#aro zine

[im-green-salami]

A zine i made about being aromantic and lacking the words in my native language

[toronto-aces-and-aros]

Toronto Aces & Aros Zine issue-- call for submission!

Hey all! We’re going to be organizing a group zine for the Toronto Aces and Aros group (exactly 10 years after the last group zine issue!). The goal is to be able to finalize and print the issue in the Fall of this year.

If you’re interested in submitting a piece for the zine, please read on. Thanks!

Submission deadline August 15, 2025 (We will also be having a zine-making workshop early September and assembling everything immediately after that.)

Theme:

Asexuality and aromanticism, and various grey experiences, are frequently described in terms of a lack of attraction or sometimes a lack of desire. This zine issue seeks to both explore and challenge the framing of these experiences as “lacking” or “missing” something.

What can be learned through an absence? In what ways can we envision asexuality and aromanticism as something gained rather than something missing? What meaning do you find in negative spaces? Or perhaps you find recognition or comfort in the vocabulary of “lack” - what significance does it have to you? What have these things (or questioning these things) brought into your life? What are reasons you’re grateful to be somewhere under the ace and/or aro umbrellas? We’d love to share them!

Submissions should be generally based around this theme, but you are welcome to interpret it in any way you like. 

Submission Instructions:

Submissions may be in text format (essays, poetry, etc), or visual format (collages, comics, etc), or a combination of the two. For visual submissions, note that the zine will be printed in black & white – the online version will be available in full colour.

Text submissions: Maximum 1500 words (no minimum) - with some flexibility if needed

Visual submissions: Maximum of 4 pages (no minimum)

Please email submissions to toronto.aces.and.aros.zine@gmail.com and include the following:

Your submission

A title for your submission, if you want one

The name / pen name / username under which you would like to be published, or “anonymous” if you prefer.

Brief bio (maximum 150 words) that will be published alongside your submission and will help give context to who is writing.

You may wish to include things such as age range, gender, pronouns, racial or ethnic identity, or other aspects of your experience and/or interests. Note: we especially want to interrupt how some aspects of identity, such as whiteness, get treated as the “default” when left unnamed. For this reason we encourage contributors to include these in bios. (e.g. if you are white, we encourage including this in your bio in order to disrupt the idea of whiteness being the unspoken baseline).

Please also be mindful of the group Respect Guidelines in your submissions: https://torontoacesandaros.wordpress.com/accessibility/respect-guidelines/ 

Timeline:

We’ll be collecting submissions via email until 15 August 2024. We may reach out to contributors to do minor editing & clarification of submissions as needed.

We’ll also include submissions collected from the zine-making workshop that will be organized in early September.

Plans for the zine:

The zine will be printed for distribution to recover print costs at Toronto Aces & Aros group events, e.g. tabling at Pride events and/or zine faire type spaces. It will also be made available for free on the Toronto Aces & Aros website.

Questions?

You can email toronto.aces.and.aros.zine@gmail.com with questions, or follow up in the #zine Discord channel. For more information about Toronto Aces & Aros or to join the Discord server, please email toronto.aces.and.aros@gmail.com

[acezinearchive]

So many ace and aro zines from Nepal!

[genderqueerdykes]

"Heartless" is a short zine about the authors' experience with being aromantic, coming out as aro, dealing with aphobia, and learning to love the fact that we don't love!

[laurellala-comics]

I've been having so much fun with my Ace Attorney comics lately but I've been feeling the pull to do original stuff again. So to ease into the transition, here is my (very first!) comedy zine. You may spot some familiar faces B)

Thanks for reading my goofiness! I'm including some nerd thoughts about zines under the cut

Zines are sooo cool and I assume most people have heard of them since this is tumblr BUT if you haven't! Zine is short for magazine (pronounced "zeen" it does not rhyme with vine). It usually refers to handmade pamphlets that can be created by folding and cutting a single sheet of paper, which is what I did, but it can be used for any sort of self made publication. The goal is to make something that can be reprinted and shared so mine is technically not in the spirit of that because of all my little interactive details but shh that's fine. Zines have been used in sooo many ways (Was Martin Luther's 95 theses not in a way the first zine (this is a joke)) but they are especially recognized as part of the punk movement as a way of fighting back against mainstream media and of sharing information around! It was a way to get around censorship and spread the word about social movements and political messages buuuut it has also always been used to share fun things, like music recommendations OR FAMOUSLY. STAR TREK SPOCK KIRK FAN FICTION (this is real and there are academic papers about this). Some of the earliest m/m fanfic was passed along through zines because they did not have ao3 back then! All they had was a typewriter and a dream! It's actually sooo silly, but I took a class in college that heavily emphasized these zines as leading to the fandom culture we had today, so they really did shape the world we live in today. Tumblr posts are like our own little zines that we share, with our own messages and thoughts and yes even hand drawn gay people...

