We always read BUST magazine cover to cover
and three things always happen: 1) We learn tons about some great new
lady supertalents all over the globe. 2) We laugh hysterically because
the writing is so great. 3) We're moved to tears for the very same reason.
The magazine is super smart and yet super sweet, a real treasure. Every
issue brilliantly explores a theme such as money, music, men or motherhood
from a variety of female voices. A particular favorite here was the Summer
03 issue devoted to "Gay Men We Love". The feeling is so mutual!!!!
This month inmedia blitzwe chat with
BUST's Editor-in-Chief and Publisher, Debbie Stoller.
Hi Deb, how are ya? First, we must gush with
congrats... BUST, the lil' mag you started
on a shoestring, recently
celebrated its tenth year
and is bigger 'n stronger than ever!
You also just published an awesome
book Stitch 'n Bitch and went on a rock star book
tour, traveling
across country on a train... In addition, you've got an amazing website, bust.com,
where you sell super cute things in yur "boobtique" and connect
girls all
over the globe through the girl wide web. You're amazing!
Did you know you wanted to
do all of this while you were growing up?
Whoa! Hey, thanks so much for the kind words. I did a whole lot of
things before I landed on this kind of weird career path - including
being a scientist,
computer programmer, and multimedia producer - but I was always, for as
long as I can remember, a feminist. So I suppose it makes sense that I
ended up doing what I do.
So, how exactly did you get BUST started?
This is a really long story, but, basically, in 1993, I started BUST with
a couple of friends I worked with at Nickelodeon: Marcelle Karp and Laurie
Henzel (Marcelle left BUST in 2001). It started out as a xeroxed-and-stapled
zine with a distribution of 500! Then, with every issue, we would try to
grow it just a little bit, then a little bit more. After 7 years of making
the magazine, we still had our day jobs and the magazine was getting bigger
and it was getting more and more difficult to do it as a hobby. That's
when a giant dot-com offered to buy us, fund the magazine and give us jobs
so we could work on it full time. That worked for a year, until the dot-com
went BUST (ha!). Laurie and I bought the company back from them at the
end of 2001, and we then had about 15,000 subscribers who were expecting
to get magazines from us, and who had given their money to the now-defunct
dot-com. And our bank balance was zero! So we got to work, and two of our
old interns, Tracie Egan and Emily Rems, set up an office at Laurie's house,
held a fund raiser, and put out our first issue under our new owners --
us! Since then we've put out 8 more issues, and the magazine keeps growing.
Now we have over 300,000 readers! It's been very exciting learning to be
businesswomen.
Tell us a little bit about the typical day in your life as Editor-in-Chief.
Well, I'm also the co-publisher, so a lot of what I do is related to the
business side of BUST, and also, I don't really have a "typical" day.
But basically, I come in, read some of my email (I always have a huge backlog
of emails. Right now, my inbox has 800 messages waiting for me to do something
about them!), work on pieces that need to be edited, deal with subscriber
issues or distribution issues as they come up, make changes to our web
site, meet with the staff to discuss how the issue is coming along and
what we plan on doing for the next issue, and try to develop our plans
for taking over the world! I also spend a good amount of the day laughing.
We tend to joke around at the office a lot...
Who are some of the most memorable women
that you've interviewed?
I loved getting to interview Janeane Garafolo, Gloria Steinem and Camille
Paglia. Frances McDormand was great, as were every one of our cover subjects.
And of course there are the non-celebrities that we feature in every issue
that are so interesting. And I love the personal stories we run. We've
written about so many hundreds of women in our time publishing and I find
them all really memorable.
How did you start writing Stitch 'n
Bitch? We're amazed you had any free
time to knit at all, let alone become an expert!
No kidding! Well, I started working on that around the same time that we
bought BUST back so that was a very busy time for me. I worked on the book
at night and on weekends, and basically had no free time at all for a while.
I was approached by Workman Publishing to do the book because they saw
that I was writing about knitting so much in the mag, and they thought
that it was a good subject for a book. I started knitting obsessively in
1999, and was really excited about doing a book about my new passion. I
also knew there were so many girls out there designing cool stuff and that
they deserved some exposure. The book tour was so much fun! I did the entire
tour by train, you know, as I'm terrified of flying, and that made it take
a long time to do the trip. But I got to see a lot of the country, and,
of course, get a lot of knitting done! It's really fun to travel in your
own little compartment and tour the country that way, knitting and watching
dvds on the computer and, also, doing work (I had editing work to do while
I was out of the office). It was always especially great to get in my pajamas
at night and sleep on the train. It rocks back and forth like a giant crib.
I went to 15 cities and met so many great knitters. The highlight, I think,
was meeting the actual people who contributed to my book, who I had only
been dealing with through email -- Shetha Nolke, Melissa Lim and Kristin
Spurkland in Portland, Karen Baumer in San Francisco, Ellen Margulies,
Syliva Mahoney, Tina Paredes and Hilda Erb in Los Angeles, Vickie Howell
and Lisa Shobhana-Mason in Austin, Jennifer Mindel and Brenda Janish in
Chicago and Kitty Schmidt in Philadelphia. And they were all just as cool
as I imagined they'd be.
We know NYC is your home base. What are some of your fave places in the
city?
Well, I live in Brooklyn now, but I haven’t even really figured out
my fave places there yet. In the East Village, where I lived for 12 years
before, I love love LOVE Mogador on St. Marks Place. (In fact, I wrote
a lot of the book sitting there, drinking pot after pot of peppermint tea.)
I also like Yaffa Cafe on that same street. I also like Downtown Yarn on
Ave A, and now, the newly opened Knit NY is a really cool cafe and knitter's
hangout spot. In Brooklyn I dig Halcyon on Smith Street and did some book-writing
there as well, but they're moving now. Sad!
Are you still able to knit for fun or has it become all work?
In between book projects it is fun, but when I'm working hard on a book
- I'm working on a sequel right now - most of my knitting becomes work-knitting
and I have to admit, that is less fun than when I'm just doing it for myself,
with no deadline looming over my head.
Miss Lady DJ... What's spinning in the BUST stereo
these days?
I like electronica, especially when it's mixed with world music, and even
more especially when the music is from India. I love the Ninja Tunes Zen
compilation, and can listen to it all day long, over and over again. My
office mates don't have the same taste as I do. They like to listen to
boy singers like Sondre Lerche and Melligrove Band. We all agree that Miss
Kitten is the best.
Any D.I.Y. advice for those triple threat
ladies interested in writing, creating 'n selling?
I guess my advice is this: You have to be willing to work hard, really
really hard, but if you do, and you have a passion about something, you
can probably do what you want.
Okay Deb, speed round... FAVE COLOR: pink FAVE MUSIC: electronica/chill out/bangara FAVE CANDY: not really a sweet tooth, more
of a salty tooth. I love tortilla chips! FAVE FOOD: creamed spinach FAVE MOVIE: It's a tie between Desperately
Seeking Susan and Breakfast at Tiffany's.
