Founded by Kathrin Hero and Jessica Gysel in 2005, GLU magazine was created as an antidote to the vanilla representation of contemporary lesbian culture.
Editors Jessica Gysel, Kathrin Hero
Graphic design Kathrin Hero
Publisher Capricious Inc. New York
Printing Robstolk, Amsterdam and Lecuris BV, Eindhoven
17 x 23 cm, 80 pp, full color, paperback,sewn bound, offset-printed
The magazine was made in Amsterdam, published in New York and available worldwide.
Girls Like Us (GLU) Vol.1 was a magazine with a readership that seeks a contemporary representation of lesbian identity. It focussed on portraying creative, outspoken women who have a playful take on lesbian identity, showcasing women with compelling stories to tell and who have transcended one artistic medium or specific cultural scene.
The internationally distributed publication featured a european design sensibility – modern, fresh and cutting edge.
GLU Vol.1 was thematically divided into three sections:
→ Conversation with in-depth interviews
→ Gallery photo editorials embracing both the empowering and the erotic
→ Archive, reprinted material from journals and books around the world, dipping into sapphic “herstory”
→ Conversation
→ Gallery
→ Archive
→ GLU customized ads
World of GLU
Others about GLU
“First came Kutt, and now Girls Like Us, a stylemag that goes against the grain and proves that lesbians do have humour and style so there.” – i-D Magazine (UK), January 2006
“The Amsterdam based scissor sisters have managed to fill their first four issues with lip-drippingly hot features, from Peaches looking all butch dyke on the cover of issue 1 to the latest cover with Beth Ditto being all trashy in a trailor park.” – i-D (UK), March 2007
“It’s cutting edge. It’s sexy. It’s fashionable. It’s lesbian. It’s in Amsterdam. How many times do you get to utter those words all in one?” – Amsterdam Weekly (NL), March 2006
“While its central theme is Girls wot like Girls it’s equally dedicated to contributing visual goodness and creative flair to the independent publishing cause.” – The image cooperative, 2007
“The magazine – and its attendant guerilla-style pop-up parties – sloughs off the usual naff-ic Sapphic connotations to create a big lesbian pie that everyone wants a piece of.” – Amsterdam Weekly, April 2007
“Er is een nieuw lesbisch tijdschrift, mooi en sexy.” – NRC Handelsblad (NL), June 2006
“Verfrissend lesbienneblad ook interessant voor hetero’s” – Volkskrant (NL), May 2006
“Girls Like Us is a very Parisian brainchild type operation, in which girls who like girls (and some boys like Andres McCarthy) are given the counterculture magazine they really deserve.” – i-D Magazine
“[…] pictures that are bright, fearless, undetermined and unconventional – the very things about queer lifestyles that should be celebrated.” – The F-Word, contemporary UK feminism, 2006
GLU Vol. 1 contributors: Rhiannon Adam, Ursula del Aguila, Amalia Andrade, Vela Arbutina, Catrinel Bartolomeu, Eden Batki, Laetitia Benat, Destiny Bergvall, Zena Blackwell, Cass Bird, Anuschka Blommers & Niels Schumm, Dafne Boggeri, Melanie Bonajo, Marlous Borm, Rietje van Brunschot, Aisha Burns, Silvia Casalino, Maureen Catbagan, Leidy Churchman, Sharon Cleary, Karen Codd, Kelli Connell, Inge Colsen, Cza-Za, Marco Dell’Omodarme, Barbara Dietl, Cheryl Dunye, Eva van Eeghem, Nicole Emmenegger, Elisabeth Engebretsen, Pip Farquharson, Liz Fletcher, Pascale Gatzen, Simone Gilges, Julia Gillard, Paige Gratland, Ornella Groebli, K8 Hardy, Amy von Harrington, Risk Hazekamp, Jasmin Herkel, Pati Hertling, Karina Hof, Henriette Höft, Megan Holmes, Maite Josefa Horta, Zhana Ivanova, Larissa James, Jet, Vivian Joyner, Sara Kaaman, Sarah Keenan, Petr S. Kisur, Annette Knol, Kate Kunath, Justine Kurland, Joss Lake, Molly Landreth, Claire Leighton, Natalie Logusch, Nicky Mao, Carissa Mares, Mia Mala McDonald, Mascha Meyer, Emmeline de Mooij, Sophie Mörner, Anja Müller, Bettina Neumann, Van Nguyen, Suzanna Noort, Natasha Papadopoulou, Gloria Pedemonte, Isabel Asha Penzlien, Megan Plunkett, Silvia Prada, Janneke Raaphorst, Quirine Racké, Iose Ravera, Maroussia Rebecq, Caroline Reichert, Sabine Reitmaier, Kim Renfrew, Daniel Riera, Lia Rochas-Pàris, Karen Roise Kielland, Alejandra Rojas, Becky Rosoman, Viviane Sassen, Ariel Schrag, Catriona Shaw, Albin Sikora, Ami Sioux, Natalia Sorzano, Jennifer Juniper Stratford, A.L. Steiner, Rebecca Stephany, Larin Sullivan, Tania Theodorou, Wolfgang Tillmans, Sietske Tjallingii, Erin Toland, Inez Valk, Lex Vaughn, Mo Veld, Thomas Voorter, Anna Voswinckel, Anne de Vries, Simon Wald-Lasowski, Thorsten Weiss, Azsa West, Lisa Whitehead, Kirsty Whiten, Karen Willey, Susanne M. Winterling and Birgit Wudtke.