Women should be feminine. Women should work outside the home. And women should have kids! Oh, and value their careers.

There are a million more contradictory messages women receive that claim to state what makes a woman a woman. Or, more appropriately—what the mainstream thinks makes a woman a woman.

Although women have yet to officially shut down the haters—we know these fools still get press (ahem, Trump)—many women are using their art to convey this simple message: Not all women are the same.

One such piece of art is Typical Girls, a Sussex-based zine, created by Jamila Prowse and Chani Wisdom.

The zine’s debut issue was released in October 2015. Its topics? Beginnings. Specifically, multiple artists’ beginnings.

The zine’s second issue, the Naked issue, was released in March 2016 and its topics examine everything from radical artists who rally against “the two-dimensional, cookie-cutter girl,” to the work of Ronan McKenzie, a “photographer clapping back at exploitation, sexualisation and the mainstream erasure of blackness with her honest, beautiful series ‘A Black Body,'” Dazed Digital reports.

“The Naked Issue works in two ways, it explores the female form, and simultaneously acts as a way for us to display ourselves honestly and authentically,”  Jamila Prowse, the zine’s editor says in an i-D interview.

“It was important to us that our contributors could present themselves by their own terms, rather than having an editorial team dictate what kind of person they are. It is a move away from our first issue, which focused on beginnings, as a way for the publication to become braver by baring all.”

This zine matters so much because it shows women as they are—imperfections and all. We all could stand to see more women in raw, unfiltered states.

Future plans for the magazine include creating a living magazine—the founders will host multiple events where women can meet and discuss important issues, and future zine topics.

Get both issues of Typical Girls online here.

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Image of Typical Girls cover via Facebook

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