Anyway, like I mentioned, in these fandom spaces you had queer zines that were about explicitly romantic and sexual relationships between fictional men. At the time, slash shipping was not the most common way to engage with fandom, but today it has become very mainstream and widely accepted amongst the fandom. But you know what queer behaviors are still not mainstream within fandom spaces, even within queer fandom spaces? Aro ace rep babyyyy. With that in mind, I feel like what is considered radical and abnormal these days in queer fandom spaces is to engage with fictional men (or any characters) from an aromantic or asexual lens. And so I am here to hold your hand and walk you through the wonderful radical world of imagining non-romantic scenarios with fictional guys. You can have so much fun with it and I think more people should do it. What if you stood in line at the bank and your favorite anime man was in front of you. What if you had to go in for jury duty and the guy from five nights at freddy's was there. What if you went to the library and spock and kirk were both there researching the history of zines. In a world that expects us to prioritize one normative romantic and sexual relationship as the big thing that will bring you happiness and fulfillment, it is radical to say "actually, i could probably still be really happy and fulfilled if i had some cool friends to hang out with and do mundane things with. And also what if those friends were fictional lawyers."

Anyway. Thank you to all the spirk shippers who worked hard to get us here, I will pick up your mantle and continue to push against societal norms but with fewer sex scenes this time around. Not that you aren't valid for that, this is just personal preference. The end. Go make a zine everybody.

[demonsonthemoon]

“Le spectre aromantique pour les nul·les » (Arospec 101 – French edition!)

In honor of #AggressivelyArospectacular, I spent last month motivating myself to finally translate my zine “Arospec 101” into French.

I wrote “Arospec 101” a few years ago during a 24 Hours Zine Thing. The goal of this zine was to serve as an introduction to the topic of aromanticism, and as a documentation of discussions happening around arospec-ness at the time.

The original, English version can still be downloaded for free here (and should then be printed on A4 paper, cut and folded). You can also reach out to me if you would like to buy or trade a paper copy.

In 2022, it was translated into Spanish by Esther (@waru-chan8). This version can be found here.

Last month, in 2024, I realized that there are still very few sources available in French about aromanticism. The few sources that do exist tend to focus on aro-ace discourses and leave behind the allosexual aromantic experiences (including mine.) Also, I’ve seen discourse emerging in France from people who are asexual and aromantic but who are totally detached (and mostly unaware) of the aromantic culture that has developed in English online.

Therefore, I wanted to share my experience and the things I learned in these same English-speaking online communities, for a French-speaking audience.

This whole project was also a reaction to an arophobic comment from a colleague of mine in an LGBTQIA+ organization, as well as to the general invisibilization of arospec issues even in an organization claiming to include the “A”. Considering I’m quitting that job next month (for unrelated reasons), I hope that leaving behind this zine will help my team remember that this “A” does not only stand for Asexuality…

I also took the opportunity of this translation work to update the contents of the zine a little bit. (For example, I added a section where I recount my experience of dating as an arospec person.) Should I make an updated version of the English version as well? Let me know if you think it’s necessary!

You can download the French version of this zine for free here.

Bisous 😘

[art-by-secret]

It‘s (nearly) Valentine’s Day, I‘m aro-ace and this is a mini zine about non-romantic gestures of love I have experienced <3

Maybe some of these things seem completely natural to you, but every one of them made me feel loved :)

(And of course, just because these things are not strictly romantic in nature, they can be a part of romantic love just as much as they can be platonic. Love comes in many shapes and forms :)

Being single is not the same thing as being unloved, and not wanting romantic love is not the same thing as being heartless!

[superflatpsyche]

Happy aromantic awareness week! 💚

This standalone comic was my contribution to an aro-centric zine that was organized a few months back. Copies are pay-what-you-want and available for download here!

Happy reading!

[rotten-zucchinis]

Rotten Zucchinis Zine #3 (re: harm in non-normative relationships) Last Call for submissions-- December 31, 2024 Email: rotten.zucchinis@gmail.com Zines take time and after a while, there are finally enough submissions to compile this zine. So I'm putting out a last call for submissions, not that I know this is happening soon! Submissions are welcome from anyone but with several submissions already from anarchist ausitic folx that is turning out to be the focus.

