This past weekend Rail Park mall parking lot was bustling with young girls for the launch of Sky Magazine, a magazine targeted at teenage girls. The Magazine Editor, Ngozi Chukura said of the project, “SKY is a new inspirational movement of teen girls, for teen girls. It is about inspiring girls to be true to themselves and helping them with positive self expression through the choices they make about things they like and are sure about (Sure Ka Yona), over things that they don’t like and are good without (Shapo Ka Yona), thus the acronym SKY.” She added that, “the magazine serves as a mouth piece for young girls so that they have conversations about what happens in their everyday lives and get proper advice, “we want the girls to define the tone of the magazine. We encourage them to share their thoughts, poems, pictures, letters, and tweets and Facebook messages with us and influence each other in a positive way. We want then to define their own Sky.”
The day’s activities included performances by Samantha Mogwe, Zeus and a special appearance by South African celebrity Boitumelo ‘Boity’ Thulo who encouraged girls to stay true to themselves.Copies of the magazine were distributed at the event for free. The magazine’s content includes fashion, lifestyle and positive affirmations from young girls featured in the magazine.
By mid afternoon, the parking area was packed and the launch had turned into a festival with young girls lining up for autographs from their favourite celebrities while others were in line waiting to get a manicure special treat. “We are so happy to be here, it’s so much fun. We came to the mall with our mom and saw lots of people here and decided to check it out, so mom left us here and she is coming to pick us up at five,” said Temo and Boitumelo Thaga. The day’s activities carried on until five pm in the evening and the words Shapo Ka Yone and Sure Ka Yone had become the order of the day.
Sky will also be extending beyond just a magazine to include a radio program that will be aired on YaronaFm every Sunday from 2pm to 3pm hosted by Zizi panther and two girls from Sky; Mandi and Warona.