Editor’s letter
You may remember we did an edition of Hopezine last year using only AI. In contrast to this, this spring we welcome you to a dose of reality and ask contributors what’s real to us? In a world of lip-fillers and Instagram filters, where we’re often only seen by our social media posts, this reality edition seems all the more poignant.
So what’s real to us?
Relationships, family, disability, our faiths – it isn’t one size fits all though there have been some themes of people and accessibility being real to us at Hopezine. And nature, too.
We asked photography students at Stafford College to capture on camera what’s real to them, alongside pioneering poets and women-in-business who combined expertise, kinship, and accessible fashion in their responses.
For our accessible travel spread this season, we headed for some winter sunshine in Taghazout, a fishing village in Morocco. The realist thing we found here was the warmth of the Hilton Hotel staff and local taxi drivers.
This can only serve as a timely reminder to smile as you walk with us so we know you’re real, too!
With all that’s real from me to you,
~Erica x
