Gloria Steinem is a famous female journalist and women's rightsactivist, and started the most successful feminist magazine ever -Ms., which is published every two months.
Steinem had a history of strong women in her family. Her grandmotherwas a suffragist and had helped women get the right to vote. Her motherwas a successful newspaper columnist and editor, but had to give up hercareer when she got married. Steinem went to Smith, an all-women'scollege, and did very well. When she began to work as a reporter, shelearned how oppressed groups of people like African-Americans and farmworkers organized and demonstrated to achieve rights, so she began tofight for women's equality. An article she wrote on women's liberationwon her a journalism award, and she started working to get women of allraces and classes to come together and fight for women's rights.
With her friend Dorothy Pittman Hughes, she formed the Women's ActionAlliance and began her own magazine, Ms. in 1972. As a forum forfeminist issues, Ms. had a lot of support and became very popular.While Steinem is no longer the editor, she still contributes articles,and Ms. is so successful that it does not have to rely onadvertisements to pay for publication, which makes it unique in themagazine industry. Ms. covers practically everything that a feminist could be interested in - it is packed with information for women, with articles on everything from health to politics to music and book reviews to feature articles and interviews and investigative stories. There's also creative fiction, poetry, cartoons, and art.
In addition to writing and editing, Steinem also formed the National Women's PoliticalCaucus, and the Coalition of Labor Union Women, and was named to theNational Women's Hall of Fame for her achievements. She has written a fewbooks, and is still a well-known women's leader who makes women's issuesvisible in mainstream society and encourages women to work togetherno matter what their background.
While Ms. is a magazine geared towards adults, there arepublications for young girls that encourage them to be strong females,and highlight their accomplishments. Go to your local library orbookstore, and find a copy of New Moon, a magazine for girls aged8-14. Read it and see how they portray girls, and see if you cancontribute a story about the amazing things girls can do.