Students Zoe Liuag (11) and Cameron Maldonado (11) are not only best friends, but also business owners.  The pair started their own art magazine, known as Stomp Magazine last year. Since then, they have released a total of four issues and had release parties for three of them. Their next issue comes out on September 16, which can be purchased for $5 through contacting either of them in person or on social media. The following is a Q & A with both Zoe and Cameron about their magazine:

What is Stomp Magazine?

Cameron: It is a student-run, self-funded art magazine that we started together in July 2016.

Zoe: Every issue, we have a different theme for the magazine, which usually go along with the time of year. So, for example, we’ve done a Halloween issue and a heartbreak issue for February. After we come up with the theme, we release it to the artists and they send us their art, then we compile it all into the magazine.

How and why did you first start it?

Cameron: Over summer, I was trying to think of what I could do to make some friends and get more involved in school, and I just had this spot of brilliance. It was late at night and I told Zoe, “Call me when you wake up, I have an idea.” Then we FaceTimed and she came over that day and we decided to make an art magazine. We just made an Instagram and a Twitter, started talking to people at school, and tried to get artists involved. We mainly did it to spread everyone’s art, meet new people, and to create a community.

Zoe: Artists usually aren’t compensated in school; they don’t get recognized. So, this way, if we sell fifty copies of our magazine, then that is fifty more people who have seen these people’s art, and we include all the artists’ social media so if people want to contact to them more, if they want to listen to their songs, if they want to buy their prints, they can do that. It is really great exposure for everyone involved, including us. The entire thing is self-funded, so at the beginning, we each put in around $30 and throughout the production of the last four issues, all the profit goes straight back into the funding for production.

What is each of your roles in creating the magazine?

Cameron: I do all the page design on my computer at home through Photoshop, and we print it all at my house. I focus on all the technological side of the magazine.

Zoe: And I take care of the social media and writing aspects of it. We both utilized our talents because I have always been a writer and Cameron’s always been a graphic designer.

What different aspects does it cover?

Zoe: We’ve covered bands, painters, sculptors, etc.

Cameron: We’ve also covered fashion designers; we cover all sorts of artists and we accept all sorts of art. We’ve included practically every medium so far.

How can one enter their work into the magazine?

Zoe: It’s super easy! First, keep up with us on Twitter and Instagram @stompmagazine. We update all of our themes and due dates on that, or you can ask us in person. If you have something you want to submit, you can either give us the hard copy or scan it, using your printer, and email it to us at [email protected].

What are your future goals for the magazine?

Cameron: We’ll probably continue it until the end of high school, on an every-other-month basis.

Zoe: We’re planning on keeping it going for as long as people are submitting, are buying, and are interested.

How do you feel it has impacted your connection to the artists you find?

Zoe: When we interview the artists, we connect with them on such a personal level, so a lot of close friendships have come out of it. It’s not just like “here are some questions, answer them.” It’s more like “talk about what you want to talk about and I’ll pull what I can from it.” Some people I could not imagine my life without have come from this magazine.

Cameron: From the get go, people have to get very vulnerable with us when we try to get them to share their work, so it’s given us some of our best friends.

How do you feel it has impacted your connection to each other?

Cameron: We fight a lot less. Because we have to focus on the greater good, we can’t bicker. If we argue, we have to stop right away because the magazine needs to get done. So we balance our friendship and having to run a business together very well.

Zoe: It’s also really held us accountable for our own actions. It is really cool to look back and be able to say, “I did that with my best friend.”

What has it taught you?

Cameron: It gives you a bigger picture because when you’re in high school, your whole life revolves around classes or sports, and this gives us something else to do that just my best friend and I get to work on. No one else has any say in it.

Zoe: We started it by ourselves from the bottom up and it has brought a lot of great people into our lives. It has given us discipline because there are so many people relying on us. It’s forced us out into the social world more, which made us more bold and confident because we have a cool reason to approach people.

What would you say to other kids out there who want to share their work with the world?

Zoe: If you want to share your work, just do it! Send it to us! If you do it through us, it’s a very safe way to do it because everybody that is involved is so supportive and love all of the art.

Cameron: We have parties and invite all the artists, and everyone bonds over their work and art. All these of people have never met each other before and then leave as friends.

What has been your favorite part of making a magazine together?

Cameron: Meeting people and spending time with my best friend. And just the response to the whole thing, getting recognized for it, since we both put in so many hours working on it, and getting other artists recognized. For a lot of our friends, it’s the first time they’ve ever had their work published, printed out and in their hands, and that’s so cool.

Zoe: The hype behind it! The recognition still shocks me. I go to tell people about the magazine, and they finish my sentence and say, “Stomp Magazine, right?” I had somebody say to me the other day that they followed me on all my social media and I said, “Oh yeah, I think you followed my magazine too.” And they replied, “Yeah, I think everybody knows about that.” And that, for me, was so cool. I love that people are as excited about it as I am. That’s crazy for me, that we’re creating something ourselves and people are willingly buying it.