as a child i always dreamed of writing a book—a book you can buy in a store, a book you can dog-ear pages for those lines that just hit home, a book you can gift your loved ones or a total stranger. as i grew up and learned about the world, the idea of publishing a book became too far-reaching, with all the complexities of the publishing industry.

and then i discovered zine-making. zines are inherently accessible, free from gate-keeping, revolutionary. with over half a decade of expertise in the print industry, i have had many opportunities to create zines and discover different printing and binding methods. a zine can be as simple as a single sheet of copy paper with quarter-page folds or as sophisticated as a multi-page design with complex foldouts, inserts, cutouts, utilizing various colored paper, hand-stitched or hand-glued binding, and the styles do not end there. a folded-up piece of paper can change someone's day. a little stapled booklet can change their life. in an ever-accelerating digital age, zines might seem past their expiration date. but we now crave the nostalgia of paper between our fingers. the best part is that anyone can make a zine. and anyone can enjoy them—learn from them, empathize with the voices that pour out from them, visualize a dream, a reality with more hope, a better world.