One of my toxic traits is my habit of wandering into my local bookstores in a cloud of delusion that I can afford to buy books. Reader, I cannot afford to buy books. But what I can (usually) afford are independently printed and community-distributed zines (one of my favorite shops, Print, carries a gorgeously curated selection). And if I see an abortion-related zine? You know that baby’s coming home with me.
Enter: Ashley Hartman Annis.
Ashley (she/they) is a full-spectrum doula, and educator, and a zine-maker based in Madison, WI. Her repro/fertility zines are everywhere these days, like little gifts of indormation and affirmation dropped from the sky. They are trauma-informed, gender-inclusive “body books for curious humans”—and they’re fucking magical.
Much of my work as an abortion doula, a clinic worker, and a writer is to offer resources and share knowledge. Ashley’s “body books” Zine of the Month club is the perfect gift for your friends who are deep in community, your friends with siblings and students and comrades who go to them. Your friends who are curious, inquisitive, body-positive, sex-positive. Get them a subscription to deepen their wisdom and expand their connections to self and community, and watch new parts of their minds and hearts and bodies bloom.
Each and every month, subscribers to body books will receive a zine in their mailbox (!) on the topic of the month + a blog post with additional thoughts, journal prompts, and resources. topics revolve around the body, birth control, fertility, sexuality, trauma, consent, and—you know it—abortion.
I love these little zines—what they teach me and how they make me feel—and I know you will, too.
You can find the body books monthly subscription here, and order individual zines (and mini-zines!) for your loved ones here.
Thank you Ashley, for all that you do and all that you make, and for all that you are. These zines are tangible proof that we will always be sharing, collaborating, imagining and co-creating futures outside of mainstream publishing and media, and within our communities. We will learn from one other and teach one another, we will pass our knowledge and supplies around, and we will not abandon each other.
xo Hannah
Missed the first installments of the Holiday Abortion Gift Guide?
VOL.1 — for all the babies, kiddos, parents, teachers, and intergenerational communities in your life.
VOL.2 — for the chic, the stylish, the cutie pies, the abortion funding icons