by Divya Kumar
News Editor

In order to fulfill the hectic schedule of school, homework and extracur­ricular activities, students rarely have time to com­plete work beyond what is asked of them. CHS junior Megan Cooper and senior Maddie Walters defy such standards, tackling on an­other project on top of their already booming schedules, in the creation of Edie, an online magazine found at ediemagazine.com.

The idea, rather than being a well-thought out plan in the works for ages, started as a joke. However, it eventually went from random to a goal for both Cooper and Walters.

“I’ve actually always wanted to have a future in the magazine business,” Cooper said. “I just love every aspect of it – the photographs, the writing, the designs, the art… This magazine is like our outlet for expression.”

While the content of the magazine was rather simple for the girls to de­cide, the name proved to be more challenging feat. In the end, Edie was chosen.

“I had recently watched a movie entitled Grey Gardens in which there was a mother-daugh­ter duo who both had the name Edie,” Cooper said. “I felt like I could relate to them because they both wanted to stand out de­spite obvious obstacles. The name just worked so well.”

Edie is set to feature photography, art, fashion, music, movies and book reviews, all geared towards inspiring girls. Most of the writing will be completed by friends of the girls, as well as some pieces submit­ted by Walters, and submis­sions from outer sources are also welcome. Photos are set to be found through submissions on Flickr and art will be discovered on­line via Tumblr.

“I’m kind of in charge of content, while Megan does the pages and yells at people,” Walters said. “This magazine is like our baby, and we’re in our seventh month of pregnancy – the point where the anticipa­tion is high and we’re just waiting for the end result.”

Beyond just simple submissions, however, ex­ternal sources are being sought out by Cooper and Walters. Katie Barron, an up-and-coming artist and one of Cooper’s acclaimed favorites, is to be among the more well-known submis­sions featured in Edie.

Since print maga­zines require a good deal of money to publish, the deci­sion to make the magazine an online was rather mind­less. The timing, according to Cooper, was brilliant as well since she was currently completing a project in her AP English class requiring to create a Web site.

“Having it online makes us be able to make Edie free to all, as well,” Walters said. “I’d feel bad selling something like this to people. This magazine means more to us than just money.”

This ideology also prevents Edie from being released under strict dead­lines and gives Walters and Cooper the opportunity to make the magazine the best possible. Breaks in produc­tion are most likely to oc­cur during finals week and when Walters leaves for college, however these are only minor bumps along the process. Because of this zealous scheduling, all 40-something pages Edie is set to be top-quality, both girls assure.

The most difficult is­sue likely to be encountered appears to be lack of sub­mission. While both Coo­pers and Walters are artistic and have several pieces and photos already lined up, the need for entries from new sources is highly stressed upon. For this reason, the girls decided to team up with the newly revamped Shutterbugs club.

“Since most of the people in this club are peo­ple who either love taking pictures or want to learn more about them, I thought working with Edie would generate a lot more enthu­siasm,” Shutterbugs club president Audrey Eichen­berger said. “Members are encouraged to submit their original photos to Edie so that they can get the feeling of knowing that their pho­tographs mean something.”

Though the process of creating Edie has continued for roughly the last month, the outlook for the publica­tion of the magazine looks bleak until around April, the set release date.

“Everyone keeps tell­ing me how excited they are to see it,” Cooper said. “I’m excited to see what it’ll look like, too, because in a way, this magazine is just the es­sence of both of us laid out for everyone to see.”

For now, both Coo­per and Walters are look­ing forward to continue to find new pieces and articles to put in their magazine. Despite the challenges of securing writers and estab­lish photographers, both express their excitement over Edie.

“It’s not only that we both feel so passion­ate about everything that’s going to be in it,” Walters said. “But it’s so much fun to work with the person that you get along with bet­ter than anyone else.