SoapOpera

The publishing scene in Italy is in constant evolution. Some say it’s saturated, some suggest newspapers are dead and others, instead, argue that news are now read only through social media.

Then there is an Italian girl duo – as much creative as eclectic – who have decided to go against the tide, creating an online visual diary aimed at promoting international art and fashion talents. It's called SoapOpera – because "the daily life of today's girls is a soapopera"– and they like to define it as a 'Fanzine'.

In this interview with Federica Ciuci Priori and Erika Grupillo, its founders, we reveal you the most interesting behind the scenes of the project – and a big news.

Federica & Erika

#1 What prompted you to create SoapOpera and where does the name of the project come from?

SoapOpera was founded in 2014 as a webzine to meet our own personal creative needs. We felt the need to give life to an independent project dedicated to girls, to create a reality that reflected our style and that we couldn’t find in the Italian landscape.

The choice of the name SoapOpera was born in a totally spontaneous way, to those who ask us why we say that the daily life of today's girls is already a soapopera! A single story divided into a large number of episodes: every day you happen to live out a different, sometimes dramatic, often sentimental, almost always challenging but certainly funny experience.

The important thing is to live all the episodes without feeling judged and don’t take yourself too seriously.

#2 Why did you choose to define yourself as Fanzine and not blog or magazine, so popular nowadays?

A fanzine is an amateur, unofficial publication aimed at a specific audience. SoapOpera was born ideally as a webzine, is not updated as a blog, it is not useful as a portal and does not follow the deadlines imposed by the web or social media, it is primarily a visual diary that supports international talents who decide to create something for us, but also a showcase for the Italian creative people who feel close to our ideas.

This project gets new life online every two months, resembling more to a collective exhibition of artists rather than a magazine. We are fascinated by the precision and dedication that exposure, although virtual in this case, requires, in contrast to the continuous and chaotic stream of images dictated by Instagram or Tumblr.

Larsen Sotelo

#3 SoapOpera is a project made by girls, with girls as protagonists. Do you consider yourselves feminist? 

Each issue of SoapOpera is created for precise feminine types: curious, engaged, educated, interested in supporting new artists with a passion for art, fashion, photography and cinema. In our manifesto we explain the intention of creating a project for girls with a strong passion for the sensual side of visual culture. But within our team there are not only girls! We decided to involve also men: illustrators, stylists and photographers, because we don’t want to have limits. The idea is not to create a girl gang behind the magazine, but to have one outside that shares our vision.

If by feminist we mean independent, self confident and active in overcoming the fact that there are still stereotypes about women, then we can say we are! But we like to point out that this fanzine is not about feminism but rather about art curated by women. We firmly believe that a good tool to fight stereotypes is irony, essential ingredient of our slogan: "Culture is best served on high heels" – a claim about the active participation of women in art which plays itself with a commonplace, while #BusySexyEasy is a provocation: we choose to be sexy when we want to, superficial when necessary and above all easy!

Giulia Bersani

#4 Who are your fashion and music icons? 

In the field of music? Beyoncé! Then Lauryn Hill, Erykah Badu, Salt-N-Pepa, TLC, Aaliyah. We were born and raised in the '90s, our background is mainly hip hop, r'n'b of the early 2000s. Although of course, when it comes to icons, being Italian girls, we never forget Patty Pravo. As for fashion, each of us has a very long list of models and superstars from which we draw inspiration every day and help us to improve in so many ways. As a team, there are many independent realities made by strong women that have stimulated us in the past year, as well as artists, stylists and photographers who often end up becoming part of the SoapOpera team.

#5 You will soon launch a blog called SoapJournal. Can you tell us about this new project?

The SoapJournal is a virtual diary for connected girls (or disconnected, depending on the time of day, horoscope and mood). The project will be launched with the next issue of SoapOpera in late April. We felt it was time to create a real blog, independent from the webzine, updated weekly, a stream of consciousness, a journal that will revolve around periodical issues that will be posted online in advance. SoapJournal is the blog you would like to read while you have breakfast in the morning, cheeky, sincere, amateur and all-female! We are working to put together a community of young girl writers with something to say: no limitations, only confessions. 

By the way, submissions are officially open! We look forward to hear you! We promise only major themes.

Lena Amuat