Mini-magazines
A zine (pronounced like “zeen”) is a self-made booklet exploring an area of interest, including anything from politics to poetry and humour to memoirs, according to Medium. The format is equally open-ended: zines may include writing, drawing, sketching, collaging, painting, and a variety of other media. Ultimately, they are a fantastic hands-on activity for encouraging creativity, self-expression, and storytelling.
The workshop
Over the summer, Eesti Elu will host a short weekly workshop at both camps, introducing campers to the world of zine-making. Each workshop concludes with independent creation time, during which campers work on creating their zines under the guidance of Natalie and the camp staff. Campers receive pre-made zine templates, each with a prompt at the top of every page tailored to that week's camp theme. For example, the zine for Jõekääru's eesti keele (Estonian language) week features prompts that encourage reflection on Estonian heritage, while the one for Seedrioru's Survivor Week includes prompts that explore campers' outdoor adventures. The zines' cover pages and space beneath the prompts are left blank, leaving campers with complete creative freedom, to fill them in how they like.
The value
By the end of each week, campers will have a personal token of their time at camp, which they can look back on with nostalgia as they grow up. In our screen-saturated digital age, we tend to associate digital archives with permanence, which is certainly useful when it comes to storing important documents. But digital documentation can be just as fleeting. For younger generations, physical photo albums have been replaced with the nebulous “cloud storage.” Letters have been replaced with texts. Algorithmically curated playlists have replaced personal record collections. While these are certainly useful for their convenience, the point is that this form of digitization often comes at the expense of intentional curation and creation that ground our memories in specific times, places, or meanings.
Practicing creative self-expression boosts confidence, while reflecting and documenting personal experiences builds self-awareness and connection with others. Most importantly, making zines is fun!
In this context, the tangibility of memory—collected through personal writing, drawing, and hands-on creation representing a specific moment in time—is invaluable.
Beyond personal nostalgia, the workshop has other benefits. Practicing creative self-expression boosts confidence, while reflecting and documenting personal experiences builds self-awareness and connection with others. Most importantly, making zines is fun!
Find the zines made by the keskmised (intermediate) and suured (senior) campers, published on Eesti Elu's website at the end of camp.
This article was written by Natalie Jenkins as part of the Local Journalist Initiative.
