What is the project:

Inserting our own new, hand made pages into books and

magazines written by other people.

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Why do we do it?

Our aim is to disrupt, question & have lots of fun with what a

children's magazine can / should be. We  want all children

and young people to have the chance to be rebels, to be fierce,

to have their voices heard and to change things in the world that

are important to them. Lots of children read books&magazine

made for them by adults about things adults think children like.

These magazine / books sometimes end up in museums, 

libraries, archives, galleries. That makes it look like all children

are interested in is princesses, football and cute baby animals.

They are full of things that we don’t like- adverts, sexism, plastic

toys that damage the planet, rubbish stories that were probably written by a computer not even a person. Our magazine is different, it can be everything we can imagine: online games, craftivist projects, good things we do in the world. We want people to know children are strong, determined, well-informed, complicated. We think this project will help us to show these things. 

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What happens in the workshops?:

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We choose items from a selection of books and magazines: maybe books we love, magazines we hate, books that look amazing, books that look dull.

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Together we will create “rebel pages” for the books/ magazines. These may be made from paper, recycled plastic, fabric or even thin sheets of wood. We ask everyone to create a page that the book / magazine doesn’t currently have, but definitely needs. Maybe the book is beautiful, but too simple- maybe it needs something a bit more wordy. Maybe the book is ALL words and need some pictures. Maybe the book has lots of men in it and needs some people who are not men. Maybe the book makes us sad or angry, or happy, or excited and we need a page that says why.

 

After we make the pages we sometimes film (on a phone) a short interview with the creator(s) of each page, talking about why the page is needed. The videos can be straight forward talking head style or can be a performance with costumes / singing/ dancing / puppets… the possibilities are endless. The interviews are uploaded to the (small but) FIERCE website and a QR code is created for each one.  The corresponding pages  have the QR code / website address and a brief explanation of the project added to the reverse side of the page.

 

Each Rebel Page will be inserted into the original book /mag (without damaging it!) and it will then be left in a public space (library, public loo, book shop, bus stop). People who look at the book/ magazine may find the page and enjoy it purely as a physical object or may also go on to look at the video online and find out more about the project and (small but) FIERCE!