Cinders Zine

Category: Self reflection

  • Arming the nerd girls – an appreciation post for Kelly Marie Tran and Millie Bobby Brown

    Arming the nerd girls – an appreciation post for Kelly Marie Tran and Millie Bobby Brown

    Cinders was conceived as a free online haven for nerd girls. Fandom, the internet and popular culture are our absolute favourite things. And that’s why it upsets us so much to see bullying and toxicity win on platforms that we use to spread our stories and others. So, in the spirit of Hear me Roar…

  • Hear me Roar! Or, how I learned to deal with my anger at the world

    Hear me Roar! Or, how I learned to deal with my anger at the world

    This week we released a new issue of Cinders Magazine, our tenth publication if you can believe it! And in it I had some very strong opinions about today’s society and how I deal with my anger at it. ‘I am woman hear me roar’ is an anthem, both literally and metaphorically. It originally comes…

  • Re-reading Ursula Le Guin

    Re-reading Ursula Le Guin

    Cinders Editor Méabh McDonnell can list five books that changed her life, Ursula Le Guin’s Very Far Away from Anywhere Else is one of them. To mark  Ursula K. Le Guin’s death earlier this year, she talks about how her books affected her.  “It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it…

  • More than true – how fairytales defined me

    More than true – how fairytales defined me

    For Cinders Editor Méabh McDonnell, few things have been more influential in her life than her love of fairytales. Here, she looks at why the stories she heard as a child became lodestones for her as and adult, inspiring and empowering her along the way.   A boy and a girl, a glass slipper, and…

  • Winning the vote: 100 years of women’s suffrage

    Winning the vote: 100 years of women’s suffrage

    Today is the 100 the anniversary of women gaining the right to vote in Ireland and the UK. It was a day that marked a victory in a significant campaign that had been raging for decades before it and represented paving the way towards a future that they would have a more equal hand in…

  • Ballerina, Baker, Etsy Shop Maker?

    Ballerina, Baker, Etsy Shop Maker?

    Thinking about school and examinations, editor Méabh McDonnell looks back on her own years of exams, prospective careers and the ever present intimidation of internet geniuses. She has one piece of advice: don’t panic.

  • Queen takes Crown – Interview with Diana Mirza

    Queen takes Crown – Interview with Diana Mirza

    First published in Cinders issue four Sixteen year old Diana Mirza recently won the World Schools Under-17 Chess Championship.She is Ireland’s first ever world chess champion and has filled Cinders in on openings, tactics, non stop practice, and how it’s never too late to get into chess. When did you start playing chess?  I started…

  • Feminism Forwards – An interview with Rosita Sweetman

    First published in Cinders issue three We had the pleasure of speaking with author, writer and feminist Rosita Sweetman. Author of Father’s Come First – which we reviewed in issue two of Cinders – Rosita gave us her impression of feminism today, how it has changed since Ireland of the 70s. What with the strides…

  • 16 things I wish to tell my 16 year old self

    16 things I wish to tell my 16 year old self

    First published in issue one of Cinders magazine I wrote this piece on my 26th birthday, thinking about all of the things I would tell my 16 year old self if I could. I then performed the piece at the Cinders magazine official launch on December 16, 2016. You can view my performance here, kindly…