Shameless magazine, Canada’s independent, feminist voice for young women and trans youth, is expanding its editorial team. Are you devoted to grassroots publishing? Do you have a commitment to anti-oppression and inclusive feminist politics? Do you have some time to volunteer and a vision for Shameless? Then we need you.

We are looking for smart, sassy, shameless people to fill the following roles:

• A Managing Editor, who will oversee the magazine’s editorial production, assign and edit stories, work with writers and collaborate with editorial staff.
• A Web Editor, who will develop projects and content for the website, coordinate our community blog, and develop a link between the print and online components of the magazine.
• Associate Editors, to assign and edit stories and work with writers.

We are looking for people who work well collaboratively, who have a good sense of Shameless’s editorial vision, who are committed to anti-racist feminist politics, who have some editorial or publishing skills, and who are excellent communicators and work well over email (Shameless has no office).

Please check out our detailed job descriptions.

Like all roles on this volunteer-run magazine, these positions are unpaid. (If you have ideas for how we can change that, then please get in touch!)

We strongly encourage applications from women of colour and First Nations women and those with experience with anti-racist feminist politics and/or anti-racist feminist organizations. Preference will be given to residents of the Greater Toronto Area to facilitate face-to-face meetings with magazine staff.

Please email a resume, a cover letter containing your ideas for the magazine/website, and three writing samples (published or unpublished) to volunteer@shamelessmag.com. The deadline for applications is Monday, March 22, 2010. We’ll contact you if we’d like to set up an interview.

The new issue is almost here, and with it comes some pretty big news for Shameless. First, the bittersweet: I’m stepping down as your fearless Shameless editor, and this issue is the last with me at the helm. It’s been a wild, wonderful, really rewarding ride. Shameless has been such a light to me, but it’s time to pass the torch to the next team of smart and talented editors, and for me to catch up on some much-needed sleep.

I am thrilled to announce that Sheila Sampath will be stepping into the role of Editorial Director. Sheila joined Shameless as Art Director in 2006. She has worked as a counselor, organizer, educator and advocate in the anti-violence movement and has chaired the Board of Directors at the Toronto Rape Crisis Centre/Multi-cultural Women Against Rape. She was an editorial collective member of big boots, the first zine for and by women and trans people of colour. Currently, she combines her background in grassroots, anti-oppression activism with her passion for creative idea-making as a Principal and Creative Director at The Public, a Toronto-based studio specializing in creative communications for unions, not-for-profits, public health and social justice organizations. Sheila has a diploma in graphic design and an Honours B.Sc. in Sociology and Psychology from the University of Toronto.

We will be making an announcement in the next few days about bringing new folks onto the Shameless team.

Thanks to all the readers, writers, teachers and generally kick ass Shameless women who I’ve had the good fortune to work with over the past three years. I’ve been so proud to work with you and to work for you.

Yours ever Shamelessly, MGG

Over the last couple weeks, we’ve been reading applications for Shameless Wire with rising excitement. We don’t have any shortage of applicants, but a local organization has requested some more time to spread the word to their participants. That sounds like a great idea to us, so we’ve extended our deadline to December 31st.

If you have already applied, thank you! You will hear back from us shortly after the new deadline. If you are interested in the program but haven’t applied, there is still time to send us an email. If you are in the GTA, a young woman or trans youth, and 20 or under as of January 1st, we’d love to hear from you!

If you work with youth, or know anyone who works with youth, there is also still time to let them know about the project. Details about the program and how to apply are posted here. (Note that the PDF poster still has the old deadline on it - we will fix that as soon as we can. In the meantime, if you would like an updated poster, you can email us.) We’d especially appreciate it if you could get in touch with any teachers in your lives, but remember that there are only a few days of school left before the holidays. Depending on her schedule, our coordinator Allison Martell is available to drop by classrooms and youth groups to talk about the program.

