Do You Have an Idea for Anxy?

Anxy is many things. It’s a beautifully designed, bi-annual print publication. It’s a monthly newsletter of bite-sized stories. It’s a collection of meaningful conversations across social media. It’s an occasional event. And at our core, we’re a stigma-busting community of storytellers, designers, journalists, photographers, artists, healers, misfits, and others working through mental health narratives in a public way. We understand that to share one story means that others with similar burdens may feel seen as well.

Anxy stories find the beauty in the real and the raw. They are human to their core. They make people feel. They’re often rooted in personal narrative, and aim to shift perspectives around mental health. Anxy stories are surprising, inspiring, and unconventional in nature. They should start conversations and engage with a community of individuals who also want to share a part of themselves. We care deeply about these issues, but we’re not so self-serious that we can’t have fun too.

We’re looking for personal essays, reported pieces, op-eds, photo essays, infographics, interviews, comic strips, and other creative story formats from contributors around the world. If you have an idea for an experimental story or project, don’t hesitate to reach out. Nothing we do is “normal.”

We’re only as strong as the voices we amplify. We especially encourage people from communities whose perspectives haven’t been shared often enough to drop us a line.

Issue One Theme: Anger

The theme for our first issue of the magazine is Anger. This emotion is universal, yet it can be displayed and interpreted in so many different ways. It can be outward (a spontaneous reaction) and it can be inward (repressed, controlled, deliberate). It can be mental, physical, or emotional. Anger can be deviant and it can also be influential. It can be quiet or loud, used for self-protection or self-destruction. Anger can be rooted grief or rage; it can be art; it can be healing. Anger sees no gender, color, or orientation. It is part of the human condition.

We’re looking for visual and written stories that explore the ways this emotion intersects with so many different fragments of our identity — from our bodies to our societal and cultural norms — and all of the ways this feeling colors the way we perceive and interact with the world. We know there is plenty to be angry about right now in light of the recent U.S. elections, but we urge you to think about anger outside of this recent event. Our first issue is coming out in May 2017, so we aren’t looking for pieces tied to events from this fall.

We’re still working out our budget for the first issue. We will pay fairly and in line with other independent media organizations. If you have questions about a specific story idea, email us the pitch and we will get back to you about the rate if we think it’s a good fit.

Before you pitch, please read about what Anxy is looking for:

We’ll be accepting pitches for our monthly newsletter and our bi-annual print magazine until the first week in January, 2017. Our newsletter contains shorter pieces (short essays, photo essays, single infographics) on a variety of topics. Our print magazine issues are themed, so please connect your pitches to the specific theme we’re currently working towards.

Pitches should be:

• Relevant. Do people care about this now and will they care about it next May?
• Real. Does the idea capture some part of the human experience? Does it feel true?
• Original. The idea or angle should feel novel, so make sure to explain why or what about it is new.
• Voice-y. Anxy is rooted in the personal narrative and the human experience, so show us you have a distinct voice and a strong point of view and that you’re the best person to write this story.

Don’t just pitch us. Help Anxy brainstorm ideas for our first issue.

We’ve always thought of Anxy as not just a magazine, but a community of people who want to be open and vulnerable together. Our readers are just as much a part of Anxy as our creators. And we want to hear from you all about what you’d like to see and read in Anxy’s inaugural issue. If you live in the Bay Area and are free Wednesday, December 7th, come join our brainstorm session from 6pm-8pm at Workshop Cafe.

If you’re not able to make it, but still would like to throw in some ideas, fill out this google form:

As always, if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out: hello@anxymag.com.