About Shameless
Shameless is Canada’s independent voice for smart, strong, sassy young women. It’s a fresh alternative to typical teen magazines, for girls who know there’s more to life than makeup and diet tips. Packed with articles about arts, culture and current events, Shameless reaches out to readers who are often ignored by mainstream media: freethinkers, queer youth, young women of colour, punk rockers, feminists, intellectuals, artists, activists — people just like you! We tackle teen life with wit and wisdom.
Proudly independent, Shameless is a grassroots magazine produced by a team of volunteer staff members, with content guided by a teen advisory board.
Each issue of Shameless entertains and inspires with profiles of amazing women, discussion of the hot topics that concern you most, DIY guides to crafty activities, sports dispatches, the latest in technology, columns on food politics, health & sexuality, advice and more.
Shameless has been making waves since its launch in June 2004. That year, Shameless was named Best New Magazine by Toronto alt-weekly NOW and nominated for two Utne Independent Press Awards (Best New Title and Best Design). In 2005, Shameless won an Utne award for Best Personal Life Writing. We were nominated again in 2006, for Lifestyle coverage. In 2005, cover story “Making The Cut” was nominated for a National Magazine Award.
Published three times a year, Shameless is available in independent bookstores and Chapters/Indigo locations across Canada and select locations in the United States.
Who we are
Shameless is a grassroots publication produced by a team of volunteer staff members. Rooted in feminism and DIY culture, we are creative, sassy and actively involved in the independent media and arts communities.
Megan Griffith-Greene, Editor
Megan Griffith-Greene’s experience spans activism, arts and journalism. Raised in Toronto, Megan became an active advocate on youth rights, social justice and education issues while in high school. Megan studied cultural studies and fine arts at York University, and journalism at Ryerson, where she was editor of the Ryerson Review of Journalism (Spring 2004). She is also a founding editor and designer of The New Pollution new music review, a web-based magazine and podcast on indie music that launched in February 2006.
megan@shamelessmag.com
Sheila Sampath, Art Director
Sheila’s 11-year awkward phase, combined with a childhood on the mean, homogenous streets of Mississauga West, hardened her into the design saboteur that she is today. A graduate of the University of Toronto and the School of Design, Sheila uses her little Mac to make big statements on behalf of groups she really believes in. She’s designed for the Toronto Rape Crisis Centre/Multi-cultural Women Against Rape and the Women and Gender Studies Institute at the University of Toronto. She was also an editorial collective member of Big Boots. When she’s not working, Sheila is usually found crafting, playing dress-up and riding her bicycle to and from shows.
sheila@shamelessmag.com
Stacey May Fowles, Publisher
Stacey May Fowles is a writer and magazine enthusiast based in Toronto. Her writing has appeared in Fireweed, Misunderstandings, subTERRAIN, and Kiss Machine, and she has assisted in circulation and business development projects for Descant: A Journal of Arts and letters and Hive Magazine. Her first book is out with Tightrope Books, and her second book is out with Invisible Publishing. You can find her at www.staceymayfowles.com.
staceymay@shamelessmag.com
Cate Simpson, Web Editor
Cate grew up in Edinburgh, Scotland, where she studied Philosophy before moving to Toronto to make her fortune in freelance journalism. She spent most of her adolescence on the internet, and very little has changed except that now sometimes being on the internet qualifies as “working.” She has written for Xtra, Eye Weekly, The List and Torontoist, and she writes a column on queer issues for This Magazine’s blog.
cate@shamelessmag.com
Wesley Fok, Webmaster
As the webmaster for Shameless, Wesley painstakingly created this website for your consumption by carefully gluing together the individual pixels on your screen using a very small glue stick. The pixels were sourced from a unionized fabrication plant in Louisiana and are made of equal parts light and magic.
webmaster@shamelessmag.com
Nicole Cohen, Founding Editor
Nicole is the co-founder and former co-editor of Shameless and a PhD candidate in the graduate program in communication and culture at York University. She has written for a variety of independent and alternative Canadian media, and her academic work has been published in Democratic Communique, Stream, and Feminist Media Studies. She is involved in several media-related projects, including Media Action and Upping The Anti: A Theory of Journal and Action. Nicole writes the Media Savvy column for Shameless.
nicole@shamelessmag.com
Melinda Mattos, Founding Editor
Melinda is the co-founder and former co-editor of Shameless. When Melinda was a teenager, the media tried to convince her that her breasts were too small, her brain was too big and her life would be incomplete if she didn’t have a boyfriend. When she got a bit older, she fought back by starting her own teen mag. Melinda has a Bachelor of Journalism from Ryerson University and has worked at The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, TVOntario, Magazines Canada and Eye Weekly. She writes The Last Word, a column about language, for Shameless.
melinda@shamelessmag.com
