Dreamworldgirl, a Y2K-inspired zine celebrating girlhood’s complexities, puts women of color, queer, and plus-size women in traditionally “girly” spaces—while holding space for all definitions of “girlhood.”
To Daphne Bryant, the zine’s founder and editor-in-chief, “girlhood” is a series of shared upbringings or lifestyles that, despite being individually unique, are universal, and innately connected.
“It hit me that it was my last year at Emerson, and I hadn’t created anything that felt truly ‘me,’” Bryant said. “I came up with the idea for the magazine, which centered around girlhood.”
Freshly graduated from Emerson with a Creative Writing BFA, Bryant spent her last semester in the ELA program. She’s always wanted to have her own magazine or printing press, and when it came to her last semester at Emerson, decided it was time for action. Her first photoshoot was a grassroots effort—shot in her bedroom back in Allston, she sourced models from the Emerson Urban Dance Theater, the on-campus dance company Bryant performed in during college.
The first issue, “DIY,” was going to be her goodbye to Boston, a one-time project back in August, a last hurrah before graduating. However, one thing led to another, and after amassing a large following on social media, she knew she needed to—in her own words—“lock in.”
The campaign snowballed into a launch party that drew crowds consisting of not just Boston fans, but “Dream World Girls” from all over, with many taking trains to buy physical copies and meet the small but mighty team, consisting mainly of a couple of friends. With all eyes now on the zine, Bryant realized she had created something special.
“It’s a full-time job,” she said. “One thing I prioritized going into the second issue was getting a co-EIC, getting a marketing team, and fleshing out the design team more so I didn’t feel like I had to do it alone.”
Bryant has gone to every local shoot, both in Boston and Los Angeles. While there, she produced, directed, coordinated, and styled. Her confidence is contagious, according to Suzanna Azila, who, as a plus size model, said the photoshoots always made her feel comfortable, as Bryant “gassed [her] up a lot and made me feel great.”
“The diversity of it all, looking at their previous shoots, how they’ve had other plus-size models and models of color, I thought that was something I wanted to be part of,” Azila said.
Now, Bryant’s hands-on approach and encouraging nature are paying off; the zine is expanding beyond media to the world of merchandising.
“Even with the first issue, I was looking for small independent designers who don’t really have their work out there yet—like giving them a platform,” she said. “I found [such designers] and asked to make merch for us, for ‘DIY’ and ‘Bitter.’”
“Bitter,” the zine’s second issue, will be released on Feb. 8, with a local launch party in Boston from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., and online.
Rebecca Calvar, Dreamworldgirl’s art director, first met Bryant when they were in the same Emerson orientation group freshman year. It was through a mutual appreciation of their respective creative outputs in campus publications like YourMag, Index by FPS, and Five Cent Sound, that their partnership began—this time, independently.
“We’re also not provided the space to do creative stuff like this,” said Calvar. “Growing up, I remember I read old Teen Vogue, J-14 and Tiger Beat, but I never saw a diverse group of people there. I never thought that I could do something like this, even though I always wanted to.”
Centering social justice is integral to the mission of expanding beyond a magazine, and reaching issues important to her, her collaborators, and fans of the zine. Bryant has always been very unabashed about being vocal about these issues. Sometimes, that looks like putting her team above all else, too.
“The day after we posted the first photoshoot, the [Emerson College] encampment got broken up, and so we compiled this huge list of documents,” she said. “We were reaching out to so many people [and] posting resources for people affected.”
Moving forward, Bryant plans on further developing the zine’s internship program, which she started after her team expanded after the release of “DIY.” The program was positively received by interns, she noted; she wished she had that experience as a freshman.
And following a recent inquiry on Instagram, which, to popular approval, led to plans about making an official pen pal program after launching “Bitter”—so people who follow the zine and are part of the community can write each other letters, explained Bryant.
Bryant used to make fun of girlhood, as for a while, the term only served as a hashtag found under Lana Del Rey edits or coquette-core videos featuring skinny white women from NYC and the likes—but that’s not what it feels like for everyone.
“My girlhood was intersectional—it was Black, it was suburban, and it was queer,” Bryant said. “There’s a lot that makes up every person’s experience with girlhood, and I think that’s really cool.”
