PHOTO BY JODIE BRIM
This month we celebrate 16 years of Forsyth Woman magazine.
Thousands of articles. Hundreds of events. Hundreds of thousands of emails. Countless hours of dreaming, brainstorming, and collaborating to make things happen. My mom, Keela, started Forsyth Woman with a clear mission in mind and that mission was to celebrate the lives of women. I’m proud to continue this legacy of celebrating local women and local businesses through the pages of our magazine, through our social media platforms, our podcast, and through our many events.
Take a step back in time with me… back to 2005. Keela was furloughed from her corporate job after 25 years. She was approached by someone about selling ads for a car magazine, and this same person had a plan to start a local women’s magazine and felt it would be better for a woman to be the publisher of a magazine for women, so offered her the opportunity to purchase the idea from him. The rest is history!
Her family and friends thought she was crazy. “You have no publishing experience!” they said. But in true Keela fashion, she persevered and moved forward with Forsyth Woman. If this isn’t a life lesson to follow your dreams, I don’t know what is. While she calls herself “semi-retired,” Mom is still very much involved with the magazine. I wouldn’t have it any other way! If you could hear our daily phone calls, it wouldn’t take you long to see how very passionate we both are about this business.
It’s both crazy and exciting how much this business has evolved over the last 16 years. What started out as a partially black and white 26-page publication has turned into a full color, full gloss 148+ page magazine. Oh no, print is not dead. Adare International says, “The more tangible an item is, the more powerful it is too. There’s something that happens when consumers hold something physical; senses engage, and connections are formed.” The bottom line? Print is authentic and as humans, we crave authenticity.
The best part of this evolution is that Forsyth Woman is not just a magazine. We’re a brand. We have an ever-increasing online and social media presence, a podcast, a newsletter, video opportunities, and we’ve put on more events than I can count (with a very exciting new event coming Spring 2022…stay tuned).
Sixteen years is a big milestone, but just wait to see what we have in store for the next 16 years.
Supporting one another and supporting local is my life mission, and I sincerely hope you, our amazing readers and supporters, can see that through these pages and through every single person, thing, event that is tied to our Forsyth Mags family.
This issue is an extra special one—I encourage you to pour over each page, but here are a few highlights:
– Be sure to check out an article that’s been in the works for months on Fast Fashion.
– We have a brand-new “Visit Clemmons” column.
– We’ve put together a timeline of Forsyth Woman! The highlights of 2005 – 2021.
– Tour de Boutique registration closes on September 8th! We have no doubt this will be our best shopping trip yet – we hope you’ll join us! Register at tinyurl.com/2021FWTDB
– Last but certainly not least, please join us for Girls’ Night Out on Tuesday, September 14th! We’ll be at Bermuda Run Country Club.
Wishing you a happy month of September!
All my best,
