Olivia Spring (she/her) is founder and editor of SICK magazine, a ‘thoughtful’ independent publication sharing stories, insights and elevating the voices of sick and disabled people. SICK challenges harmful stereotypes and misconceptions surrounding disability and aims to increase representation of sick and disabled people in the publishing and creative industries.
Frustrated by the lack of support she experienced during her time studying and working in London, Olivia decided to create something that is: “exclusively by sick people; creating a space for us to come together, despite society making us feel we don’t fit in.” She recently graduated with a degree in journalism and having always wanted to work in magazines this felt like perfect format for SICK. Olivia impressively self-published the first issue with a small budget and has built the magazine from there—Issue 04 is out now.
We talked with Olivia to find out more about where the idea for SICK first began, the process of self-publishing a magazine and her thoughts on how the creative industry can be made more accessible and manageable for sick and disabled people.
Can you tell us a bit about the story behind starting SICK magazine and where the initial idea originated?
The idea came to me in a moment of frustration while I was at university and unable to work a part-time job because my body was considered ‘unreliable’. I had moved from New York to London to get a degree in journalism and really wanted to continue my life in the UK after university – I suddenly realised that I had no idea how I would be able to do that. I felt worthless, knowing that if I didn’t get a full-time job after graduating, it would be very difficult to get a visa and stay in the UK. I was so angry that this was my reality and felt so alone; everyone around me seemed to be able to juggle school, work, a social life, and hobbies, while I struggled just to make it to class. But I also knew the reality is that I wasn’t alone, which made me even more angry – if my experience wasn’t unique, why was it treated as such? Where were all the other disabled and chronically ill people trying to find their way through university and hold down jobs? This motivated me to create something that would be exclusively by sick people; to create a space for us to come together, despite society making us feel we don’t fit in.
“Where were all the other disabled and chronically ill people trying to find their way through university and hold down jobs? This motivated me to create something that would be exclusively by sick people; to create a space for us to come together, despite society making us feel we don’t fit in.”
Issue 01 cover art: Vicky Bass
Why did you decide to publish a magazine and how did you get started?
Magazines are something I’ve always been interested in and have wanted to work with, so it was the obvious choice of medium to formulate my idea. It was also something that excited me, I believed people would appreciate and one I felt capable of producing. I didn’t actually start working on the first issue until a little over two years after I came up with the idea because I was on a student visa at the time and wanted to gain as much relevant experience as I could before launching it into the world.
The first thing I had to figure out was finances. I didn’t have much beyond a couple hundred pounds in savings, so I had to make a budget and figure out what was reasonable. I researched printing costs, decided what would be fair contributor rates, calculated shipping costs, packaging costs, how much a website would cost to maintain etc. I had no experience or ability to do the design, and I struggled to find a sick designer before eventually being put in touch with Kaiya Waerea, who has worked with me on all four issues now.
Once I had these costs to consider, I thought about how best to make it financially possible and came up with the idea to have issue 01 be a ‘preview’ zine, showing readers a taste of what I wanted to make just to get the magazine off the ground, and then use money from that issue’s sales to fund the next issue, which would be a more standard size. Issue 01 was a 34 page, A5 zine, and issue 2 was a larger 155x235mm perfect-bound, 98-page magazine. I made issue 01 with £600, and pre-orders covered the cost of our first print run of 175 copies. It sold really well, got stocked in lots of stores, and by the time we started working on issue 2 we had printed a total of 845 copies. After the success of issue 01, I just continued building off what we had already done, making tweaks and adaptations to the process as I continue to learn with each issue.
Issue 2 cover art: Hayley Wall
Where do you find inspiration for each issue?
I don’t really see my inspiration as something different for each issue, but rather a general force that propels the whole project. Each issue is another chapter to SICK, in my mind all issues are created from the same source of energy that got the magazine off the ground. We don’t have themes, so I’m not actively thinking about how each issue will be ‘different’ because it naturally finds its way to that place through our process of submissions, commissioning, and design.
“Each issue is another chapter to SICK, in my mind all issues are created from the same source of energy that got the magazine off the ground.”
