We think you are Waif.

 

We do. We really do. And we want to hear from you.

 

If you can believe it, our magazine is almost entirely submission-based. We rely on the words and pics of Waifs like you to fill our pages. Got something Waif to share?

Send it over to: info@iswaif.com

 

The vibe around here is Open Arms. Send us work that is truly disturbing, unsettling, peculiar, hysterical, or otherwise full of love and wonder and curiosity. Think of us as the only magazine that would ever say yes to your unpolished, unprofessional, unhinged work. We’re down to get dirty. Waif is a fashion magazine for those of us who only want to be ourselves.

 

For those of you who need some guidance, here’s what we’re always on the hunt for.

 

Cultural Commentary - hot takes on Casper mattresses, FOMO when you’re straight but wish you were gay, the endangered institution of the adult backpack, deep dives into joke tweets that actually made a really good point (“In this essay I will…”)

 

Fiction about Fashion - a young woman forming her identity through her memory of what dad would wear, a serial following the interns at a corrupt fashion brand that kills ducks for the oil from their feathers during the contemporary climate crisis, a character study on an apartment complex’s nosiest young resident, someone telling the doctor about their pores opening up

 

Conceptual Arts and Crafts - how to make your own money, throw a party and serve non-alcoholic hard liquor to unwitting college freshmen, hold a modeling call for BTS lookalikes

 

Underappreciated Fashion Trends - when you sit on a bit of wet grass and it leaves a stain on your butt, dirty white shoes, pants with gaping holes in the crotch, the balaclava

 

Special Interest - profiles of Japanese subcultures and their repurposing for contemporary use, a fly-on-the-wall account of a visit with a local embroidery artist in his own workspace, a chronicle of collecting ziplock bags of dirt in a scrapbook

 

Interviews - with anyone interesting, grandmas, artists you love, artists you hate, someone you shared an uber with who told you about their encounter with a UFO, transcript of a job interview

 

Quizzes and Games - match the celebrity to their gender, how popular are you?, which blob sex is your perfect match?, how old is dad?, celebrity in a box

 

Waif Opinion - days of the week ranked by Waifiness, is Lorena Bobbitt Waif?, are earwigs Waif?

 

Other - cartoons, horoscopes, art, recipes, advice - we’ll try anything once

 

Riff on this criteria as you see fit - we love an old dog with new tricks.

 

That said, at this time we are not considering:

 

Personal Essays - we feel you, we hear you, we will commission you if we would like to publish

 

Requests for Coverage - we feel you, as artists we’re always excited to share the latest project we’ve completed. Might you be interested in sharing your talents with us some other way?

 

Generally Speaking: Waif is a magazine about The Lifestyle, the culture of The Magazine

 

Here are some theories brewing that may or may not be valuable to you in understanding Waif:

 

• Fashion <———> Literary

• Comedians are contemporary philosophers.

• Artifice and authenticity are not mutually exclusive.

 

Won’t you join us?