and packing envelopes, I've had more than a few sleepless nights, but we've also earned 7 ASME nominations and love from readers all over the world. I'm proud we've been able to spread so much joy, and grateful to you all for reading. Here's more of what I've discovered this March: • How old are you, really? In The Atlantic, Jennifer Senior unpacks "The Puzzling Gap Between How Old You Are and How Old You Think You Are." Without hesitation, I'm still 27. • She’s beautiful when she’s angry: Meet the witches, lesbian separatists, and other brave feminists who shook up the ’60s and ’70s in Mother Jones. Maybe Trump was right to be so afraid of a witches hunting him all this time?• It's a magical world: Calvin and Hobbes fans rejoice as Bill Watterson publishes his first work in decades. We're big fans, but this seems really weird ?? What do you think? • Only in Ohio: We love Ohio because buckeyes are delicious and fishing on Lake Erie is superb. Not as fond of these actual homeschooling Nazis of Ohio, though! This story is insane, but it is pretty funny that they were sussed out because they mentioned their dog's name on Facebook. (And yes it was named Blondi--not-so-coincidently also the name of Hitler's dog.) • Is that even a word? Because of our ongoing relationship with Amazon (who is no longer selling subscriptions to Kazoo, or any print magazine for that matter) we've been thinking a lot about how platforms die. Cory Doctorow says, "First, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die." Read all about Tiktok's enshittification then go tweet about it if twitter is still there (and if you have the emotional energy). • Elegant: This dinosaur had a 50 ft long neck!!! • Let's Get Involved: Over at McSweeneys, Kathryn Baecht jokes that we do need a Parent's Bill of Rights so we can Ban More Books: "Even though I personally have received so many texts, emails, newsletters, parent portal messages, and Remind App push notifications from my kid’s school last week that my phone melted, we have absolutely no idea what is happening in our kids’ classrooms." It's funny because its ... well its actually really very sad. • Can't Stop Won't Stop: Katherine Applegate, author of one of our all-time family favorites, The One and Only Ivan, talks with PW about her newest book(s). "I have been busy." she admits. She's written over 150 books! • Sing Out Loud!: The Resistance Revival Chorus (who you might remember from Kazoo #14), made an award-winning film. Watch it here.
Some stuff we scrolled into this month:
• What we're reading: Our 12 yo has been absolutely immersed in Wolf Hollow by Lauren Wolk (who you might remember as the author of our short stories in Kazoo #4 and #25). And, our 7 yo is lost in Harry Potter #3, which we are reading because it remains magical, even though many find the author herself problematic. We have struggled with how to handle this. Have you given her up entirely? • What we're seeing: I lucked into a lottery from Broadway Direct so got to take the 12 yo to see Six for her birthday, and we had FRONT ROW SEATS. Very catchy tunes and outrageously fun costumes. It was a night to remember for us both! And I took the 7 yo to a Thierry Mugler show at The Brooklyn Museum which we both loved. I always say I live in NYC to do more things like this, but weeks fly by with swim lessons and soccer games. What should we make time to do next? • 50% Off Sale: We're having a big spring sale! Half off all back-issue bundles starting April 1-5 (while supplies last).
50% off Back-issue Bundles, April 1-5. Use code SPRING FUN
Subscribe or Renew anytime. Use Code AWESOME for 10% off
•Thank you for reading. It has still been absolutely freezing in NYC, but the sun is starting to peek out and signs of spring are here. I hope you get out to enjoy it. If you see anything wonderful this month, please send it my way. You can always find me at erin@kazoomagazine.com. xo,ErinKazoo magazineFounder & Editor-in-Chief
Hello friends,We stumbled into this amazing freight elevator in Brooklyn's Industry City. You'll get to learn about it, and the artist who painted it, in the next issue of Kazoo. Here's more of what I've jumped into in February: • 3 National Magazine Award Nominations! The kids were on mid-winter break from school, and we were having lunch with my in-laws when I got the news that The American Society of Magazine Editors put Kazoo up for three awards this year. We were nominated for General Excellence (that's the big one); and for Best Print Design for The Brave Issue (#27); and for Best Print Illustration for "Look for the Light" by Lucy Knisley in The Future Issue (#26). According to ASME, 243 publications entered this year, and Kazoo is the only children's magazine recognized. It's our 8th nomination in just seven years, so I'm pretty stoked. (When the news pinged my phone, I may or may not have gotten up from the table to do a little dance.)But as happy as it makes me to be recognized by my peers, and as proud as I am of our amazing designers, it's not a Guggenheim grant or the Lottery. So please help share our good news and recommend Kazoo to your friends, so we can keep on doing what we're doing!