It’s also not too late to donate to the program. While we’ve raised enough money to go ahead with the project, we still don’t have the capacity to take in as many participants as we’d like. Just $500 is the difference between running the program with 10 youth, and expanding to take 15. Every donation makes a difference.

Canice Leung, fantastic feminist columnist for The Metro, wrote a terrific piece about our exciting new project, the Shameless Wire.

Help us make this project happen. Donate today.

Full text of Canice’s column:

As many women do in university, I took a few women’s studies classes. I remember in one mostly female class of 40, the teacher asked who was feminist; my hand was among a sparse few that went up. But in class discussions, my classmates’ thoughts on gender roles or reproductive rights made clear that’s exactly what they were.

It’s an apt example of how necessary gender studies are; that young adults can dismiss feminism as radical yet recognize the cornerstones of the movement is evidence of this.

Fortunately, two initiatives are underway to change that.

(more inside…)

A month ago we posted about an exciting new project called Shameless Wire, and we are now ready to accept applications! Details are below, and the deadline for applications is December 31, 2009.

SHAMELESS WIRE CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS: A FREE HANDS-ON PROGRAM FOR WOMEN AND TRANS YOUTH INTERESTED IN JOURNALISM

YOU ARE…
…interested in learning how to how to report, write, and get published in magazines, newspapers, or online.
…committed to using the media to improve your community and the world.
…20 or younger as of January 1, 2010, identify as female and/or trans, and are not enrolled in university or college.

WE ARE…
… a progressive magazine for teen girls and young women that has been publishing in Toronto for more than five years. Learn more about us at www.shamelessmag.com/about.

TOGETHER, WE WILL…
…meet every second Saturday afternoon from January to April 2010.
…learn the basics of reporting, writing and editing.
…learn how to come up with story ideas, pitch them to editors, and get published.
…meet and learn from professional journalists.

SHAMELESS WIRE IS FREE TO ALL PARTICIPANTS. WE WILL PROVIDE TTC TOKENS AND LUNCH FOR EACH MEETING.

TO APPLY: Email wire@shamelessmag.com with your full name, date of birth, and answers to the following questions. Each answer should be 200 words or less – much less is fine. There are no right or wrong answers. We aren’t your teachers, and we don’t care whether you like school – we’re more interested in how you express yourself.

1. Why do you want to be part of Shameless Wire?
2. If you are in high school, what school do you go to? Do you like it? Tell us why or why not. If you are not in high school, tell us why that is, and a bit about how you spend your time.
3. Do you speak, read and/or write in any languages other than English? Explain briefly.

We strongly encourage all eligible youth to apply, especially transgendered and queer youth, youth with disabilities, immigrant youth, youth of colour and First Nations youth.

APPLICATION DEADLINE: DECEMBER 31, 2009

A PDF of the Shameless Wire call for participants is available here. Please feel free to put it up in your schools/libraries/community centres/etc.

We’re having a fundraiser for Shameless Wire in Toronto on November 11th. Come out and support our new journalism training series for teen girls, or just come for a night of free entertainment from some awesome Toronto writers!

Featuring Zoe Whittall, Dianah Smith, Karine Silverwoman and Stacey May Fowles, music from DJ Winnie, and some great door prizes!

Granny Boots presents Shameless Wire Fundraiser
The Gladstone Hotel, 1214 Queen St. W., Toronto.
November 11th. Doors at 7pm, show 7.30pm. FREE.
Click here to RSVP on Facebook.

(Granny Boots is free weekly queer-friendly entertainment hosted by the Gladstone Hotel and Chelsey Licht-a-Womyn.)

Not sure what to get that sassy, Shameless girl in your life this holiday season? We make it easy for you. Give her a meaningful, informative, entertaining gift that she actually wants — a whole year of Shameless for only $10!

You can give Shameless as a gift for only $10! That’s right, for only $10 a strong young woman in your life will receive Shameless for a full year (three issues). You can buy and give as many subscriptions as you like for only $10 each ($20 in the US) and we’ll send the lucky recipients their gift on your behalf!

