What Themes Do the Issues of Girls Like Us Cover?

Updated

Girls Like Us organizes each issue around a single thematic concept, and the themes visible on its site cluster around queer life, emotional and material economies, and imagined futures. Based on the issue listings on the homepage, you can expect each edition to gather writing, images, and objects under that theme rather than follow a general lifestyle format. The confirmed issue themes are Biography (#12), Economy (#11), and Future (#10).

Confirmed Issue Themes

Issue Theme How the site frames it
#12 Biography Life told through writing, images, and objects; life as "a sticky, messy pile of narratives and emotions," entangled rather than singular
#11 Economy Economies as everywhere and inescapable—trading emotional labour, desires, love, fertility, time, minds, queerness, politics, and clicks; both oppressive and enabling
#10 Future A future "outside of straight time"; a fair, fun, fierce, free future shared with friends and lovers

Biography (#12)

The framing is explicitly queer: "Welcome to your queer life." The issue treats biography not as a single linear CV but as multiple lines and connections. If you read for personal narrative and identity, this is the most directly relevant issue.

Economy (#11)

This issue widens "economy" beyond money to emotional labour, desire, fertility, time, attention ("clicks"), and queerness itself. The description notes both economies we can control and those that control us, plus ones that can be subverted for collectives. It suits readers interested in the intersection of intimacy, power, and labour.

Future (#10)

The future here is social and domestic—dinners around a table built together—rather than technological prediction. It is the issue to start with if you want the magazine's political and imaginative register in its most concentrated form.

What Else Appears Alongside the Issues

The site also lists non-issue content that shares the same queer-cultural lens:

  • Heresies — a section including a piece by Grace Dunham ("Their Trans Tube") on YouTube as more than a repository for animal videos.
  • Events — for example, a 2017 Brussels event at Beursschouwburg built around "A Lesbian Bar," and the Issue #10 launch in Brussels hosted in a CAMPerVAN caravan.
  • Shop — merchandise such as the "SECOND SKIN HARNESS" by Sara Manente, Inju Kaboom, and Günbike Erdemir.
  • Sound — an audio-related section listed in the navigation.

How to Decide Whether It's for You

  • Choose it if you want themed, arts-driven writing on queer life, affect, labour, and futurity, presented through mixed formats (text, image, object).
  • Start with #12 for personal narrative, #11 for politics of labour and desire, #10 for the magazine's vision of collective futures.
  • Look elsewhere if you want news, reviews, or general lifestyle service content—the issue descriptions point to essayistic and artistic editorial themes rather than reporting.

The site's own note that it may display oddly on an old browser is a practical caution: use a current browser when browsing the issues.