• Hello ((hello)) ((((hello))) is there anybody out there? U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón is crafting a new poem dedicated to NASA’s Europa Clipper mission. Her poem will be engraved on the spacecraft and travel 1.8 billion miles on its path to the Jupiter system. • Wild TV: A new Hulu show (starring Kathryn Hahn!) will bring Cheryl Strayed's "Dear Sugar" advice column to life. According to Vanity Fair, "Strayed is joyful about putting such a complicated figure on the screen, knowing that fictional female characters are still sometimes skewered for it. She says that when the movie version of Wild came out, she was stunned by the discussions about Reese Witherspoon’s character—that is, Cheryl Strayed—as an unlikable woman. 'I was like, What? Likeability has never been my problem...But that was shorthand for complexity.'" You might also remember Cheryl's great advice to our readers on "How to be Brave." Get it in Kazoo #12.• Sing for Science: That one line from Ani Difranco, "And I bet there were no windows, and no women in the room, when they applied themselves to the pure science of Boom" has occurred to me more often than I'd have liked in life. She breaks it down in this dreamy podcast with particle physicist Dr. Melissa Franklin, where musicians and scientists talk about—you guessed it—music and science! You might remember Ani if you were anything like me in the 1990's, wearing my flannel, strumming my lil' guitar, and dreaming of working at Righteous Babe one day—or if you caught her "How to Write a Song" feature in Kazoo #5. Ani's also got a new kids' picture book out, which we're excited to check out. • The Girls Are Not OK: I could barely finish reading this incredibly disturbing article about the pervasive sadness of teen girls, who are in actual crisis, having suicidal thoughts, and experiencing sexual violence at an alarming rate. What do we do to help? One girl interviewed said, “Listen to girls. Adults don’t get all the pressure that teenage girls have to deal with, from appearance, to the way they act, to how smart they are, to the things they do. It can be very overwhelming.” We're listening. • A Beautiful Mess: Marie Kondo admits she’s ‘kind of given up’ on tidying up after having 3 kids. She says, "My home is messy, but the way I am spending my time is the right way for me at this stage of my life,” and in The Washington Post, she encourages everyone to create their own rhythm and routines, based on what makes them happy. We've learned a lot from her, and even ask our kids, "Does this spark joy?" when bagging-up things they've outgrown for Goodwill. Still, I sort of doubt her idea of "messy" is the same as mine, but I'm comforted knowing we're all in it together. • Go, Noni, Go! We love this story about a restaurant run by grandmothers. After all the food is served, customers clap for the grandmother who cooked it. I think we should do that at home, too.
Some stuff we scrolled into this month:
• What we're listening to: We took a long car trip over break and listened to about 3,246 episodes of Circle Round, and the girls liked it so much, that when we tried to switch to another podcast, my 11-yr-old said that host was, "no Rebecca Sheir." And I listened to Rachel Maddow's Ultra which, on top of being this important history that I feel like we should have already learned in grade school, is such a great story. I don't even like podcasts, and I was addicted to this one. I can see why Steven Spielberg wants to make it into a movie. • What we're watching: I'm loving Abbot Elementary, which I'm watching with my 11 yr old, even more after a deep dive into Janelle James' and her stand-up (which is definitely not for kids, but is some of the smartest commentary on Jan 6th I've heard). And I finished Fleishman is in Trouble. I really only started it, because my friend Alice Wu (who you might remember from Kazoo #17) directed an episode, but I ended up being interested in Rachel and Libby, too. I guess it makes the internet crazy, but I think it's OK to like stories about women, especially complicated ones. • What we're reading: My dear friend Linda Villarosa's book, Under the Skin, is so good it made the NYT Best Books of the Year list. And twitter friend @badastronomer, Phil Plait, has a new book, Under Alien Skies, that looks mind-blowing, too. Emma Straub (author of the short story in Kazoo #5) has a new kids book, Very Good Hats. And Laura Lippman (who wrote the story for Kazoo #19) has a new book of short stories, Seasonal Work. I am the world's sleepiest reader, but if you are reading something great, tell me what else I should be dipping into before bed.
