Feels Zine, Issue 21: Sad

Feels is a publication about feelings. It is a place to explore, to share, and to be honest. Having an open dialogue about what’s going on inside of us can foster meaningful connection and make us feel less alone, especially in the social-media era that asks us to curate and polish our lives and feelings before sharing them — if we share them at all. Feels believes there are no good or bad feelings — the value comes from how we relate to them, how we experience them, and what we learn from them.

Feels believes in inclusion and recognizes that certain voices have been given the lion’s share of the spotlight throughout history. Our pages are for everyone. We are a feminist, sex-positive, 2SLGBTQ*, anti-racist, anti-colonial publication.

Issue 21

Ranging from ‘the blues’ to ‘despair’, the way we conceptualize feeling sad is broad and ill-defined—yet, we always know it when we feel it. What is coming up for us when we feel sadness? How do we react and respond? How do we cope with it? In Issue 21, we explore a feeling that meets at contradictions—simple, yet complex; easy to identify, yet hard to live with. 

The breakdown of a marriage. The uncertain future of a home country. Trying, but not succeeding, to let the tears flow. The frustration of unshakable loneliness. Asking Google. Kid drawings. Interview with Megan Yuri Young on sadness in community and Bithiah Holton on the birthday blues. Read all of these stories and more in the pages of this issue.