While many grown-ups have struggled to remain motivated during lockdown, two young North London sisters have launched an online magazine to entertain their peers.
The magazine’s name, Magnolia, was inspired by a neighbour’s tree, whose beautiful pink and white blossoms spill into the girls’ garden. The digital publication is packed with features from puzzles and poetry to outdoor activities and cookery. The girls even allocate a page in the magazine to their 5-year-old brother’s contribution.
“At this really difficult time of self-isolation and social distancing, we wanted to share the wonderful things around us with our friends,” say schoolgirls Eliana and Elysia. “We chose the flipbooks format for Magnolia to get the look and feel of a magazine. Because it’s online, we can share it with children around the UK and even around the world. In fact, we’ve already had feedback from friends here in the UK, in the US, Ireland and Israel!”
With each issue of the magazine, the girls will choose a different charity to promote and support. For their launch issue, the girls chose Smile Aid, a charity that – by constructing hand pumps, tube wells, and water filter plants – provides clean running water in places affected by water shortages.
Magnolia is highly interactive. The topic headings in the contents section are linked to the relevant page meaning the reader can jump straight to the section of interest. Riddle solutions are revealed at the click of a button, there are audio clips of book reviews and weblinks to a selection of puzzles and craft activities that the girls have discovered online. There’s even a video tutorial demonstrating how to bake the girls’ grandma’s apple pie.
“The girls were simply amazing with a clear vision of what they wanted to achieve from Day One,” says Ronan Campbell, 3D Issue’s Business Success Manager. “They strived for digital publishing perfection – making creative use of our flipbooks’ audio, video and weblink features – and I felt privileged to be part of their team.”
Magnolia will be published regularly, throughout the year, and the girls are already busy with Issue 2.
