Anxy could not support itself without a significant portion coming from outside capital, thus fully funded themselves with platforms such as Kickstarter—Rojas goes onto say, “I dreamed of creating an Anxy app that provided another layer of storytelling and psychoeducation. In my wildest ambitions, I imagined Anxy wellness and self-care products, as well as Anxy documentaries and TV,” theorizing that, “[…] in the end, our truth is more art than commerce.” Both Rojas and I share the same sentiment that media is becoming almost impossible to fund. Advertisers are becoming their own storytellers, they don’t need the reliance of us small fish to help them tell their stories. With the lay-offs at Vox Media, closures of some of our favorite Bay Area reads, the loss of people’s livelihoods, we ask ourselves why do we continue to work in such a field that isn’t respect like it once was. I can’t speak for everyone, but it’s been for you, the reader.
But how can you, the reader, support magazines, media entities, storytellers without monetary transactions. It’s all about knowing that you, as a person who reads, that you relate, debate, challenge, and know that you feel apart of the magazines, media entities, storytellers story. Especially in the wake of Assembly Bill 5, media will start to thin out more and more in California—where stories will no longer be told. So celebrate the victories, no matter how small they are.
// Photography by Hermes Rivera.