• Woman Laughing Alone with Salad: Since I went to Penn State, it might not surprise you to know that I still hope that any salad I order comes with french fries on top. (It's a thing!) But after writing for Self magazine for a long time, some of that healthy advice inevitably rubbed off on me, and I now know salads sans fries are the better-for-me option. Here's one great salad recipe I found. It's hard to make but totally worth it. And, here's a list of more winter salads. Good luck. • Did you already share the news about our ASME nominations? It's okay if you didn't. I might feel weird doing that too. But, you can send your friends the link below, and tell if they use the code AWESOME to subscribe. We'll give them 10% off! (You can use the code too on any new gift subscriptions too.) Expires in two weeks.
•Thank you for reading. My advance copies of Kazoo #28, The Motion issue, just arrived, which means yours will be making your way to you any day now. I hope you'll love it!If you see anything wonderful this month, please send it my way. You can always find me at erin@kazoomagazine.com. xo,ErinKazoo magazineFounder & Editor-in-Chief
Hello friends,I hope you had a lovely holiday and are gently sliding into 2023. Here's some of what I've come across in the New Year: • Be in Kazoo! Our next issue (coming in March) is all about Motion, and we want to hear from readers about books that move them. So, send us a drawing of your favorite book's cover to readermail@kazoomagazine.com and let us know why you love the book so much. We'll pick a few to print in the magazine. (We're on deadline, so please get it to us by Monday, Jan 23, along with your child's first name, age and town.) • Do Kids Need More Independence Earlier? It seems that young adults everywhere are struggling with their mental health, and college educators are trying to to fill in the gaps of missing life skills for students with classes about "adulting." But some think the root of the problem is in modern childhood itself. I do remember having more freedom than I give to my own kids, but is the world scarier now? Or do we need to suck it up and give kids more responsibility sooner for their own good? • Girl Gets a Unicorn License: Madeline, a little girl in Los Angeles, who has already mastered the paperwork part of adulting, wrote to county officials to ask for a license to keep a pet unicorn in her backyard. They agreed, provided she find one, and promise to give it plenty of sunshine, moonbeams, and rainbows. • Pinocchio 2.0: We are huge fans of stop-motion animation (Rudolph! The Box Trolls! Fantastic Mr. Fox!), so we were really interested in this new Pinocchio. The studio spent a year and a half making the puppets before they even started shooting! But, TBH, our kids did not love this version as much as the original and started heckling the TV almost immediately. They almost never prefer the updates. Why does Hollywood keep remaking the same movies??? • Amazon is Ending Its Magazine Subscription Service: Turns out Amazon, whose 2022 gross profit was $216 billion dollars, a 14.27% increase year-over-year, is not making quite enough money from their newsstand, so they're just ... cancelling it. This means the end for some specialty magazine publishers, and they are gutted. We did sell some subscriptions through them too and we still sell back issues there, mostly so new people can find us, but it's complicated. Luckily, you can always buy subscriptions and single issues directly from us on our website, at select independent bookstores, and starting this spring, Kazoo will be on the newsstand in Whole Foods, too. • Books Do Save Lives: We Need Diverse Books, a group that works towards diversity and inclusion in the publishing industry, announced a new #BooksSaveLives initiative, promising to donate $10,000 in grants to schools and libraries in underserved communities so they can purchase challenged and banned books. So crazy that we have to keep doing this, but apparently we do. You can pitch in here.
