A Digital Magazine Sharing the Stories of Women & LGBTQ in the South Asian Community

Fighting bias and breaking away from stereotyped mindsets should be one of the first lessons we are taught as we grow up – this will help in raising societies that are not bound by preconceived notions and creating humans that are well rounded and accepting of diverse points of view.
In the absence of structured educational systems for breaking down these strongholds of biases, we’ve seen a rise of digital magazine & publications dedicated to sharing diversity, shining the light on stories that showcase how wholesome humans are, and letting the world know about people from different backgrounds, cultures, and traditions.
One of such beautiful, diversity-pushing digital magazines is Brown Girl Magazine – a digital stomping ground for South Asians to share an unabashed platform for self-expression, cultural anchoring, and dialogue.
Founded as a digital magazine and online publication in 2008 in Houston, Texas, Brown Girl Magazine is now a multimedia company with a global reach.

Read about British-Pakistani Illustrator, Soumbul Qureshi, on how Art found her.

Created by and for South Asian women who believe in the power of storytelling as a vehicle for community building and empowerment, Brown Girl Magazine empowers and engages those who identify as South Asian women living in the diaspora with a hyphenated identity.
Through features, interviews, opinion pieces, and videos, the digital magazine covers a variety of topics including trending news, politics, entertainment, beauty, lifestyle, love and relationships, religion and culture.
The digital magazine also has a podcast called Queering Desi to highlight the stories of LGBTQ folks in the South Asian community.

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“‘Project Nirvana’ is an expression of metaphorical symbolism through the art of digital imaging. The bright red color becomes the main ingredient to the series of ‘Nirvana’s’ photographs. • India has always been associated as a country of colors. India’s cultural vibrancy and diversity openly expresses its traditions and lifestyle through the symbolism of different colors. In India, red color is a primary symbol of spirituality, purity and commitment. The red color alone stands as the most powerful among all colors. It connects with many aspects of Indian society from religion, festivals and rituals to politics, fashion and celebrations.”— #BG @angebangexo 👌🏽 • 📷 @helenaraju_photography • #browngirlmag #browngirl #beingBG

A post shared by Brown Girl Magazine (@browngirlmag) on Aug 26, 2018 at 6:32am PDT

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“Happy Janmashtami to my Hindu followers! Just a casual reminder that Krishna was not literally blue, regardless of whether you believe he was real or even just a noble character of a great epic. • According to the Vedas, Krishna was a ‘shyam’ or dark skinned Dravidian. Krishna is the Sanskrit word for ‘black or dark.’ The scriptures even say that he was dark as the night sky, thus painted dark blue. • If you respect/adore/worship Krishna but refuse to let your child marry a darker skinned individual, mock your daughter in law for not being fair enough, tell your kids to stay out of the sun, endorse skin lightening products, only like light-skinned Bollywood celebs, ostracize darker skinned South Asians etc., you should maybe reevaluate your spirituality if you ask me!”— @thepoojaproject 🙏🏽🕉 • Eye Makeup: @islandcosmeticsbeauty Lips: @smashboxcanada “be legendary” lipstick in shade “Primrose” Photography: @pineapplepatel Earrings: @urbanbehavior.ca • #browngirlmag #beingBG #browngirl

A post shared by Brown Girl Magazine (@browngirlmag) on Sep 3, 2018 at 5:55pm PDT

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“Recently a few people have shared their opinions that I wear too much makeup and therefore am not actually beautiful or that all my confidence comes from the fact that I can apply makeup pretty well. I’d like to share that I do in fact like makeup, I see it as a form of art that allows me to try new things and step out of my comfort zone. • However my confidence did not come from makeup whatsoever. There are flaws about myself that I can try to make less obvious with makeup, but I will always see those flaws no matter how much makeup I wear. I will always see that one of my eyes is smaller than the other even though I try to open it as wide as I can and the other imperfections I have noticed in myself over time. • These may not be noticeable to some people and they may not see those imperfections the way I do, but everyone has their own flaws and no one can tell you how to feel about them — courtesy the most people can do is help you learn to accept them rather than tear you down for it. At the end of the day learning to embrace the things about myself that I used to hate has let me become more confident in myself and confidence comes from loving yourself.”— @allynaidoo ❤️ • #browngirlmag #browngirl #beingBG

A post shared by Brown Girl Magazine (@browngirlmag) on Aug 29, 2018 at 6:27am PDT

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It’s easy for us to get caught up in the everyday grind and hustle, we’re so consumed by the 24/7 news cycle at #browngirlmag, and sometimes we forget to eat and sleep, but today we’re taking a moment to thank our beautiful insta family for supporting us wholeheartedly throughout the years. ♥️🙏🏽 Today, we crossed yet another milestone (40k+), and we are so grateful to serve as an anchor for each and every single one of you. We’ve dealt with our fair share of ups and downs throughout the years — many of you have been a part of our journey since day one (a time before Instagram, yes, that time does exist), and we appreciate you for being our day ones. Some of you are just starting to follow us and learn about our vision, mission, and platform, so welcome. 🙏🏽☺️ We encourage you to engage and immerse yourself by visiting our website daily, following along on Insta, Facebook, and Twitter, and don’t hesitate to slide into our DMs or emails. We count on your engagement to keep us going. It’s important for you all to know that we’ve wanted to give up a million times the last few years but you’re the reason we’ve survived without a budget, with limited bandwidth, scattered teams across the globe, and no big names in the market backing us up. We are here because you’ve given us the encouragement, love and support to be here. So from the 150+ of us at the #browngirlmag fam, thank you, thank you, thank you. Please continue to be a part of our journey and growth. We’ve got lots more in store in addition to content brewing at BGM HQ that we can’t wait to share. Until then, lots of love and kisses. — Trisha Sakhuja-Walia, co-founder + ceo (@tsakhuja_walia) ♥️😍 (P.S. That’s me in the middle with the✌🏾fingers surrounded by my epic NYC squad! 💁🏽‍♀️ Stay tuned for more photos from this shoot — releasing next week!) ✨☝🏽📸 @virenshinde_

A post shared by Brown Girl Magazine (@browngirlmag) on Aug 30, 2018 at 3:04pm PDT

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Today, we celebrate LOVE because love is love, and no rule of law should tell us otherwise. We are so here for this movement, thanks to India for finally repealing #Section377 of the Indian Penal Code. ❤️🌈 • “This is exactly what Queer desi folk need — a beacon of hope. Congratulations on ridding ourselves of the colonial burdens we’ve been carrying and learning to embrace everyone. We can only go up from here.” — @_humzer • • ✨in collaboration w/ @mustbekismet_official and @thesai.lens (@breathofhenna) | 📸@bangastudios | 🌸@roseeventsandfloral |💄@ssglamstudios, @iamdanielasuppa, @mua.she | 💍@jayaandco | 👗@chandanfashion, @sahibafashions, @lotusbloomofficial, @livethecollective • • #lovewins #loveislove #lgbtqindia #lgbtqrights

A post shared by Brown Girl Magazine (@browngirlmag) on Sep 6, 2018 at 7:46am PDT