The zines I have made...

It's July which means it's International zine month. Every year I tell myself I'm going to participate in it somehow, but every year I remember how much of a procrastinator I am and nothing gets done.
This year is no different, I need to get my arse in gear as my to do list is forever full.
Anyway in the spirit of thinking about zines I ventured into my bottom/zine drawer that's jam packed full of letters, notepads scraps of paper and all the zines I have made pre Sugar Paper.
Any zines I made after and including Sugar Paper are accessible and not tucked away in a drawer as these are my 'more serious grown up zines' that I actually do reprint.
The ones in the drawer however, the half done ones, the never to reach the printing stage ones, THE TEENAGE ONES will forever remain in that drawer!
I flicked through some of the zines and I cringed, I mean nobody, NOBODY wants to read all their feelings from when they were 15! The zines are full of all different things, gig reviews, pop culture nonsense, and the 'totally just got into riot grrrl in the last few years' of talking sex, liberation and empowerment. Also full of all that teen angst, self loathing and mostly boredom.
Now why, if I find them so cringeworthy and am never going to print them and hope all copies are now non existent and no one will ever see them again, why do I keep the masters?
I don't know maybe to remind myself that not all the things I felt as a teen will be felt now, growing older is good, you change, you grow, it's weird. But I think it's to remind myself of all the zines I have made and how much I like doing zines and if I ever think what I want to write about is stupid or I think I'm too old to be making zines, I look back and go I've been doing this since I was 15 and I bloody enjoy it!

SO in short happy international zine month, enjoy zines, making or reading, either way enjoy them.

Here's to another 15 years of zine making!