By Gabriella Brown
Newsroom@DominionPost.com
From articles about fashion and lifestyle to current events, the student-run publication Mirage Magazine is paving the path for future writers and editors.
Mirage Magazine, WVU’s lifestyle and fashion publication, typically publishes a full magazine once per semester. Each semester, the organization chooses a word as that semester’s theme, and writers are responsible for interpreting the meaning of the theme to produce articles centered around it.
“When it comes to being a media student, there is a focus on hard news and broadcast,” said Olivia Gianettino, editor-in-chief of Mirage Magazine. “This kind of gives media students more of a creative outlet.”
In the past, the magazine explored themes from “oblivion” to “resilience,” creating editions with over 80 pages containing dozens of articles and photographs. Now, due to COVID-19 impacting how WVU’s student organizations are run, this semester will look a bit different for the publication.
Rather than publishing one large edition, Mirage Magazine will publish multiple, smaller issues called zines.
“We’re doing less articles, smaller page count, but with more of a focus,” Gianettino said.
The first zine in the series published back in August discussed the Black Lives Matter movement and African-American culture. Although it was smaller than the typical publication, it was packed with articles that dove into topics from hairstyles to the importance of discussing the intersection between people of color and the LGBTQ+ community. A print edition of this zine will be available in the September 27 edition of The Dominion Post.
Kasey Lettrich, president of Mirage Magazine, took on the position of assistant editor during the spring semester of her freshman year. By the end of the semester, she moved on to president.
As president, Lettrich is responsible for running meetings and helping writers produce articles.
When she first started at the magazine, she said it focused on topics such as fall beauty trends; however, when she and Gianettino took over, they wanted to make some changes.
“We decided we wanted it to have a bit more substance,” Lettrich said. “Something that could last longer. Something that you could pull off your shelf in five years and be proud of.”
To make Mirage Magazine the publication it is today, Lettrich said it required a lot of rebranding. She said they have since changed the social media pages and the magazine’s overall design, and have grown the membership exponentially from just a small executive team.
“I was given a bag of raffle tickets and candy and a debit card that didn’t have much on it and we totally rebranded,” Lettrich said. “It was a ton of work, but I think it paid off in the end. It has come a long way.”
She said the magazine has about 30 active members, and all are encouraged to take on articles about topics they are passionate about within the given theme. She said the team has never turned away an idea for an article, and values giving members creative freedom.
Designing the magazine is just as vital as putting articles together. To kick off the start of last fall semester’s publication, Lettrich said all staff members made collages together, which were scanned and used as the background of the publication.
“Everybody’s ideas are in there in some way, shape or form,” Lettrich said. “Even if they didn’t write a piece or they didn’t model for a shoot or didn’t photograph anything.”
Although the publication is made up mainly of students from the WVU Reed College of Media, Gianettino said the magazine has writers from all walks of life, interests and abilities.
All students are welcome to join the publication, and Gianettino said they have had everyone from journalism students to students entering the medical field.
Gianettino said the next zine will be centered around the theme of music, and a podcast series is also in development. The organization is also working to put its Black Lives Matter zine into a physical format that can be found in a coming Sunday edition of The Dominion Post. Previous Mirage Magazine publications can be found online at Issue.com.
“It’s definitely great for resume-building and experience-wise. We function like a serious, legitimate publication,” Gianettino said. “The experience has given me a lot that I will be able to take with me into the professional world.”
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