Tag: Writing

Politics Edition

It’s Time To Put Pills to the Test

Words by: Élodie Ricaud 
Art by: Callum Johnson

Nothing makes me more energised and giddy than the magical hours spent at a music event. I’m talking festivals, concerts, bush doofs, clubs, bars, gigs or even someone’s over-cramped house party at four in the morning. These settings allow people to dance their hearts out, socialise, celebrate, experiment, make utter fools of themselves (all in good spirit) and temporarily shed the weight of the world — which is the very essence of life. Like most universal rituals of festivity, they are also places where high levels of drug consumption take place, sometimes even as a social prerequisite. 

… It’s Time To Put Pills to the Test
Politics Edition

Will History Repeat Itself? 

Words and photography by: Andie Perez

My Lolo was an illustrator for the largest media company in the Philippines. He would sketch caricatures of people at ease and master different writing styles with a delicate hand. Lolo never believed his art was perfect, only good enough. But he had been satisfied with his position. A mixture of fun and work.

But in 1972, when Lolo was 27 years old, everything changed.

… Will History Repeat Itself? 
Politics Edition

Darts Vaper

Words by: Jackie Zhou
Art by: Mon Ouk

Whether you’re having a night out with your friends on Chapel Street or grabbing a coffee from a trendy cafe you saw on a Melbourne food blogger’s TikTok, chances are you’ve caught a whiff of one of the many different flavours of a passerby’s vape — or maybe you’ve even tried one out yourself. 

… Darts Vaper
Politics Edition

Democracy Sudoku

Words and Art by: Callum Johnson

If this year’s federal election has shown us anything, young voters can have a drastic impact on the political landscape. But how do you figure out who to vote for to begin with? Adrift in a sea of old men in suits, it’s all too easy to lose yourself amidst the myriad of political parties, the differences between which can seem like little more than shades of grey (or caucasian, more accurately) to the uninformed. 

… Democracy Sudoku
Politics Edition

Environment Woes and Climate-Activist Hoes

Words by: Alice Wright
Art by: Molly Burmeister

In the past year, Australia was ranked dead last for its climate policy, with no current plan in place to work towards transitioning to renewable energy on a national level. No new policies have been announced to reach zero emissions by 2050, and each and every year we watch on as houses are burnt down and flooded, leaving Australians left with little hope for the future. 

… Environment Woes and Climate-Activist Hoes
Humans Edition

An Ode to the Talking Stage

Words by: Chanttel Forbes

Now how many times have you been telling your friend about a new guy, and it goes something like this? 

Example A: omg he’s so amazing he says good morning to me

Example B: omg he checks up on me throughout the day

To which she replies: I can literally do that for you, that is the bare minimum.

That was the wake-up call I needed to realise I was accepting far too little, forcing me to take a deep dive into why that is and just how influential seeing positive relationships around you can be. 

… An Ode to the Talking Stage
Humans Edition

Literary Clout

Words by: Caitlin Cefai
Art by: Victoria Loizides

Commuting is one of the most universal human experiences: bumper-to-bumper in early morning traffic jams, stumbling while standing on a moving bus, or the sweat on your brow after a cycle to work. What is even more human is being nosey — and there’s nothing quite like peeking at what other people are reading while sitting on the train. 

What someone is reading can tell us an awful lot about them, and so below we’ve decoded some of the most popular books you might be caught reading, and what it tells other people about you. 

… Literary Clout
Humans Edition

How I Got Here: A Recipe

Words by: Felice Lok
Art by: L. Ching

I love writing, but I didn’t always realise I did. It must have begun when my uncle would return from Sydney every Christmas and pull beautifully wrapped storybooks out of his denim satchel for me like Mary Poppins. I soon fell in love with the touch of textured paper under my fingers as I diligently sounded out the ‘big words’. When I was 12, my mum sent me to an English tutor who left me in tears after every lesson because my stories were simply not interesting enough. In hindsight, I have both of them to thank because my stories were, in fact, not interesting at all. This tutor had made me realise it wasn’t that I lacked great ideas, but that writing was a skill I had to patiently practise in order to captivatingly convey what I wanted to say. When I reached uni, I began watching Gilmore Girls and started living vicariously through the protagonist, Rory Gilmore, who inspired me to study journalism. All these people (real and fictional) made me realise the value of words. Through words, I get to read the most interesting stories, pen thoughts to paper when I am anxious, and shamelessly share carefully crafted puns with my friends. For me, words are a vehicle for self-expression which have become a significant part of who I am. 

