KAREN BOKRAM: HOW I STARTED GIRLS’ LIFE MAGAZINE

KAREN BOKRAM: HOW I STARTED GIRLS’ LIFE MAGAZINE

EG: How did you start Girls’ Life?

KB: I formulated a business plan, found a partner who wanted to invest in the concept, we put an issue out, got advertisers, got it on newsstands and got subscribers going. This type of launch would be very hard to do now.

We are a 24/7, 365 website as well. Along with doing the magazine, we are doing the website everyday, too.

EG: How do you create each magazine?

KB: We deal with a very specific set of issues that happen at one point in a girl’s life and we stay true to that and don’t try to be anything else.

We start off every issue with 96 blank pages that we have to fill. We have editorial meetings to figure out what is going to be in every issue, then we assign out the articles. Once we get the articles in, we ship the magazine off to the printer.

EG: We love the name Girls’ Life.

KB: Yes, the greatest part about Girls’ Life as a name was that when I started the company and people would ask what I was doing, I would say, oh, it’s a magazine for young teen girls called Girls’ Life, and they would know exactly what the magazine was about.

Some people would say, when I was only one or two years in to it, oh Girls’ Life, I used to read that when I was a kid, and I loved it! I would think, okay, I’m not going to argue with you if you have a positive feeling towards it.

A lot of people were saying that they had read it, but they couldn’t ever possibly have read it. That was the power and the magic of that name. It felt familiar and trusted, even when it didn’t exist.

We also played with the name a little bit and called it GL because girls who were reading the magazine would think, oh, I’m not a girl anymore, so we live in a dual identity of Girls’ life and GL. Visually represented we are GL that is our logo, but our website is Girlslife.com.

EG: How did you find investors?

KB: I found the company down in Baltimore, and this was a fluke, they had the name Girls’ Life, which they were going to use for another product. It was a game, because they were a gaming company. They were in the use it or lose it phase of their copyright application and that is how I found them.

I called them up and said, boy, do I have great news for you, I’ll buy the name off you, since you’re not going to use it for anything.

They asked me, well what are you doing? I said, well I might be doing a magazine, and they said, that they might be interested in investing in that. To which I said, yeah, right, you’re a ten-million dollar company down in Baltimore, I’ll bankrupt you, there’s no way you could do this, and they said, well, you know, why don’t you come down and tell us about it.

I had a bunch of meetings with them, and they gave me a cheque and said that I could start this month.

I was dealing with a traditional publishing company in their developing unit, and it was going to be two years before we got on a newsstand with them, and so I decided to go for it with them and they were my partners for the first thirteen and a half years.  Then I bought them out, and now I have it on my own.

EG: What makes a successful entrepreneur?

KB: It costs money to get money, so make sure you set aside the money that you think you will need. It is a long and hard road but you have to keep at it. You have to be passionate, financially prepared, psychologically prepared and emotionally prepared.

-Photography by Sean Scheidt



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