The Future of Media: Elise Olsen on Wallet & Recens
Instagram as a door opener. An Interview.
Elise Olsen is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of both youth culture magazine, Recens, and the recently launched Wallet magazine which interrogates economic systems beginning with fashion. We sat down with Elise to hear all about the future of media from one of a handful of Gen Zs building it. Conde Nast, Vice and DAZED watch your backs…
Let’s start at the beginning. How, at the age of 18, have you already run one magazine and are about to launch a second?
EO: So, the story kind of began back when I was 8 years old. I started a blog that was mainly about what I had done at school, or what friends I was hanging out with. It started gradually becoming more of a fashion blog as I got more interested in fashion. Then, when I was 12, I got on Instagram which was the big door opener for me.
Why was Instagram a door opener?
EO: Because Instagram was a more accessible and easier version of the blog. It also was a door opener because I met a lot of like-minded people from all around the world, especially a lot of young bloggers like myself.
How did you take it from “Nice to meet you” to “Let’s start a magazine?”
EO: Well, we got to talking on Facebook or other social media platforms, and we figured out that there was no youth-driven media platform or blog network that existed at the time. So, we (five young Scandinavian bloggers) decided to take that into our own hands. We launched the blog network called Archetype in May 2012; and on the launch date, the site actually went down due to overcapacity. That showed us this was something young people wanted and needed.
But then, half a year after, I decided that I wanted to create something that took young people even more seriously and professionally. I figured it would be printed because there was no youth-driven printed platform at that time. So I did the first issue of Recens in February 2013. It was a total failure. Pixelated logos, pixelated photos, grammar mistakes, terrible. We were not a big team, we were four young kids. But you know, at least we did it.
You sure did! And you are still doing it.
EO: Yes, Recens was very well received, despite the look of it. And I’ve been running that now for three years. We’ve done seven issues where we featured a lot of young people, built a lot of young talent, and introduced them,to a network of brands and more commercial actors. Since we couldn’t pay anyone (we haven’t had any money), that was the least I could do to use my network to get them connected.
Why did you choose print?
EO: The reason I chose print in the first place was — actually there were two reasons: it was more bold, it would make a bigger mark; and, at that time in 2013, everyone said that we were going to experience a death of print. But I thought no, my generation wants tangible objects of product. We’re born into fast paced media content, and born into content with a short life span. We need media products that you can actually pay attention to and come back to take notes in and take notes from. Our generation wants this.
What about all of the non-indie youth focused magazines out there now, do you see a future for them?
EO: It’s funny because now, only four or five years after launching Recens, there are so many gray-haired corporate people, in media and elsewhere, milking and sort of exploiting young people. The times have changed, and I’m not saying that we need a format or a concept like Recens, but magazines need to be reinvented.
And now you are moving on from Recens rather than becoming one of these “gray-haired corporates,” yes?
EO: Well, you know I was getting older, my network was getting older, and to keep Recens’ core of “for young people, for creative kids,” I decided to resign right before my eighteenth birthday. I want to make space for a new generation of creative young people. I genuinely believe that that’s important, not just to sit with the helmet on for your own personal benefit.,I hope Recens can live on with a new editor who serves for two years and then have a new editor again. Also, I was kind of done with the whole youth narrative. I felt that I’d had enough of it, and I wanted to move on.
And by moving on, you mean Wallet magazine? Tell us about that.
EO: I really wanted to make a platform for fashion criticism and for asking questions to create new consciousness within the fashion industry. So, that’s how Wallet came about. And now we’re about to release the first issue.
Will Wallet be print like Recens?
EO: With Wallet, we started to examine print and physical products, asking: “Why do people not buy print anymore? Why aren’t people buying, for example, Vogue, or newspapers and what if you could have a physical publication that was like a mobile format that you can bring around with your essentials?” So Wallet is pocket-sized, it suits a standard jeans pocket; and also, conceptually, Wallet is about the industries and the sort of friends, people, and companies that want your wallet. Looking at these capitalist values and how industries like fashion capitalize upon us and how they operate.
It sounds like, for you, media has an almost educational responsibility to challenge and elevate. Would you say that’s accurate?
EO: I think the responsibility of media, on a very general level, is to be a place where — through asking questions, the reader can reflect and process a lot of information. So yeah, sort of educational in a way. There’s a lot of different responsibilities, but primarily, it’s the press’ responsibility to create and make people reflect on things.
Bravo! Thanks, Elise.