… How I Got Here: A Recipe
Humans Edition

Never Meet Your Heroes

Words by: Soraya Rezal
Art by: Madison Marshall

People always say, ‘never meet your heroes’. Often the expectations are set so high that when you finally get the chance to meet them, you’ll be disappointed when they’re not at all what you imagined them to be. Not for me, though. The first time I met my idol was definitely one for the books, despite me making a complete fool of myself. 

… Never Meet Your Heroes
Humans Edition

A Guide To Dealing With Partners You Cannot Stand

Words by: Emma Sudano
Art by: Lauren Easter

We all want our BFFs to be happy in love, on one condition: that I’m happy, too. It’s an age-old dilemma, you don’t like your friend’s partner. So, what do you do? 

You probably want to yell ‘you can do so much better!’, maybe even grab their arms and shake some sense into them. You think back to all the wine-induced hours spent mapping out their ideal partner, based on everything from personality to how they will look in the wedding photos. For fuck’s sake, there were probably even Pinterest boards made. Why didn’t they listen to the Pinterest boards?! You love your friend and vow to always be there for them — yet any time they mention their significant other, you cringe with every fibre of your being. But what are you going to do? Tell them that their partner is a jerk? Is it truly your place? Should you shut the fuck up, keep your head down and secretly loathe their spouse? None of these seem to be viable possibilities. 

… A Guide To Dealing With Partners You Cannot Stand
Humans Edition

I Don’t Want Kids

Words by: Tess Kent
Art by: Jessica La

TW: Infertility

As if it were the most casual of conversations, my gynaecologist handed me my prescription and let slip, “when you start thinking about wanting kids, come see me 12 months earlier to begin fertility treatments”. 

I’d just come in for a check-up as my period erred on the side of few and far between. Instead, I found out that I had polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and potentially endometriosis, and had just been slapped with the fact that I don’t ovulate properly. Suddenly, I was very aware that having children would need to be an incredibly conscious decision for me. I would have to try very hard to conceive, and even then, it would most likely be a rigorous process of testing and heartbreak. 

… I Don’t Want Kids
Humans Edition

Mum Wang’s Private Kitchen

Words by: Kate Zhang

When I walked into the Chinese restaurant opposite Coles in Caulfield Plaza, its owner June Wang greeted me with enthusiasm and asked me what I would like to order.

“Which one do your customers like the most?” I asked Mum Wang, flipping through the menu.

“It’s a difficult question,” she replied. “Everything on my menu is created by my customers. They said to me: ‘I want to have eggplant pot.’ And then I tried to cook some for them to taste. They told me: ‘Oh, it’s delicious!’ Then I add it to the menu. Every dish was created in this way. So, my menu is filled with what my customers like.”

… Mum Wang’s Private Kitchen
Humans Edition

A Love Letter to My Short-Lived Crushes

Words by: Juliette Capomolla
Art by: Annabel Condon

It’s undeniably human to have crushes. I mean, what’s the point of going to your weekly uni tutorial if not for the guy in the green sweatshirt who sits in the back left corner? Crushes enliven an excitement, giddiness and youthful feeling in us all. A crush takes me back to the start of Year 7, when 13-year-old me thought all the boys would just die over my side pony and rolled up skirt (spoiler: they didn’t). Whilst I’d like to think I’m past that particular trend, the sentiment remains — there’s nothing quite like a crush. 

… A Love Letter to My Short-Lived Crushes
Humans Edition

Party of One

Words by: Kiera Eardley
Art by: Natalie Tran

“The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself.” 

Michel de Montaigne might have written these words in the 16th century, but it’s still a sentiment that would resonate with introverts everywhere. In a world that places a lot of importance on life-long partners, and at an age when popular culture is screaming from all angles that you should have a huge, boisterous friendship group that does everything together and goes out every night, it’s an easy one to forget. Society is built for extroversion in many ways, and there’s a lot of good that comes from that — but at the end of the day, all you really have is yourself. And that deserves to be celebrated. 

… Party of One
Humans Edition

Currents and Their Callings

Words and art by: Madeleine Galea

I used to think I was my interests, 

favourite things, 

books, quotes, colours, foods,

the idiosyncrasies that others could see, 

the things that had come naturally, 

the things I had done,

now, I’m not sure.


I feel like a grain of sand

washing around in the ocean,

trying to gain traction,

to form an island all of my own,

Instead, I’m blown from coast to coast. 

never quite mine, 

roving right into rivers of righteous irritation,

trying to find myself among cohorts of  lost souls,

trying to build my home in a hurricane. 

Instead of me are the fragments of what people have left behind,

those I admired,  

people I have loved, 

the way I cook my eggs and order my coffee,

my own reflection, 

and maybe it’s not such a curse,

to find yourself lost