A Mag for Maker Girls

In the summer of 2009, NYC mom Samantha Razook Murphy needed something to occupy her preschool and elementary school-aged daughters while she ran an overnight camp. With a professional background in industrial design, Murphy began creating classes for her daughters and a few of their friends on topics that she thought they’d enjoy, such as Toy Design, Why Buildings Stand Up,  and Weird Science. “It was more about the classes, and then I realized that they always fell into those three areas — science, design, engineering,” Murphy says. Curious Jane, the beloved STEAM-focused camp for girls, was born.

Now in its eighth summer, Curious Jane has expanded to ten locations in Brooklyn and Manhattan, and recently launched the quarterly Curious Jane Magazine. Murphy (who balanced both camps for two years) now works for Curious Jane full-time along with her partners Melisa Coburn and Elissa Josse. Their small team focuses the camps on helping girls create in a classroom-based, hands-on program revolving around science, engineering, and design.

Meanwhile, Curious Jane Magazine is inspired by the camp’s plethora of experiments, projects, and gadgets, allowing girls who can’t make it to camp to join in the fun. “Our goal is that the magazine is a way for girls to be part of the Curious Jane community, to get to see and try our projects, even if they don’t live near a camp,” Murphy explains.

Curious Jane publishes seasonally, and the first full issue came out in the winter of 2014/2015. Each issue is given a theme, and includes a group of related projects, games and quizzes. For instance, the fall 2015 issue focused on spy science, and included a myriad of spy-related projects and activities–from a simple way to write in secret code using only an empty soda can, a few strips of paper and a pen, to how to extract DNA from small fruits.

The Curious Jane team picks projects that can be done at home, not just in a camp setting. “It’s one thing for a girl to come to camp and have all of these special supplies at her fingerprints, or have an instructor or a group of girls [with her],” Murphy says. “It’s another thing to take that project and put it in print and send it out and then you want that to be able to be done successfully and in a fun way by a girl and her parents, or her friends.”

The staff at Curious Jane makes a point to feature campers in the magazine, and Murphy wishes they could include even more young female makers. “One thing we noticed pretty early on with the magazine is that girls love to see other girls [in the magazine…When they see that girl sharing something about [herself] or showing a project, they can imagine themselves doing that too.”

The magazine also engages readers with an advice column. Readers can email the magazine with questions about everyday life, and ‘E-Jane’ answers them in the next issue. For instance, one issue features a question from a girl who wants to stop fighting so much with her brother. (E-Jane says it’s all about communication, and spending fun times with her brother without mom and dad.)

With subscribers from 30 different states, the magazine has had a positive reception and is still growing. “Once we have a chance to get in to people’s hands… the parent is attracted to it, the girl is attracted to it,” Murphy says.

Above all, the magazine underscores Curious Jane’s—and Murphy’s—belief that girls should be able to try things and get their hands dirty without having to worry about being correct. You won’t find any workshops or discussion groups about confidence – the magazine promotes confidence in girls’ abilities by simply giving them the opportunities to demonstrate them.

“[It’s about] removing fear of failure,” Murphy says. “For girls to come to camp to try projects, and they’re not worried what’s the right answer, or how should this look. The core of our… approach is removing fear of failure by making things.”

To learn more about Curious Jane summer camps or Curious Jane magazine, check out curiousjanecamp.com.