The website you’re reading this article on, right now, is called Her Campus American. Just from the publication’s name, you can probably guess a few things about it– it’s an online magazine for “empowering college women.” The reality of Her Campus American, though, is that our publication is not just for her. It’s for writers and readers of all genders.
HerCampus.com was originally created by four women in 2008 who attended Harvard University. One of its founders, Windsor Western, wrote that “As college women, we saw a huge hole in the media market– there was no magazine written specifically for women in college!” HerCampus.com spread to colleges across the country, developing chapters of their own, like Her Campus American.
The intention of Her Campus was to fill a hole in the media market and represent college women. In its original message, Her Campus fulfilled that goal. Since 2008, however, it has developed to fill another hole in the media– to be a space for people of all genders in college to read and write.
Many popular magazines, like Allure, Cosmopolitan and Glamour are technically women’s magazines. However, each of these magazines discuss issues that affect gender non-conforming people, and attempt to have that representation on their teams. Her Campus’s history is similar as a technical women’s magazine, but the publication strives to make these issues known to our audience with a representative team.
Her Campus’s priority, from the start, was to act as a platform for people who are underrepresented. That includes people of all genders– whether they are female, non-binary, gender-fluid, transgender and more. In the past, Her Campus American has advocated for LGBTQ+ inclusivity, rights and changed our policies in order to defend non-binary representation. Her Campus is not for white feminism– it is for intersectionality. The publication’s name is not necessarily an accurate representation of all who Her Campus strives to represent and be inclusive of.
To live up to that, however, it is important to be clear that HCAU is inclusive of all genders, and to have representation of those genders in our team. The media hole of non-binary and LGBTQ+ inclusivity is reminiscent of what Her Campus’s original mission was in representing women. It is Her Campus’s tradition to be inclusive and representative. If you are interested in joining Her Campus American, please apply here. HCAU is committed to being a platform to represent your voice, identity and passions.