Three new student-led magazines are emerging at Ithaca College this semester to highlight underrepresented voices, issues and subjects: Tinta Libre, ETRNL Magazine, and HerCampus. 

Junior April Cascante had the idea to start a literary and arts magazine focusing on uplifting marginalized voices on campus, specifically voices of people of color. According to its social media page, Tinta Libre describes itself as a call to action, promoting justice and equity. 

Tinta Libre is a Spanish phrase that can be translated to “Free Ink.” Cascante said they wanted the name of the magazine to reflect its mission to elevate Hispanic and Latino voices. 

“It’s based on collective liberation and radical liberation, and wanting it to be a place for people to envision a more liberated world, and so that’s where the ‘libre’ comes from,” Cascante said. “And then Tinta, just because it’s a publishing magazine.” 

Tinta Libre has three different sections: written word, visual arts and voices. Written word consists of fiction pieces, translations and critical analysis on culture. Cascante said they hope the visual arts section will be very open and experimental, featuring any kind of art — physical or digital. Lastly, the voices section will focus on interviews and spotlights on students and faculty of color. 

HerCampus is a national media platform dedicated to empowering, informing and connecting college women. There are campus chapters for many different colleges, including Ithaca College as of Fall 2024.  

Sophomore Grace Reilly, editor-in chief of HerCampus, said HerCampus consists of a writing, social media and PR team.The writing team produces articles on topics like wellness, beauty, politics, fashion and entertainment. The social media team creates digital content and a public relations team pushes for brand deals. 

“It’s so hard to put it into such few words, but HerCampus is so all encompassing for all types of people, people that want to do video and digital content or write,” Reilly said. “So that’s the thing that really intrigued me, because it takes creative voices and blends them so well.” 

The IC chapter was created in 2015 but ceased to exist in 2021 due to COVID-19 and the lack of in-person interaction. However, junior Gianna Izzo restarted the chapter last semester and the magazine has just started holding meetings this semester. 

Junior Leezum Regensburg is the secretary of HerCampus. She said the magazine has a mission to provide an open space for women to share their college experiences. 

“I feel as though for what Ithaca was missing out on in terms of college media was really a safe and open space for women to talk about things that they were going through, or college experiences that they were going through,” Regensburg said. “The general topic of women in college is something that I feel like is not spoken about,”

Regensburg, for example, wrote articles about what makeup one could wear to go out versus going to class and her experiences at Cornell fraternity events.

Similarly, Cascante said they want Tinta Libre to focus on social issues in its content but also just be a space for students of color at the college to showcase their creative work. 

“I think that just the fact that they’re writing and creating as a POC person, that is a radical act in itself,” Cascante said. 

Professor Annette Levine, professor in the department of World Languages and Cultures and the faculty adviser for Tinta Libre said she is honored to be a part of a publication that spotlights the work of multilingual and multicultural authors. 

“It’s an amazing venture,” Levine said. “I love literature in all its forms and languages and various cultures, and I think this is an amazing contribution to the campus community.” 

Cascante said they also hope to engage the members of Tinta Libre with the outer Ithaca community. Specifically, the Latino Civic Association and the Cornell Farmworker Program, which works to address the needs of immigrant farm workers in upstate New York.  

“I just want members of the magazine to also be volunteering, and spending their time in the community with other Latinos, especially because things are scary right now,” Cascante said.

Cascante talked about increasing levels of policing, hostility and dehumanization being directed towards Latinos. They said it was crucial that Tinta Libre goes beyond engaging with other students and connects with Latino families and individuals throughout upstate New York. 

ETRNL is a fashion magazine founded by sophomore Ayla Khosropour and junior Oslene Vanyanbah. Its mission is to bring people together to share creative ideas, primarily through photography and graphic design. 

Khosropour said ETRNL has a focus on sustainable fashion and reusing clothes. The magazine’s goal is to not use any new fabric and resist fast fashion. As part of its mission, the magazine promotes and sells its repurposed clothes through unique photoshoots.

“It’s more crazy content, odd angles, the angles that you don’t really see in photo shoots,” Khosropour said. “Not [just] standard poses, but unique style, with different types of people with different styles. We’re trying to show that clothes don’t have gender.”

Although the magazine is not directly affiliated with the college, they are trying to engage the campus community as much as possible. The magazine holds photoshoots that are open to all, regardless of experience. 

“We really wanted this program or magazine to be inclusive and open to everyone, and very much diverse as possible,” Khosropour said. “Whenever I’m looking for models or photographers or even editors, I’m not saying you need experience at all. This is a place for people to get experience and learn and make content.” 

HerCampus has a similar mission of inclusivity. Although the content is centered around women in college, Reilly and Regensburg assured that the magazine is not limited to only female-identifying creators. 

“We really just want to be a fun community and organization that encourages all voices to be heard about entertainment and news, but also, just the fun little parts of college,” Reilly said. 

Khosropour said she wants to create a space to showcase out-of-the-box, sustainable and genderless fashion. The current project she is working on consists of using the same pieces of clothing to style four different people in different ways. 

Although each of these magazines have their own unique visions, they all collectively strive to expand the range of the voices and issues being spotlighted in student media.

“Journalism is an everyone thing, media is an everyone thing,” Reilly said. “It’s not about gender guidelines, it’s something that we really want to break down, creating a space for everybody to have all their interests heard.”

Izzo is a staff writer and Vanyanbah is Design Editor for The Ithacan. 

Wolfgang Claussen/Pixabay, WikiImages/Pixabay, Annette/Pixabay, Dimitris Vetsikas/Pixabay, Photo Illustration by Kaiden Chandler/The Ithacan