How do you go about selecting and commissioning contributors for each issue?
What I love about SICK is that each issue is completely shaped by contributors. I don’t start an issue thinking ‘we need to commission this person to write about this subject or this person to do a feature on this.’ I do sometimes have ideas for things I think would be good subjects, or topics I think haven’t been covered, so occasionally I will say that I’m particularly interested in submissions on certain topics but it’s not something that is forced. It’s really dependent on who our call out for submissions reaches and I try to select what I think is the strongest work from those. It’s also important to maintain a diverse range of voices and experiences, and I have used an equal opportunity form for the past two issues which has been really useful in seeing what groups of people are submitting, what illnesses and disabilities and most represented, and I can identify which groups I’m not reaching. I think a lot of this has to do with social media, filter bubbles, and algorithms, since that is the main way our calls for submissions and other posts get circulated.
“What I love about SICK is that each issue is completely shaped by contributors.”
Issue 3 cover art: Beyza Durmuş
What changes would you like to see in the creative industries to make it more accessible and manageable for sick and disabled people?
It’s difficult to answer these types of questions because I don’t really see myself as someone who has the answers, and I feel that the work I do takes place in this strange, isolated bubble away from the rest of the creative industry. I can say there are many simple things that people should consider to be make things more manageable and accessible for disabled people. For example, when I was trying to plan a launch party in London for issue 02 (which never happened due to COVID), I researched hundreds of bookstores, galleries, and other similar venues and around only five had access information easily findable on their website. If you own a space that is open to the public, you need to have access information readily available, even if that information is that your space is inaccessible. This is as simple as writing your store hours, or directions to your storefront – here is a good example: books-peckham.com that communicates to me that I’m welcome in this shop.
I’d also like to see less urgent turnaround times for work, more flexible deadlines, and more space to allow for rest and care. This isn’t just beneficial for sick and disabled people but all of us – people with children, people who are caring for their parents, their friends, themselves, people who have less access to things like reliable transportation and people who get COVID and need to rest and quarantine. Also, so that creatives don’t need to worry about never getting a freelance job again if they don’t meet their current deadline or show up at a certain time. There needs to be more representation of disabled people across all industries, and especially the creative industries. The employment rate for disabled people in the UK is 28.8 percentage points lower than non-disabled people, and in the US, the percentage of unemployed disabled people is twice as high as non-disabled people. Our experiences of marginalisation should be seen as an asset, rather than a burden; we should be welcomed rather than left behind.
“I’d also like to see less urgent turnaround times for work, more flexible deadlines, and more space to allow for rest and care. This isn’t just beneficial for sick and disabled people but all of us…”
What advice would you give to anyone facing barriers or challenges to a career in the creative industries due to sickness or disability?
I find it hard to give advice when everyone’s situation is so different and dependent on so many unique factors. For me, it was helpful to create my own project rather than keep struggling to fit into a structure that didn’t support me. But I wouldn’t necessarily give that out as advice, instead I would just encourage people to question the way things are structured and why you want certain things. Is it because you really want to do something for yourself or is it just what you feel you should want? I think doing what you can is enough, and sometimes that won’t be what you might have initially imagined.
I went through a period of time while waitressing where I thought it would actually give me a decent work-life balance as a creative. Working part-time in a bar was in some ways good for me: getting out of the house, social interaction, meeting new people, having some type of consistent structure to my days and week. It was frustrating to have a degree in journalism and not put it to use for paid work, there are still many other ways to find a path to creative fulfilment—something that ends up being a good fit for you might be something you thought was embarrassing or weird beforehand.
Experiment with whatever you can and keep your mind and options open. I think the biggest piece of advice would be to simply find community; find other people who are in similar situations or have experienced similar things, whether it be in real life or online (or a print magazine!).
“I think the biggest piece of advice would be to simply find community; find other people who are in similar situations or have experienced similar things, whether it be in real life or online (or a print magazine!).”
Issue 4 cover art: Florence Burns
Learn more about SICK on their website and support them on Patreon.
Credits
- Founder & editor: Olivia Spring
- Designer & assistant editor: Kaiya Waerea