Magazine Wars 2: Do a Quiz and Get Happier

by Lily Nobel, Staff Writer

Sassafras catches your eye with artfully arranged glittery PNGs, and keeps your attention with its nostalgia-invoking charm and wit, hallmarks of the 2000s teen magazines the publication joyfully emulates. Flipping through a Sassafras issue feels like when Azzy’s matcha is actually really good. I met up with co-Editors-in-Chief Skylar Brunk and Imogen Russell to talk about what makes that content worth reading, looking at, and respecting.

Lily Nobel: There’s like two million things you can do in a day as an Oberlin student. So why should people take the time to read your magazine, specifically? 

Sasha Brunk: One of the big parts of our magazine is we don’t like to change people’s vision when it comes to their writing. We only edit for grammar and really basic sentence structure. We really want people’s vision and want people’s thoughts, whereas other magazines tend to make changes. That makes sense, but one of our big things is we don’t want to do that. Sassafras is creative—it’s based on arts, music, fashion—those opinions, they shouldn’t be edited. That’s a person’s thoughts. And it’s colorful. It’s kind of like Pinterest. It’s relaxing, it’s good to look at. When you’re scrolling TikTok, politics comes up, and this comes up, and this comes up, but the good thing about Pinterest, or a magazine that’s focused on visuals and opinions in print, is it’s stuff that’s fun to talk about. And it can open your horizons;  there’s been some really interesting articles where I never would’ve thought of that. 

LN: Like what?

Imogen Russell: We had a Benson Boone article where the layout was so fun to do. There was an article that was written by our fashion editor Catherine Baptiste-Sanders about fashion trends and how that’s being destroyed, which was really interesting. 

SB: I really liked [an article] by a student who just started writing for us that was a “fall favorites” thing, with a lot of books and movies I wouldn’t have associated with fall and wouldn’t have heard about. You get to learn about a new thing. 

LN: With the look of the magazine, the quizzes and games, the pop-vibes, do you ever worry people might think it’s frivolous, or too girly? Do you feel like the work can be taken seriously? 

IR: I have a response for this. We’ve talked a lot about this as friends. Oftentimes, what gets associated as ‘girly’ and ‘frivolous,’ I find ridiculous. With this magazine, we wanted to make it seem more serious to an audience, show it can be fun and serious at the same time, those things can co-exist. If I was told the magazine seemed silly, I could give examples of articles that are very political or discuss more personal issues. It’s just not that simple;putting it into a box bothers me as a writer. We’ve discussed how when you call girly things frivolous, it’s misogynistic. It can be silly,. and also political, and also interesting. 

SB: I remember at the club fair, a lot of the straight-appearing, cis-appearing men would walk by, look at us with like, fear, and leave. It happened so many times! Just because it’s pink and has a lot of glitter… 

LN: Doesn’t mean it’s not interesting, artistic, and legitimate?! 

SB: Exactly. I’ve found a lot of people at Oberlin are like, ooooh, I have to be sooo edgy. But you can have fun, be silly, do some quizzes! And then also be serious and talk about your opinions. 

LN: With that vision in mind, what’s up for the next few issues? 

IR: We want more contributors and we want more people! That’s my dream for this process. If you’re reading this, please join if it interests you. I’m really excited about the issue coming up… 

SB: It’s our Halloween issue. 

IR: And I’m really excited about our holiday one, maybe that’s my dream issue. Because I love winter. 

SB: We’re also doing a lot more social media now that we have a social media manager. We’re doing some video stuff that’s in the works, and I’m excited to see how that turns out and what people’s reactions are. […] We’re trying to get people engaged. If people are like, I’m not a writer, not a journalist, I’m not an English major, I’m not into journalism, that’s fine. You can be anywhere and join. We have a really good group of people, but we want to expand and have more people join. It’s just so fun. 

LN: Okay, last question. The quizzes are probably the most unique part of Sassafras, in my opinion. If each of you was gonna come up with one more quiz, what would it be? 

SB: This is a question I ask in some of the interviews I do, even if I don’t end up printing it. I like to ask, what fashion accessory would you be? What shoe would you be? It could be really telling, whether you’d be a ballet flat, kitten heel, Victorian boot… I don’t know what I’d identify with. Maybe a Victorian boot.

IR: I’d definitely be a Doc Martin. My quiz, I immediately thought of bags, what bag would you be. Tote, purse. A backpack, I guess. 

SB: We’re really into the 2000s aesthetic because this whole magazine was based off of a teen magazine, so maybe what 2000s TV show you’d be. Gilmore Girls, One Tree Hill.

IR: Glee. 

SB: We keep talking about doing a Glee article at some point. 

LN: Just do a whole Glee issue. 

SB: Honestly, like yeah. 

IR: You know I’d be down for that. 

SB: We have so much Glee knowledge, too much Glee knowledge. 

IR: We have to use it at some point. 

To get involved with Sassafras, follow them on Instagram @sassmag or email them at sassartsculture@gmail.com.