Girlworld is an open submission, low moderation digital publication & creative platform, currently hosted on Instagram.
It was created with the intention of housing off-kilter, outsider, strange, "inappropriate", "bad", exploratory, or disturbing pieces (read: notes app poems, google doc short stories, niche memes, personal recounts/retellings, esoteric reels & microfilms, strange photos, collages, etc.) from people who are not cisgender, hetero men. it's as serious as you want it to be. if you're hesitant about sharing it, that's a good start.
first, I'm tired of cishet men and their stories lol, and disgusted by how eager they are to write or produce content about exploiting, assaulting, or raping women and girls. second, i started writing recently, mostly scrappy, freaky, nasty, weird stuff, and don't really care if it goes anywhere. i just want a home for it, and to provide that for others.
"Girlworld" mostly refers to the innate sense of anger and frustration that comes with being a "girl" (whether that's in mind, body or spirit - "girl" being the binary term used dismissively and derogatorily in many of these cases). sometimes it feels like a "girl" has more violence inside of them than any man could ever write.
this ethos is more for those who are submitting to know what you're getting into (a publication with a complicated relationship with patriarchy/gender/being a person/the world etc.). the pieces could really be about anything (as in, YOU DO NOT HAVE TO SUBMIT STUFF ABOUT GIRLHOOD OR FROM A "FEMININE" PERSPECTIVE IF YOU DON'T WANT TO). for example, i have an X in the gender section on my driver's license and i put up a little zine about back pain recently.
DM me on Instagram with a link to whatever you want uploaded, and the name you want to be credited as. This is about as anonymous as it can get right now, however I may also open up an anonymous form in the future prior to the online variant. You do not have to make anything "custom" to submit.
For written pieces, please provide a text file so I can format it for socials, or a HQ version of however you've formatted it. If you are submitting something over 500 words, it will likely be posted in parts, or if you prefer, I can post a short "teaser" and link out to wherever you're hosting it.
It's also worth noting that, while I'm not moderating your themes or topics, IG has its own ideas about this and can be sensitive, especially about sexism (against men specifically), blood & guns, mentioning topics related to assault or abuse, sex and sex work, overt mentions of politics, et cetera. If anything could potentially violate the community guidelines and put the account at risk, I will let you know and I can also do the teaser/link out thing for you.
It means that you are free to explore almost any topic you'd like, and you don't need to shy away from things that would be seen as weird or shocking. That being said, mindlessly/pointlessly/needlessly offensive or hateful content, or edginess/extremism for the sake of edginess/extremism, is lazy and will not be considered, nor trauma dumping trying to be artsy. I also reserve the right not to publish anything that could create undue controversy, drama, or IG guideline violations to the page or other people. in these cases, I will suggest small edits to alleviate this, and occasionally i will edit for spelling or grammar, but will not provide any editorial oversight other than that.