It is an honour and a joy to welcome you not only to Aroha ‘24, but to our Create Happy blog. We decided to make the change for many reasons, but the good news is you get the same high-quality content as always, just in a more ongoing and accessible way. Rather than flicking through the pages of our magazines online to find an article about something you’re specifically interested in, you can search our entire catalogue to find pieces that are tagged with whatever you want to read – recipes, climate activism, music, art tutorials – it’s all at your fingertips. We’re still incredibly proud and grateful for our experiences creating actual magazines, and we will probably still hold onto that format in a different capacity, but for now, get familiar with the blog – it’s a beautiful space filled with so many incredible stories from our rangatahi. You can access our blog here on our website, or on our Substack createhappy.substack.com 💚
It’s been a big few months at Create Happy. Our journalists are pitching articles, writing beautiful pieces, and interviewing even more beautiful people almost constantly. We received sixty applications to create with us in our September intake, and we’ve loved meeting all the lovely people who applied. Our editorial team are writing a lot of emails and suffering from something we’ve dubbed the ‘Create Happy Editorial Curse;’ I won’t get into it, but with the hurdles we’ve been facing behind the scenes, pulling our incredible Aroha edition together – in a brand new format – has been a rollercoaster.
It feels very synchronous that as we release this edition, which has been a labour of love through a very challenging time for our editorial team, another beautiful piece of media has emerged from one of our biggest inspirations. The Gen-Z run Sh*t You Should Care About is one of Aotearoa’s most influential media platforms, and the release of Luce and Bel’s book Make it Make Sense could not be better timed. In it, Bel talks about ‘phoenixing.’ On Substack, she writes that “[t]hose hard times? They’re the ashes. But you? You’re the bird rising out of them.” Felt. Medical emergencies, family challenges, grief, work struggles, breakups, academic stress, university applications… the list of things our teenage editorial team has faced in the past few months goes on. But we’re moving forward with the launch of our gorgeous Aroha edition. We’re phoenixing.
Create Happy Media is never stagnant. We’re constantly innovating, learning what isn’t working for us and using this learning to create solutions that will lift us above and beyond. As a youth-run media company, this youthful energy, the ability to bounce back, is our superpower, and it’s yours, too. The changes coming to our platform in the next few months are super exciting. The launch of our blog, our upcoming podcast, stories from our incredible new journalists, fantastic work from names you might recognise already, and collaborations that will help us platform even more young people are all things to look forward to. I couldn’t be prouder of the entire Create Happy Media whānau who have worked tirelessly to create all these beautiful pieces of work and opportunities.
We know our storytellers are here to inspire change—let them into your heart, let their aroha move you, and let them support you through whatever challenges you’re facing in the same way they’ve moved our editorial team. As always, thank you so much for being here, and, in the immortal words of Bel Hawkins, “happy phoenixing.”
Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou,
Ella Sage
Create Happy Co-Editor