RECLAIMING GIRLHOOD – ATHENA GIRLS MAGAZINE
Good ideas often start small – for Athena Girls Magazine, it began with a single text message between three Mangawhai mums.
Earlier this year, Amy and her tween daughter stopped into their local bookshop, where her daughter asked to buy a young girls' magazine. On the drive home, and for the rest of that day, Amy watched her daughter completely absorbed in it – flicking through the pictures, working through the quizzes, reading facts out loud. It brought back a flood of memories for Amy of the magazines she'd grown up with herself: Dolly, Girlfriend, Cosmo, Cleo – the titles a whole generation of millennial girls were raised on.
But when Amy sat down to read the magazine properly, she was underwhelmed by the content. She jumped straight into her messages and fired one off to two other mums – her friends Natalia and Sara: "Hey, I reckon we need to make a magazine for tween girls?" And that was the beginning of Athena.
Amy and Natalia are friends who live in, and met in, Mangawhai. Amy was an intermediate teacher before retraining in emotional regulation and nervous system health, while Natalia worked in marketing with a background in art history and anthropology before Mangawhai became home. Later, they met Sara through the homeschooling community, and between them they now homeschool eight children – a pathway they credit for their instinct to simply build what's missing, whether that's a homeschool disco, a community hub, or, in this case, a magazine.That instinct shapes the kaupapa of Athena.
The trio see the tween and early-teen years as a critical time of identity formation, one now shaped heavily by social media algorithms and influencers rather than the more spacious, offline experiences girls once had. Athena is designed as what they call "a reclamation of girlhood" – something to read in bed with mum, sit in circles with friends comparing quiz answers, journal in, and grow into. Content is written both by adults and by tweens and teens themselves, anchored in emotional intelligence and mental health rather than trends.
Based in Mangawhai, Athena has ambitions well beyond it. The team is aiming for bi- monthly issues, a growing base of adult and teen contributors, and stockists across New Zealand and Australia, with a future boy- focused title, Apollo, already in their sights. Girls wanting to get involved can submit their own stories, hobbies, travels, artwork, playlists or fashion via the magazine's website, with every submission passed through parents for proofing and consent.
From a single bookshop visit to a magazine shaping up to be exactly what a generation of girls have been missing – reclaiming girlhood starts with Athena.
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