Remember the MNer who started an online mag for preteens? Jump Mag?

[alexpolistigers]

Some of you must remember Jump Mag - after all, MN is where it started!

I don't know if you have seen it yet, but Jump Mag is looking for some help to take the next steps.

Take a look here: Jump Mag Kickstarter

Let's face it, if you look at the topics on Jump, they are hardly of exclusive interest to girls, there's no reason why boys wouldn't also be interested.

Absolutely. I must forward it to my nephews.

My DS really enjoys it. It fills the void since he outgrew the Star Wars comics.

I had forgotten about this - thanks for the reminder!

Helloooooo! How cool is this? Congrats to MmeL, and fingers crossed that she hits the target. We must, however, move this out of Chat as it's not really the place, we're thinking Petitions might be a fit? Do remember to keep it bumped and good luck.

In that case here's a bump.

alex - oh don't worry I'll be getting the boys to read it when they can read. For some reason I thought it was aimed at girls not that it would have stopped me even in the slightest .

Hellooooooooooo, and thank you so much for starting this thread.

Just to address the comments made -

No, we aren't connected to Let Toys Be Toys, although I do of course support what they are doing.

The site was changed last year to 'Jump! Mag for Kids' for several reasons. Firstly, I had so many requests to do so, because boys were reading it too but felt they couldn't/shouldn't cause it was 'for Girls'.

Secondly, it became clear to me that to improve the lives of girls, we have to reach out to the boys too. Telling girls they can be anything they want to be won't work if boys still think the little woman shoudl be at home folding his socks.

Thirdly, boys are being damaged by our society too. Boys are told to 'man up' and not to 'cry like a girl'. They are discouraged from showing emotions and shoved into manly jobs. We recently ran an interview with a nurse called Danny, who went into nursing in his mid-twenties. He said that he never considered nursing when he was leaving school, it was all 'what about engineering?' The interview was one of the best I've done, because he was just so absolutely bloody happy in his job. It was brilliant to see.

So, my point is that when we say 'Girls, you can be an scientist/architect/astronaut/engineer', we should really be saying, 'And boys, you can be a nurse/carer/primary school teacher/social worker...'

Kickstarter is a crowdfunding platform. Many creative projects find it difficult to get funding from traditional methods - try going to your bank and asking for a loan to start an online business or to publish an album.

The idea with crowdfunding is that people can support a fledgling business, and in return they get a reward - in our case, a substantially discounted subscription to the site.

We need the money to redesign the website, and to pay writers and contributors to the site. I won't be taking a salary until the site is making a profit but am hoping to be able to employ a couple of people part time to help out.

Couldn't agree more MmeLindor. Thank you for all your hard work on this.

This makes me feel really proud of being on MN. Nice one, Mme.

Me too, LRD.

When I first started that thread, over two years ago, I was blown away by the support and help from MNetters, many of whom have continued to support this crazy idea.

I couldn't have done this without the amazing friends I have met online.

This is going to end in hugs. You have been warned.

Mme L you are a star. Will soo what I cam contribute when the laptop is fired up tomorrow.

Hello, Mme! Nice to see you on the thread!

I too have been amazed by all the voluntary hard work that's gone into Jump so far - setting in up, designing the site, writing articles, editing, pictures, the list goes on. All this for free, when there's such rubbish out there that people will actually pay for.

Mme: Is the mag going to become a pay-per-view thing, or is the subscription for special member's only content?

I loved your article with Danny :) I worked for a couple who were a male Nurse and female Architect and both loved their prospective fields, both very interesting people to talk too :)

I haven't read jump in a while, but are you writing anything about how it's okay to go for stereotypical jobs? I'm a nanny, love being in childcare and always wanted to be in childcare. I was pushed heavily to go into STEM subjects in school as I was deemed intelligent enough to do them Now that I've ended up in childcare as I originally wanted, I get a lot of people telling me that I could be more (i.e. go to university and do something more academic), when actually, I love what I do right now and I think that is more important.
So I think (?!) what I'm trying to say is that I was wondering if you're outputting much along the lines of young teens finding what they love doing and growing up to do what they love.

I need to start reading blogs again, I'm now trawling through the site finding interesting pieces. Some of the stuff written by the readersis really interesting :)

Bump :)

Pixie - I think there is going to be some content that's pay for view only, and some stuff that you get for free. I could be wrong, though.

