Jackie Baker glanced at her phone before erupting into a fit of cackles. 

“Asia’s coming,” Baker said. “She’s wearing her ‘power pants!’” 

Baker is a sophomore music major and a photographer for Queen Bitch Magazine. Asia Shelton, a freshman photography major, “wears the pants,” so to speak, in Queen Bitch Magazine’s operation. The 20-year-old is the magazine’s founder and creative director. 

Queen Bitch is an online arts and feminist magazine that Columbia students launched March 1 at Abbey Pub, 3420 W. Grace St. The group came together out of a common interest in promoting female artists. The night was a culmination of more than three months of hardwork and strategic meetings. 

The project started at Shelton’s Lakeview apartment with a bottle of wine for each Queen Bitch. 

According to Shelton, staff meetings are loud and attendees tend to become excited. This passion originated with Shelton before spreading to the rest of her staff.

During one of the first meetings, Shelton said she demanded the girls raise their hands if they had ever been called a bitch. Thirteen hands went up, displaying total commonality. The staff discussed what it meant to be called a bitch and the group reached a decision—to take pride in the title.

“Typically, creative women are seen as aggressive and assertive, and we speak our minds,” Shelton said. “A lot of the time that brushes people the wrong way and we get called bitches. I want to take back the word ‘bitch’ and recognize the reasons I’ve been called a bitch are not bad things. Those are positive things.” 

According to Shelton, the name does not just stem from the desire to change the connotations of the words “bitch” and “feminist.” Queen Bitch represents the type of woman the staff members wish to emulate. The name originated from David Bowie’s 1971 album Hunky Dory, in which he described a woman as a “Queen Bitch.” 

 “God, I want to be that kind of woman,” Shelton said. “I want to be a Queen Bitch.”

Shelton said her decision was influenced by a fashion blogger friend, who paid her a visit in Chicago last fall and told her there would be no better time to start a magazine. She advised Shelton to start the magazine now because although she would sometimes make mistakes, the project could grow along with Shelton’s skills. Based on that theory, Shelton cast her nets, reaching out to fellow students via social media in hopes of making waves.

What she got was a tsunami. Shelton said she imagined it would be a lonely journey at first—one in which she would pick up staffers along the way—but she soon realized the dream was unfolding before her eyes.

Shelton said the staff is still growing. A student from New York University recently joined and another from Parsons The New School for Design in New York City has come on board. Many of the members’ stories are similar.

Spencer Blacketer, a sophomore photography major and a photographer for Queen Bitch, said her first impression was that it “looks bitchin’.” Blacketer said the magazine seemed relevant to the staff, particularly “being young women living in the city, studying art and in way different forms.”

Shelton has led the young staff through a multitude of trials and errors—including a website hack before the launch party. One day Shelton pulled up the website to do some work and noticed that someone had uploaded Trojan viruses to the site because it was new and more vulnerable to hackers. 

“It was the most stressful two hours of my life,” Shelton said. 

However, she said her father is a website engineer and fixed the issue in ample time. 

“Queen Bitch Magazine Launch Party” glowed on Abbey Pub’s vintage theater sign on March 1. The launch party concert featured Chicago bands Yoko and the Oh No’s as well as mtvghosts. 

With the pressure of a full-time college career weighing heavily on Shelton’s shoulders, she said the stress of planning a launch party was overwhelming at times. 

“I remember one day having a panic attack in the shower,” she said. 

But Shelton embraced the dream and ambitiously moved the project forward.

After a launch party fit for the queens, the staff is creating new content and recruiting more Queen Bitches. The project is not exclusive to women, and Shelton said she would like to add men to the staff. 

“I want to extend it beyond a physical magazine,” Shelton said. “I want to create a community.” 

To submit  content to the magazine, email a personal description and work sample to queenbmagazine@gmail.com.