Here's some cool stuff we scrolled into on The Gram:
•We won some big props in 2022: This past year, thanks to our amazing designers, Kazoo got a nod from the Society of Publication Designers as a Print Medal Finalist and we also received two nominations from The American Society of Magazine Editors for ASME Awards. Who knows what 2023 will bring, but I'm going to keep doing what I've been doing, and I promise to try to make every issue better than the last. I hope you'll agree that we get better every year. You can now buy our whole collection and see for yourself.
• Winter Blues? National Kazoo Day is Jan 28, says my social media planning app thing, which I have yet to dust off this year. They say everything is content, and even make up days to prove it. I can't believe Kazoo Day is a holiday but you know, January can get a little dark, so please feel free to join us in celebration. • Procrasti-baking: Every writer has one go-to procrasti-bake, and these 5-ingredient Hershey Kiss cookies are mine. Since I grew up near Hershey, Pennsylvania, and was raised by the sweetest mom who passed along a lifetime love of chocolate, these check all my boxes. Granted, they probably wouldn't win me any prizes on The Big Brunch, but I can bake a batch in under 8 minutes, so it's like I'm hardly stepping away from my desk.
•Thank you for reading. Now it's time for me to put down the cookies and put the finishing touches on our next issue, Kazoo #28, which will be coming your way this spring. I hope you'll love it!If you see anything wonderful this winter, please send it my way. You can always find me at erin@kazoomagazine.com. xo,ErinKazoo magazineFounder & Editor-in-Chief
November Update:
Hello Friends,I hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving. We took a trip to the country where the kids got to see their cousins, get some fresh air, and even pet some horses. Here's some of what I've come across this month: • Children's Books are Dangerous: Some people keep on trying to ban kids' books, and it turns out they have good reason to do so. As author Margaret Finnegan writes in PW, studies show that literature helps develop empathy. "And right there is why children’s books are so dangerous—to haters. At the least, they teach compassion. At the most, they inspire a desire for change."• Kids' Conspiracy Theories: My kids love finding "Easter Eggs" in Disney movies and telling me some wild theories about them. And I love that they're watching so closely, but when I hear youtube videos on "The Truth Behind XYZ" (even if just about a movie), it feels like the lesson to kids is that "they" are not telling you the "real truth," and I worry that this is just priming them to believe other conspiracy theories. These sort of videos may even help explain why susceptible people are now protesting those same Disney movies for crazy reasons. Somebody talk me down from this. Please. • The End of "Fake News." I don't know if the kids in Finland also wonder about Elsa from Frozen, but 71% of the people there trust their government (compared to just 20% in the US). Why? From an early age, they teach critical thinking to children, and in 2016, they even revised their public school curriculum to help kids spot the kind of fabricated information that spreads so easily in the US. I hope we can all learn from Finland before 2024.
• Octavia Butler Knew: We hope you loved our Octavia Butler comic in issue #26. We can't wait to watch the adaptation of Kindred (and those of all her other books, now in the works). Seems we're not the only ones! She certainly did succeed in writing herself into the future. In Vulture, E. Alex Jung writes about Octavia Butler's Spectacular Life. And artist Bisa Butler (who you might remember as our featured artist from Kazoo #6) made this amazing quilt of Octavia Butler for the cover of the NYT. • Behind the Portraits: New portraits of Serena and Venus Williams and Ava DuVernay went on view at the National Portrait Gallery in November. The NYT talks to these beautiful champions and their artists here. (I once interviewed Serena ... at her house! These are the kinds of things I pepper conversations with. Thank you, 18+ years at Condé Nast.)
