an interview with Mia Alexander, creator of feministgrrrl.com

on Saturday 1st may, i had a video call interview with Mia Alexander (she/her), the creator of feministgrrrl.com. we talked about her website, intersectionality and shared feminist resources. this was my first time ever interviewing someone, and i was very grateful for the opportunity to talk to Mia.

who is Mia Alexander?

Mia Alexander is a 16 year old junior in high school based in Washington DC and, as I've already said, is the creator of feministgrrrl.com. A direct quote from her website:

"I created the Feminist Grrrl newsletter to share writings about feminism, intersectionality, and broader political topics. Feminist grrrl's number one goal is to promote sisterhood and solidarity between women."

when/ how did you first discover feminism?

"I first learned about feminism through Taylor Swift, actually, she had an article about it in a magazine where she was talking about the sexism she had faced in the music industry. I had already been a fan of Taylor Swift for a year so i was like, if shes talking about it, this is important; i need to learn more about this. so i first discovered it in about 5th grade, when i read that article and since then, I've obviously learnt more in depth about the topic."

(by the way, for any of my fellow brits, 5th grade is the equivalent to year 6, so age 10-11.)

what is feministgrrl.com?

"It [feministgrrrl.com] is a collection of articles and blog posts and it talks a lot about intersectional feminism and social justice and broader political topics. the goal is to show solidarity between misogyny affected people because we all of course have different lived experiences and for so long the feminist movement has centered upper-class, cis-het, white women and feministgrrrl is the opposite of that, in a way, because anyone can submit an article just go to the link in our bio and fill out the google form. it's really about getting as many view points and perspectives as possible."

I am very happy to say I have submitted an article to feministgrrrl.com (link here). it was an easy process, i just submitted my article via the google form which i'll link here.

how did the riot grrrl movement of the 90's influence you?

"I first discovered the riot grrrl movement only about a year ago when i got a book about it- it was called "the riot grrrl collection" and it was a collection of a bunch of zines and newsletters from the 90's within the riot grrrl movement. and what really inspired me and what i really loved about it was they weren't trying to make it palatable to men. they were angry. and i feel like a lot of feminism we see now is very 'aesthetic', millennial pink, like, trying to be shareable [as in getting shared on social media]. and what i noticed about the riot grrrl movement was that they weren't trying to hide their anger. its okay to be angry, anger is a form of power in a way. and i really like that and i want to continue that with feministgrrrl.com."

who are 3 feminists that inspire you?

"Bell Hooks- she's an author and activist and she has a lot of really great books on feminism and then Kimberelé Crenshaw, she's a civil rights lawyer and she developed the theory of intersectionality, she first came up with that term, which i think is so important. And also AOC [Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez], i don't agree with all her politics, i think it's hard to find someone who you agree with all their politics, but i really am inspired by how outspoken she is and how, as a young woman in congress, that must be so difficult and it really inspires me."

Mia Alexander's recommendations for feminist media (books, movies etc...)

"I definitely read a lot of books about feminism, some of my favorites are: 'feminism is for everybody' and 'feminist theory: from margin to center' and both of those are by Bell Hooks. they're very easy to read, they're not super over complicated or anything. and i also really like 'the beauty myth' by Naomi Wolf, it's from the 90's but it's still very accurate today. also there is so many amazing creators tik tok and instagram, i don't really have any off the top of my head, but i know i follow so many amazing people there and you really just have to scroll through intersectional feminism hashtags and you can find so many amazing creators."

where to find feministgrrrl.com?