$10 SHAMELESS SUBSCRIPTIONS MAKE THE PERFECT GIFT FOR EVERYONE ON YOUR LIST!

Giving the gift of Shameless is a great way to support vital independent media. Shameless is Canada’s award-winning independent voice for smart, strong, sassy young women. It’s a fresh alternative to typical teen magazines, for girls who know there’s more to life than makeup and diet tips. Packed with articles about arts, culture and current events, Shameless reaches out to readers who are often ignored by mainstream media: freethinkers, queer youth, young women of colour, punk rockers, feminists, intellectuals, artists, activists.

You can even take advantage of this holiday offer and give yourself a well-deserved gift! You’ll get a whole year of smart, well-written, thought-provoking reading material. What better way to start the New Year off right? (Or, if you’re already a subscriber, for the same price, we’ll be happy to extend your subscription for one more year.)

Subscriptions are available through PayPal right now! All prices are in Canadian Dollars (CAD).

Our latest issue, on newsstands now!

Hello, Shameless readers!

I’m Julia, and it will be my privilege over the next month to write a series of guest posts aimed at introducing you to size acceptance and teasing out some of the feminist issues inherent in discussions of size and body image.

I stumbled into size acceptance exactly two years ago. I was about to embark on yet another dieting cycle; I didn’t even know I was looking for something different until I found it. As I read on and began to interact with others in the “Fat-o-Sphere,” I found a huge network of people, including (among others) scientists, health professionals, and many, many feminists, who spoke about the futility of dieting and the oppressiveness of beauty culture, particularly its negative effects on women.

I hope to enter into an interesting and informative dialogue with you all over the next month. Can’t wait to get started!

We are working on an exciting new project, and we need your help. Some of you may remember the Shameless teen editorial collective, a group of young women who advised the magazine in its first few years. The editorial collective has been dormant recently, but we hope to bring back youth involvement in a big way this January, in the form of Shameless Wire – a journalism training program for teen girls.

What is Shameless Wire?
We will recruit a diverse group of at least 10 high school-aged teens from across the Toronto area and introduce them to pitching, researching and writing articles. Participants will have the chance to write, report, edit, and meet other women journalists in eight workshops held over four months. The program will be free to participants, and we want to provide transit tokens and lunch for each workshop, to make Shameless Wire accessible to girls who might not otherwise be able to join this sort of program.

Why is this project important?
Last year, while working with new writers at a university student paper, Allison - now one of the Shameless Wire directors - noticed a gender divide. She found that right out of high school, women fall behind their male colleagues in the newsroom. Men arrive at student papers full of confidence, ready to pitch and take assignments, while women hang back, feeling that they need more training, experience, and time before they can start publishing.

While there is no shortage of young female writers in the industry, there are systemic barriers to them entering positions of power in editorial, which means that they often cannot decide what stories are covered. This problem, it seems, are not disappearing over time. Routes into journalism are difficult - most of us can’t get published or network until we’ve done at least one unpaid internship, and for many talented young women, that’s just an impossibility. Once it’s time to hire junior reporters and editors, the applicant pool has already narrowed far too much. If we want to change the face of journalism, we need to start with youth.

Why do we need your help?
As a grassroots, volunteer run magazine, we can’t do this alone.
Please consider helping us get Shameless Wire off the ground by making
a donation of any size. We need a small starting budget to provide
food and tokens for 10 students, and to cover teaching essentials like
photocopying. A contribution of just $36 would cover one participant’s
travel to and from every workshop. A donation of $100 would let us
provide one modest lunch for all of our participants and speakers. Another $500 would allow us to expand the program from 10 young women to 15.

The easiest way to donate is through PayPal:

Or, you can send a cheque with “Wire” on the memo line, payable to
Shameless magazine, to: Shameless Magazine, P.O. Box 68548, 360A Bloor St. W., Toronto, Ontario, M5S 1X1.

If you have any questions or comments about this exciting new project,
please get in touch with us at wire@shamelessmag.com.