The electric youth

MANILA, Philippines -They’re creatives — not fortunetellers. But Stache magazine editor-in-chief Maine Manalansan might have found herself in a makeshift career change when she joked last year that her team would one day bag a Tatt Award on the merits of their forward-thinking online publication.

“Next year, tayo na diyan,” she told Ellie Centeno, Stache marketing director, and the army of 20-something writers, illustrators, photographers, stylists, artists, musicians and poets who shed blood, sweat and tears every month to put up the magazine — a time capsule of thoughts and ideas for and by the creative youth that people can download on Stache’s website (www.stachemagazineonline.com), for free. Well, little did they know that in this age of social media, where online is the new playing field as much as it is the next frontier, DIY-ed dreams have a better chance of coming true. And truth be told, fortune always favors the brave.

“There was no extra effort naman before we got here,” shares Maine candidly, still on a high from accepting their Tatt Award for Young STAR’s Future Perfect Blog of the Year, which honors an emerging blog or site run by a person or team aged 16 to 24 that offers a fresh vantage on local culture. “We just release what we can,” she says, though she admits that Ellie’s dad was calling people left and right to get them to vote. Campaigning aside, the two are ecstatic and grateful to all those who believed in them — even if putting out an online magazine every month is about as scary as jumping off a cliff, then climbing back up only to jump again.

YOUNG STAR: How did you feel being nominated for Young STAR’s Future Perfect Blog of the Year award?

Ellie: Weird! When you guys told us about it, we were freaking out. Like, oh my God, is this for real?

What is Stache magazine in a nutshell for those who don’t know?

Maine: It’s an online magazine for and by the creative youth, basically.

What inspired the name?

Ellie: We wanted Stache to mean a lot more than it actually does. But it just sounds cute.

Anything to do with hipsters?

Ellie: ‘Di naman. (Laughs)

Maine: It just sounds cute.

Who does your magazine speak to?

Maine: Someone who wants to get his or her work published but doesn’t know how to utilize the Internet — so naghanap siya ng third party.

Ellie: That’s where we come in. We serve as a platform for artists in whatever field — music, art, whatever. We publish whatever they want us to publish.

What are some of Stache’s milestones?

Ellie: This is probably our biggest ever.

Maine: There was one music issue with Bee Eyes on the cover. We got to interview Jeff Kelly of Sanuk.

Ellie: And this year, we got to interview Bob Ong. As in the real Bob Ong (contemporary Filipino author whose actual name is unknown).

Maine: It was surreal! Ang milestone sa amin is people recognizing what we do.

You’ve had photographer BJ Pascual, bloggers YourEvilTwin, and indie band The Strangeness on your cover. Who are you other dream cover girls or cover boys this year?

Maine: To be honest, we’ve made it — like most of our covers from our past issues, they were on our dream list. So it’s been nice! But, marami pa rin kaming (gustong i-feature). But better ata if we keep it to ourselves muna.

Were there any fears or apprehensions coming up with an online publication?

Ellie: Of course. It’s very different so there’s a tendency that people will be alanganin about it.

Maine: But so far, it’s been good. It’s the new age of publication. And it’s just something we need to do for ourselves and other people to show them that there are other ways to use the Internet.

Ellie: And people have been very receiving and welcoming to this whole online magazine thing. Like you said, it’s really new and what’s good is that it inspired a lot of people.

How important is it to be a maverick in any creative field?

Maine: For us, it’s enough that we get to inspire other people because we didn’t really expect this to happen. We just do what we do because we have fun and that other people can benefit from it. It’s just nice that we get to inspire people and the people we inspire get to inspire other people too.

Ellie: Pay it forward!

Where do you see Stache moving forward in 2013?

Ellie: We hope to get published. That’s our biggest goal but as long as we don’t sacrifice our values.

What would be Stache’s Future Perfect form?

Maine: Right now, it’s really hard for us to imagine because we feel like we’re on top of the world.

Ellie: Basta something na published and as much as possible, for free, kasi we need to get the message out there…

Maine: We never really wanted to earn from this. We do it for the love mostly – passion.

Ellie: Hopefully we get to inspire other people to do something good with their lives.