Pixie
The home page will be open access, i.e. free for all to access. On the front page, we will will have

• breaking news - perhaps not a la the Guardian with a live blog, or rolling news, but I want to report on the main stories of the day, and explain complex stories in a simple way, a bit like this amazing explanation of Quantum Entanglement and Teleportation.

• regular comics. We have a really talented duo ready to create the comics of Kit and her friends.

• games by BAFTA-award winning game designer Emily Thomforde. I met Emily a couple of years ago at a games fair and love her work. She is very committed to making fun games that are non-violent and girl-positive.

• Interactive Adventure Stories - the way this works is that we feature an adventure story several times a year. The kids get to vote which way the story goes - anyone remember the Choose Your Own Adventure stories? On the open site, kids can read the voted story, while the subscription area has the entire story, so kids can go back and reread the story again and again, with different outcomes.

• lots of funny articles and listicles (think Buzzfeed) like this one on 6 Sounds Your Parents will Recognise but You Won't on disappeared tech.

• the normal articles, but without the archive. It will be a rolling stock of new content, but we will have exclusive content on the subscription area.

• #jumpwordoftheday Which is so brilliant and fun.

• info on bullying, staying safe online etc

• #writtenbyyou the frankly amazing articles written by the young readers. They are SO talented

Some of the above we post on Social Media (like #jumpwordoftheday) but we'd rather post it on the site so that kids who don't use social media can access it.

This is why we need money - creating this content takes time and talent. The site won't be like Huff Post, where people give their time for 'exposure'. Everyone will get paid (even if it isn't a lot!)

Will be back later, have to go make dinner!

Pixie
Coming back to your second question. I've actually been talking to someone about doing a series on finding the right career, and getting the balance between the Steve Jobs 'do what you love' and the more practical 'I need to pay my bills' career paths.

So we will be looking at a range of careers, and also putting the position that it doesn't have to be a WOW career - that it is also fine to do a 'normal' job and then have time and energy for a hobby or sport that you love. Rather than making the hobby to your profession, finding a job that you enjoy and leaves you time for your hobby, if that makes sense.

Funnily enough, Danny the nurse said that he sometimes gets asked, 'Why don't you go back to Uni and train to be a doctor', which he finds really odd. He loves his job, and doesn't want to be a doctor.

I loved the shepherdess interview. She was amazing.

She was BRILLIANT, Petite. So funny and absolutely open and honest. I kept thinking 'You'd be a fantastic MNetter'.

I actually posted part of the interview on my own blog, cause it didn't really fit on the Jump! Mag site.

This quote was pure gold:

In the scheme of things, are the kids ever going to look back and say, ‘God, wasn’t our childhood fantastic? Do you remember how mother used to hoover everyday?’

mme: Thank you for answering :) I completely understand the time and effort that goes into this kind of thing and why you need to charge, especially since my partner started learning to code at uni, I don't think I fully comprehended how muh effort went into the mechanisms of making simple things work until he started doing that! It's good that you'll be keeping a significant amount free too though.

Re the second question, that's good to hear :) I did have a bit of a chuckle at that bit of his interview. Every boss of mine, at some point, has suggested that I go back to university and become a teacher or a child psychologist, I get it from family too, and then strangers/acquaintances. It's interesting because I don't think that I'd be told that if I was a nursery manager or something! I do want to go back to uni, just not at this point in life!

Pixie
Oh, I have to admit that I do very little coding. The reason I need a professional to take over is that I am at the end of my tech skills. I can't integrate all the changes needed on the site that we have at present. The current site is a blog base, and so is updated just once a day. When we have the new site, we can put new content on several times a day.

Its an odd thing, isn't it? That people think that everyone should be ambitious and want to be the boss?

I didn't go to university because I didn't know what I wanted to do, but a lot of my friends were pressured into doing a degree that was pretty much useless to them. I am a big fan of apprenticeships - having lived in Germany, I saw how well the system there works.

Ah, what you've done so far is brilliant though, I did wonder if it was a blog base or not (seemed very similar to a word press theme I liked!) I knew that a lot of effort went into websites, just not how much until then!

It's really strange, we're pushing everybody to be "unique" and "aim high" when actually, we need to pare back a bit and look at what everybody wants, needs and is good at.

I was pushed into a childcare degree that I hated, dropped out after three months. This was after failing all of my A Levels because they were all Science based. I wish I'd never gone to uni to start with and waited, I still don't know what I want to do but I'll get there! I think apprenticeships are brilliant when used properly, over here they seem to be used as an excuse to take advantage of people. I was doing 50+ hours a week on £80pw on an 'apprenticeship' scheme