A body-positive women's magazine with zero ads? Let's do this.

If you're a regular reader of women's magazines, you might have some real pet peeves. Not only are they chock full of ads (seriously, you have to flip through a good 15 pages to get to the actual content!) but the airbrushing on models is a problem. Can we please get more non-airbrushed women in our magazines? How about a magazine that emphasizes a diversity and spectrum of women's bodies?

The answer to both of those questions is a wonderful, resounding yes, thanks to Laura Lowery, founder and editor of Lucia. The magazine's goal: to "inspire and enlighten the world by giving voice to the heart and celebrating true beauty". . . ad-free and airbrush free, according to the magazine's Kickstarter.

"We created Lucia to meet a deep desire I think most people today relate with: The heart's longing to be moved, feel inspired, and connect with what is real," writes Lowery, pictured below, on the Lucia website. "You won't find advertising or airbrushed models anywhere in our pages. Instead, you will find beauty, magnificence and truth—loads of it."

Lucia aims to be authentic and real. "I often feel inundated with imagery and content that competes to capture my attention in order to sell me stuff," Lowery writes on the Kickstarter. "Most women's periodicals today are filled with unrealistic advertisements telling me I am not enough. Fashion models without flaws flaunt clothing and makeup I can not fathom wearing. Headlines shout from newsstands telling me 'five ways' I can lose weight, tame my frizz, tone my abs and have a cleaner house."

Seriously, amen. We are all for a magazine that helps us feel connected and beautiful without trying to sell us insane beauty standards. Lowery and editorial advisor Amanda Ford are out to provide that with Lucia. "We are inundated with so many false messages about who we should be, how we should live, what we should look like, and yet there's this spirit, this voice that comes from somewhere quiet and deep," Lowery explains in the magazine's Kickstarter video. ". . . I want to create a magazine that gives voice to the heart."

The main issue: costs. Lowery has used her own savings to publish the first issue, but for a magazine with no ads like Lucia, creating and printing 30,000 copies costs approximately $20,000. . . and that's without paying contributors. And according to Lowery, distributors won't pay until 60+ days after the magazine sells.

The magazine is looking to raise $60,000 for Issue Two so that they can start making profits. And once they do, their plan is to donate 5% of their profits each year to an organization that supports women. The first organization on their radar: New Beginnings, which "empowers survivors and mobilizes community awareness and action to end domestic violence," according to their home site.

So far, the magazine has raised a little over $12,000, but they still need over $30,000 more before June 12th. To support Lucia, go to the magazine's Kickstarter. (If you pledge $10 or more, you will receive some pretty cool gifts, too!)

We can totally get behind a body-positive, ad-free women's magazine. It's time women started feeling empowered by magazines. Unrealistic beauty standards, the constant overload of advertisements for products we're supposed to need to feel beautiful: These things have got to go. Thanks, Laura, for changing the world for women, one un-airbrushed page at a time!

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