The Afterbreak revolution

Elizabeth Joseph Rejoice Amutenya and Mehafo Amunyela are two young Namibians who saw the need for a Namibian-based teen magazine and did not hesitate for one moment about making sure that need is met. Launched in April 2018, Afterbreak Magazine is a digital platform where young people can find articles on anything from university to teenage life in general. Amunyela said the aim of the project is to be the leading teenage/young adult platform that educates, empowers and entertains the Namibian youth. “Our aim is to engage young adults and form a community of growth and to be the platform that acts as a liaison between adults and teenagers/young adults. “Rejoice and I started Afterbreak Magazine because we wanted to have access to information about university, school and life in general relating to us as Namibians,” she further mentioned. They couldn’t find the information they were looking for because there were no teen magazines by Namibians and only a handful of teen bloggers. The lack of information inspired them to provide it themselves.Rejoice AmutenyaAmutenya is a grade 12 learner at Windhoek High School. It all started when she would go to Spar every Sunday to buy bread and would beg her mother to buy her a Teen Zone Magazine (a South Africa teen magazine). “Growing up, their content didn’t make much sense as it was not Namibian-friendly and that’s where the idea of starting a Namibian-owned teen magazine came from. A platform the Namibian youth can relate to,” Amutenya said. In 2016, she approached Betty Sibeso, the founder of Monochrome Magazine who is now also their mentor, to give her advice on to how to go about launching a magazine. “By then, I was a blogger so my writing was pretty good. She suggested I write for Monochrome Magazine, I went ahead and took the offer. Towards the end of 2017, I told her that I really want to start my own magazine and I am ready to take the rollercoaster ride.” Sibeso then suggested that Amutenya get someone to work with her. At the time, she only knew that Amunyela was a blogger and that her writing skills were impressive.I approached her and pitched the idea to her and she agreed. And that was the beginning of Afterbreak Magazine. Sleepless nights creating and designing the website followed, but they didn’t give up. “I must say, I am proud of how far we have gone,” she said. Mehafo AmunyelaIn 2017, while she was in grade 10, Amunyela was overcome with a deep desire to create content. At first, she wanted to create on YouTube but because she wanted to create quality content and did not have the equipment, she took a leap of faith and started a blog. Amunyela published her first post on the 6 September 2017, less than a month before her external examinations. “At the time, Rejoice was the only other teen blogger I knew so we became acquainted and I often took inspiration from her blog. A few weeks down the line, Rejoice asked me to join her in starting an online magazine for teens and I agreed to be the co-founder.We published our first issue in April 2018 with the help of Betty Sibeso, among others, and the rest, as they say, is history.”Logistics The magazine is funded by the co-founders. They have no external sponsors or sources of income. When asked why they decided to make use of an online platform as opposed to traditional print media, they said teenagers spend most of their time on their phones and social media, so they decided it would be best to go where the target audience is, but added that going into print media is something they are looking into.How it works“We have a group of 7 contributors, 5 YouTube hosts and then Rejoice and I. The contributors are responsible for writing articles, sometimes based on a theme or topic that we give them. “They then submit the articles to us and we edit the articles, add photos and publish them. All the articles they write are their own and we publish them under their own user names,” Amunyela said.This dynamic duo have proven that they are a force to be reckoned with, and their future looks bright.

The Afterbreak revolution

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Namibian Sun 2024-11-26

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The Afterbreak revolution

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Namibian Sun 2024-11-26

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