• Deck the Halls at Rock Center: The artist Lorraine Nam (who you might remember created our gorgeous Storytellers issue cover) has a huge art installation Rockefeller Center this Christmas. She says, “I wanted to capture the feeling of the holidays: this buzzy energy that you get, this excitement.” If you happen to get to NYC to see the big ol' tree, keep an eye out for her work.• The Best Pie: I made the Pumpkin Pie for our Thanksgiving dinner, using this recipe from King Arthur. It was good! (I did not add the optional black pepper, but I am curious about it.) If you're the one bringing the pie to dinner this holiday season, I also recommend 4 & 20 Blackbirds Salted Caramel Apple Pie, full recipe in our Awesome issue, #14. (If you don't have a copy, it's currently sold-out in our shop, but Amazon still has some.) And if you're in NYC, and don't feel like cooking, try our friend Molly's Pies. They are delicious! •Kazoo is a New York Times "Best Gift of the Year!" To celebrate, we're offering 10% off all gift subscriptions. Use code "BESTGIFTEVER" at checkout.
• Giving Tuesday: When I was younger, I read a financial planning book that said you should set aside money for a few causes you believe in every year, because it not only makes the world a better place, but also helps you remember that your own work can support good things. (Honestly, that is theonly thing I remember from that book.) This year, a friend of Kazoo reminded us of Alex's Lemonade Stand. It was started by a 4-year-old girl with cancer. With her generosity and commitment, she made one of the best, biggest organizations working towards a cure. Seems a worthy cause if you have a few extra dollars this year. Here are some other organizations we've supported:Brooklyn Book Bodega: Provides access to and ownership of books, builds community, and creates a passion for learning. Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund: Protect gorillas and their forests, while also helping the people who live near them.Mom's Demand Action: Working for a future free from gun violence.Mission Blue: Inspires action to explore and protect the ocean.Arbor Day Foundation: Every dollar plants a tree.• Thank you for reading. Now it's time for me to go pack up some magazines for you, which I'll be doing every night all month long (from my living room, while watching White Lotus). I'm personally shipping out orders daily through the holidays, instead of waiting for the warehouse to do it, so I can get everything to you as quickly as possible. If you see anything wonderful this December, please send it my way. You can always find me at erin@kazoomagazine.com. xo,ErinKazoo magazineFounder & Editor-in-Chief
October Update:
Hello Friends,Today I'm sending the next issue of Kazoo (our 27th!) off to the printer, and I finally have a moment to breathe, so I thought I'd spend it with you.• The present can be wild. We took our very first post-covid flight and the Teeny Editor's first-ever airplane ride. She was nervous about flying but we assured it would be great fun! And she believed us, right up until about the 9th hour of our 2-hour trip. After five hours stuck on the tarmac, the girls got to go in the cockpit and meet the captain, which was wild. And, after 14 hours, we somehow made it to their cousin's beautiful beach wedding on time, where they were flower girls, and really happy to be involved. I love to take my daughters to see new things and watch their eyes light up as the world expands. (But, we may drive next time). • But the future is bright. I've gotten nice notes from readers who are loving our latest, The Future Issue, which is a relief because though most of our issues come pretty easily to me, I really struggled writing this one. It was spring break, we were staying in a lake cottage in Pennsylvania, & a(nother) terrible school shooting had just happened. I sat at my desk day after day, but the words just weren't coming, so I took too-frequent walks to the lake to try to find the inspiration to keep going. On one walk, I ran into a neighbor, a fine craftsman (and a man of few words), and I told him I was having a hard time writing with hope and optimism about the future for our kids. He looked at me, then looked at the lake for a long time and said, “Well, some things are bad, and that is just how things can be, but the world is so beautiful, too. And that’s what we have to focus on for them.” So, I looked at the lake for a little while more, and I went back to my desk and, I just did it. So, thanks to him, and the lake, and the many experts I interviewed whose actual, inspirational work is to invest in the future, I feel better. Which is all to say, I'm really glad you are liking it. (If you missed it, you can still snag The Future Issue, here.) • Baby, how you feelin'? If you follow Kazoo on Instagram (and you should because we're having some fun over there), you already know the story about Lizzo playing that historic crystal flute and that Librarian of Congress, Dr. Carla Hayden (featured in Kazoo #18) is the one who made it happen. Dr. Hayden sent a tweet telling Lizzo about the Library’s amazing flute collection & told her, “Like your song, they are ‘Good as hell.’” To which Lizzo tweeted back, “I’M COMING CARLA! AND I’M PLAYING THAT CRYSTAL FLUTE!” (Imagine the very quiet cheers that must have erupted at the Library of Congress that day!!!)•Kazoo is a New York Times "Best Gift of the Year!" This list was updated in July (which seems early for Christmas shopping, but some of you start early, and I admire and also fear your organizational skills). The snowflake decorations are already up on the main drag in Park Slope, so I guess it's time for me to start thinking about the holidays!
