20 years of anorak!!

2026 is proving to be wild in many ways: I have just barely recovered from Arsenal winning the Premier League that more celebrations are already in order, as the eldest of our Happy Mags for Kids, Anorak, celebrates its 20th anniversary. 

20 years in independent publishing is an achievement and a half, even if I say so myself. In those two decades, despite the ever-increasing volume of online content and fast-moving culture, our slow publishing model has managed to survive and thrive. 

In publishing, every two or three years, someone will come along and announce that 'print is dead' followed by someone else who will declare 'print is back'. I don't know why or how but our magazines have largely been unaffected by the death and resurrection cycles of indie publishing. Of course, we have had our fair share of ups and downs. Some years we publish two editions, some years we publish five. Some issues do well even if they are odd (kitchens) and some not so well (nope, I won't name and shame). 

In 2026, magazines and printed media seem to be experiencing another renaissance, according to some trend reports and the press. New generations are realising that no amount of tech or AI will ever replace the goodness of actual-real reading something on paper. Parents are concerned about the impact of tech on their children's brains and wellbeing. They choose to give them our Happy Mags as a fun organic alternative. 

Music to our ears, naturally! Beyond the obvious business benefits, it makes me happy to know that children are spending many hours reading our magazines, rather than the slop and dumbed-down culture that they are bombarded with every day. While tech seems to be obsessed over accelerating our lives, we take the opposite view: slowly-researched, slowly-published is what we do best. And guess what? Our fans happily wait. 

And most importantly, 20 years on, we keep going. We still have plenty to give our readers and there is still a lot of work to do to give them good 'brain food', to delight them about the world and to encourage them to be creative. As our midfielder Declan Rice so aptly said towards the end of the season: 'it's not done.' How right was he?!

We wouldn't have survived these 20 years without being a little stubborn and a lot passionate about creativity in childhood. We also wouldn't have survived without any of you so a huge thank you to all our amazing readers, artists, contributors, fans and friends. You are all part of this wild adventure. 

I am off to eat an ice cream to celebrate because our budgets don't quite stretch to a open-top bus parade in London. Maybe something to aim for for our 30th anniversary?

Cathy x

PS - we are self-funded so if you can, please gift our Happy Mags to anyone you love by subscribing or you could also simply support us here.