Welcome to the Love Issue! In this edition, you’ll find a double love feature, double love in culture, and a double Moaningful Confessions. Don’t say we don’t love you.
This issue was pretty spontaneous, but I think it’s well-timed. It’s the second to last issue of the year, and I feel that people are tired. So let’s talk about something that unites us: love.
I’ve been hearing that it’s breakup season, and I get it. Toward the end of the year, things start to derail, and I do think that it’s a time of reflection. It’s a period right before things get tough with exams, and it’s kind of the last point many of us will get to come up for air before we have to lock back down again. Naturally, people begin to evaluate what they’ve been doing all year – and often our thoughts drift back to what we’ve loved.
I think people feel very differently about what love is. My mum always told me that love isn’t a feeling, but rather an action. “Love is a doing word,” she’d tell me. While I might be in a minority, I believe that to be true. Love is a choice, not necessarily driven by some divine spark. But that’s just me – just Hanna’s view. It’s just one perception of love, and the beauty of love is in its fluidity. Now, a word from my amazing Deputy Editor, Stella Weston.
We’ve kept this issue to a pretty traditional idea of love (if you can call AI chatbots and Love Island ‘traditional’), but seeing as person of the year asked me to pop some thoughts in here, I wanted to talk about another (far superior, IMO) kind of love – platonic.
I love my friends. The nights in our flat when we carry our shitty camp table out of the kitchen and onto the porch to eat dinner together (even though it’s freezing cold and the table is unbelievably heavy) are worth more to me than any dinner date. Whether we’re parked up on the couch with frozen margheritas (shout out Critic Bingo), in bed on a dusty Sunday with our saviour Trojan, or getting ready for a night out and doing our makeup in front of the mirror on the floor, my friends are always where I’d rather be. If I never love a partner as much as I love them, I’m lowkey completely okay with that.
I’ll leave it there before they rip me out for getting too sappy, but in case it hasn’t come across yet — I love you guys.
We hope you enjoy this very special issue!