• The Not-So-Great History of Women in Animation: I've always loved comics and cartoons (which is why we include a feature comic in every issue), but I've learned even more about them since my daughters are SO INTO THEM. Like, I just learned that the very first feature-length animated film was directed by Lotte Reiniger in 1926. Her "Adventures of Prince Achmed" was made entirely by hand, using beautiful paper-cuts. Given this history, why are there so few women in animation today? Perhaps it has something to do with Walt Disney and his personal biases—he was allegedly afraid of women and cats?!—and the well-documented sexism of the early Disney studios. (When a woman applied to work at Disney as an animator in 1938, her rejection letter infamously said that all creative work "is performed entirely by young men.") Still, things have changed. Today, my kids' favorite show is The Owl House, an animated series about a girl who falls into a magical world and befriends a witch. (And it was suddenly cancelled, leading some fans to question Disney's motives, but not before it made history.) So, a lot of room for improvement, here. But, we'll be watching!•Speaking of women & cats: Here's a collection of women who are absolutely fed up with everyone and everything except their cats. In case you need it. •In even bigger cat news: Three years ago, after interviewing the world's leading lion researcher, a woman wrote this article for National Geographicexplaining how "In real life, Simba’s mom would be running the pride." For this, she has been getting hate mail for 3 years. Her story reminded me of this viral comedy clip from Pete Lee, who says, "We're the only animal on the planet that pretends that the female of our species is weak. Have you guys ever met a woman?"
Tweet-o-Rama: On twitter I learned that published academics are so often named David! But, every single day there are also adorable baby pandas, sweet children, and rainbow waterfalls.
• Are we on point, on trend, or on fleek? We were thrilled by this Vanity Fairarticle in which Annie Leibovitz & Thelma Golden shoot Eight of the Most Influential Female Artists of Our Time, who "represent the phenomenal trajectory of the last half century" and "have created extraordinary space for themselves and for generations to come." Of them, FIVE OF THESE ARTISTS HAVE ALREADY APPEARED IN KAZOO: Faith Ringgold (Kazoo #18), Mickalene Thomas (#1), two of The Guerrilla Girls (#10), and Amy Sherald (#23). Which can only mean Annie is reading Kazoo, and not just for the pictures. • Weird Birthday celebrations. My wife made me the very best cake, Dorie Greenspan's 'Bill's Big' Carrot Cake, which is my favorite. It has two cups of carrots, a cup of walnuts, and a cup of raisins, so it's practically good for me. (We love Dorie and featured her in issue #8.) And we were all about to go to Riis Park for the afternoon when the Tiny Editor mentioned having a scratchy throat. I tested her, and yep, she was covid positive. I guess Brooklyn public school makes this inevitable, so I'm just thankful she's feeling fine (and already had her booster), and I'm looking forward to my next birthday, when I hope we can all celebrate together, covid-free. • Do you have a plan to vote yet? There's a lot on the line in this year's mid-term election on November 8th, including our democracy and our bodily autonomy. (I can't believe I just had to type that.) Take a minute right now to go to vote.org to check your registration (or register), request an absentee ballot, find an early polling place. Then, remind your friends.• Thank you for reading. Now it's time to turn toward the next issue, which will be our 28th. In the immortal words of Katharine Hepburn (as Ethel Thayer in On Golden Pond), "Life marches by, Chels. I suggest you get on with it."If you see anything wonderful along your way, please send it my way. You can always find me at erin@kazoomagazine.com. xo,ErinKazoo magazineFounder & Editor-in-Chief
September Update:
It is back-to-reality time around here, and my daughters have begun the 2022 school year like champs. Hope your Noisemakers have eased into it, too. Here's what else has been happening so far this fall: All new: An issue of Kazoo is OTW! The Future Issue is our best yet and features an original short story by Lois Lowry. (Subscribers: Keep a look out.) Check out the amazing line-up, and to get it, subscribe here.
