Young women’s mag targets Faithful sisters

Mary Giunca

HIGH POINT, N.C. — As a young woman preparing for prom, Pamela Holley-Bright remembers her frustration while looking through magazines for fashion tips.

“I didn’t see anything for my body type, makeup tips for my color skin, hair tips for my kind of hair,” she said. “It just wasn’t working for me.”

Holley-Bright, now 23, is determined to change that experience for women with Faithful Sister, a magazine aimed at young black women. The first issue of the magazine is available at her Web site, www.faithfulsismag.com. Holley-Bright plans to put out four issues in 2008.

Faithful Sister has a Christian perspective, Holley-Bright said, but she tries not to let it become preachy. For example, the first issue has a story about protecting yourself from the human papillomavirus virus (HPV), which can be sexually transmitted.

“You have to learn how to tone those things down,” she said. “Teens make mistakes.”

There are also tips for decorating dorm rooms and choosing the best makeup colors.

“I want to do things trendy but tasteful,” she said.

Pamela Foxx, a contributor to the magazine, a longtime friend and a lay minister at Memorial United Methodist Church in High Point, said the magazine has an important mission for young girls.

“There’s nothing out there that caters to minority teen females,” Foxx said. “If they look at Teen Vogue, they’re not going to necessarily see themselves.”

The magazine also highlights young women who are role models, but not necessarily celebrities. The first issue has a story about a young woman from Colorado who is attending the University of Pennsylvania. In another story, readers are introduced to actress Andrea Laing, whom Holley-Bright met at High Point University, where they were both students.

Laing is on the reality-TV show, “The Bad Girls Club,” which follows seven young women who share a house. Laing said that although the content of the show, with seven girls living under one roof, has made her mother “freak out” at times, she advises girls to be strong and be themselves.

Despite the controversial nature of the show, Holley-Bright said, she thinks that Laing is a good role model because Laing talks about being strong and being themselves.

Claudia Eldridge, a counselor at the Johnson Street Global Studies Magnet School in High Point, said she had invited Holley-Bright to speak at a mother-daughter breakfast at her school.

“I think it’s a great magazine and very appealing to the girls,” Eldridge said. “It’s positive. It’s not sexual.”

She also described the Christian orientation of the magazine as important to young girls.

“They want to feel like they’re young women of tomorrow,” Eldridge said. “They’re hip.”

Holley-Bright attends both Word of Life Tabernacle and Life Community Church in High Point. She said she debated for a year with herself about when the time was right to begin the magazine. She graduated from High Point University in 2006 with a degree in media studies and English and she had worked on the school newspaper. She also had three part-time jobs during those years, so she is used to juggling a lot at once.

She works as at Carson-Dellosa Publishing Co. Inc. in Greensboro. The company produces educational materials for teachers. Holley-Bright has had a variety of jobs with the company, including page layout, editing and archiving computer files.

At night, she comes home, sits down in her office and works on the magazine.

“I decided to just go ahead and do it,” she said. “These girls need this.”

She has spent about $3,000 of her savings to launch her first issue, Holley-Bright said. She has begun talking to advertisers and expects to charge for the magazine when the next issue comes out in December.

People have told her that she should aim for national distribution, she said, but she is happy to keep the magazine more manageable for now. She said she hopes that teens will see themselves in her magazine.

“In other publications, you hear about or read about what clothes you need to wear to fit in or who to be like,” she said. “I want them to be in love with who they are.”

(The Winston-Salem, N.C., Journal)