Dear CIRCUS Readers,

It is time for an apology, for I as editor-in-chief of CIRCUS Magazine, have done you, our readers, the ultimate disservice.

I became caught up with numbers–with trying to mold CIRCUS into something that it was not. Something that meant making CIRCUS seem as if it was worthy of competing with the Refinery29s, VICEs and BuzzFeeds of the world.

Now half of CIRCUS’ mission stemmed from the ideal of having a thought provoking publication that simultaneously produced one of kind, stunning images. I’m not here to belittle our fashion and beauty features because I believe they’re top notch, worthy of being alongside their competition, and I know how much work goes into every image and post published on the site. We’ve become known for our photography and fashion spreads on the site, and it’s an accomplishment I take very humbly.

But due to me listening to contradicting opinions from across the board, I was swayed from what the core of CIRCUS was truly about, and that being the voice of a generation. Not just the generation of the hip, fashionable and the well read–but the entirety of one_ including the outcasts, the misfits, the ones who can’t be categorized or labeled. There are severe societal problems happening in our world today, and right now is not the time to blend in the midst of a million mainstream, type-a publications.

I am an Afro-Latina editor. Our art director is a proud Mexican. Our stylists are Black and our countless contributors have been every color in between. In our pieces produced over the last year, we weren’t consciously white-washing our work, but attracting the masses was always our top intent. It’s a philosophy I’m now realizing, that is completely backwards.

Our main responsibility is still to showcase the voices, stories and talents of Generation-Y, but starting in 2015 we’re going to do so in a way that more accurately represents who we are, where we come from, and where we–as individuals– stand in society today.

This generation–our generation–needs a better, more comprehensive understanding of the society we’re inheriting come the next decade–

–and that world, is indeed, a circus.

BIANCA BETANCOURT
Editor-in-Chief