Tricky Wiki: Wild that only 19% of wikipedia's 1.5 million biographies are about women. Could it be because 91% of the site's editors are men? (I learned way too much about the politics around "notability" while trying to understand why there wasn't a page about Kazoo.) Many women are working to combat gender bias on wikipedia, including one of our amazing subscribers, who helped us get Kazoo on wikipedia. Seems important for a site that we assume is objective--and gets 250 million eyeballs a day. Wild West: Turns out that after ignoring it for years, I *have to* binge "Yellowstone" since Tressie McMillan Cottom told me that more liberals should be watching it. Are you into it? To my surprise, I am! (I'm only on season 2, so no spoilers.) But for role models, I prefer this African-American all-girl rodeo team that is shaking up the male-dominated rodeo industry. (You might remember we featured their "Cowgirl Code" in our Confidence issue #15).
Serious Play: It's easy to get lost in the over-scheduling of fall, but cartoonist Lynda Barry reminds us to save some time for fun: “Adults think that kids playing is some nothing thing,” she says. “But play is a different state of mind, and it can help us do so many things if we just allow ourselves to get back to it.”
September Bundle Sale!
The "Wild and Free" bundle: Kazoo's Wild, Art, Magic, and Ocean issues, packaged with a bookmark and sticker, is on sale now for $36. All back-issue bundles are 20% off this September, so get 'em while you still can. Use the code: FALLFUN. (Or, if you'd prefer, find them on Amazon, here.)
Fall Reads: I've been reading Wonder with the 7-year-old Teeny Editor, which has led to some good start-of-the-school-year discussions about "fitting in" and being kind. (We're big fans of R.J. Palacio around here.) Our 11-year-old Tiny Editor is going to study Persepolis in school this fall, and we're so excited that she'll learn all about this ground-breaking graphic novel. She's excited to read it too. Kazoo's own collection of comics, Noisemakers, is included on Rise: A Feminist Book Project list, if you need suggestions for more fall reads. Gutsy: I've not yet watched the new TV show from Hillary & Chelsea Clinton. I'm a little surprised at some of their chosen guests, though the show's been getting fine reviews. I try not to dwell on what life would've been like these past 6 years had she become president, but I really wish she had been our leader instead of our feminist TM figurehead. Still, the more stories about "gutsy" women, the better. If you've seen it, let us know how it is. Two Red Lines: Last school year, a Brooklyn mom friend said, "It isn't if you'll get it, it's when" and welp, the Covid finally caught us this summer. But, since my entire family is vaccinated, and boosted, it was very mild, and the kids were asymptomatic. (We would not have known they had it if I didn't have a slight sore throat and tested myself.) Vaccines work! And here's how. (I plan on getting the next booster as soon as I can, and maybe even getting on an airplane for the first time in years.)
Tweet-o-Rama: The best bits of twitter this month
(Please note: CERTAIN RABBITS can swim. Probably not your pet bunny. Also, did you see our Octavia Butler comic in the new issue? And, we were especially happy to see this great news for Angela Flournoy, who wrote "Beautiful Island, Beautiful Garden" the lovely short story for Kazoo #10.)
Grateful: When I sat down to write to you, I realized I have been sending these newsletters out for a year now, and I have been so happy to hear back from so many of you. As parents, we talk about how the pandemic has affected our school aged kids, but we've all been through some loneliness, too. And new research suggests that reaching out, even casually, to other people means so much more than we realize. So, thank you.Let's all keep passing these good vibes along. If you see anything wonderful, please send it my way. You can always find me at erin@kazoomagazine.com. xo,ErinKazoo magazineFounder & Editor-in-Chief