What kinds of content?

personal stories, reflections, poetry, art, etc. (non-fiction; black-and-white)

for prose, approx 300-3,000 words (flexible)

Harm in what kind of relationships?

Any personal or intimate relationship that is NOT a romantic / sexual partnership or “couple” (or triad)

Any personal relationship that is somehow “outside the box”

These might include:

QPRs that are not “couples”

organising & comrade relationships or affinity groups

chosen family

roommates in a collective house

cross-generational relationships between adults that are not typical in the dominant cultural context

co-parenting situations with multiple parents who aren't romantically involved

relationships in the context of accountability or TJ work, etc.

What do you mean “harm”?

Some forms of harm are about power & control and have a perpetrator wielding that power & control over another.

Some forms of harm are not about power/control, and can be mutual (or go in more than 1 direction).

This zine is about any/all of this

Why this zine / topic?

So many of us have been doing our important relationships without any road maps or “how-to” guides, often having to fight for other people to take them as seriously as we do.

But we don’t have the tools to talk about when they're harmful or go wrong. Often we don’t even have the space to admit they sometimes do.

Rotten Zucchinis is a zine about harm and destructiveness in “non-normative” relationships.

This relational territory is messy! (It includes but is not limited to forms of violence and abuse.)

Some optional guiding questions:

What has harm (or violence or abuse) looked like in your non-normative relationships: what are your stories? How did you make sense out of this?

What is “non-normative” about these relationships?

Did society's norms promote that harm or make it harder to recognise or talk about? Did they make it harder for people to believe these harms happened (or were actually harmful)?

How do the harm from our non-normative relationships play out with other parts of our identities and lives?

How do things like power, oppression and social expectations matter?

When it comes to non-normative relationships, what do we still need to keep quiet about… and why?

Contributors will receive a printed copy of the zine but will not be paid.

The zine will be shared online for free. Hard copies may be sold on a pwyc basis (in-person).

[studblues]

Loves in the air…. Submit your artwork for our valentines special!

[dysciryll]

Reminder since it's coming up fast

My zine is available for PRE ORDER !!

[theepitomeofanakaren]

Zine: Aromantic Fictional Characters 💚🤍🖤

Happy aromantic spectrum awareness week!

This time I made a zine with some of the aromantic fictional characters I know. Some of them were only confirmed by their creators or the actors who played them but I still think it is nice to know that we can see them or read them and relate to their experiences. Representation is so important and looking at the experiences of these characters made me feel so seen and valid.

I don’t really know what to say, this is my first aro week and I already feel so much love and support, I’m happy with my identity and proud to be part of this lovely community. 💚✨

[toronto-aces-and-aros]

The deadline for zine submissions has been extended until September 4!

This zine issue is centered around exploring and challenging how ace and aro experiences are typically defined in terms of what is absent (e.g. lack of attraction). What does an ace and/or aro lens bring to the table? In what ways can we define our experiences as something gained rather than something missing?

Short essays, prose, poetry, art, comics, etc, are all welcome!

See this post for details about how to submit.

[mysteriouscircumstanceslut]

hello internet aros

yes I have aro zines I want to share with you

I am having the busiest month of my life currently

when I have time to breathe I will work out the best way to share my zines with you

I will post them here

follow for updates

[42-clocks]

💚 a zine on aromanticism 💚

^an informational zine on aromanticism I made for Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week

feel free to share/print!

(pages and image IDs after the break)

Image ID 1: the front and back cover. The front cover reads, “informational zine — Aromantic: What Does That Mean? — by Peter Z.”

there are two simple arrow shapes between lines of the text pointing in opposite directions.

The middle of the page has a long stripe with the colors of the aromantic flag, which extends to the back cover. the back cover side lists what each of the colors represent: green — aromanticism; light green — the aromantic spectrum; white — platonic and aesthetic attraction; gray — gray-romanticism and demi-romanticism; black — the sexuality spectrum.

The back page reads, “more resources!

TAAAP.org

Aro Spec Week.com

gsrc.princeton.edu (SAM)

aromanticism.org (AUREA)

Elizabeth Brake (aromanticism)

Aggressively Aro Spec Tumblr

Aromantic Guide.com”

End text. Two gray silhouettes of lily flowers act as embellishment. End ID 1.

Image ID 2: pages 1 and 2 of the zine.

Page 1: “Aromantic — or just ‘aro’ for short — refers to someone who experiences little to no romantic attraction to anyone — or experiences it in a different way than others. Alloromantic is the opposite — one who does have romantic attraction.” The text is green and dark teal with light green boarders around the sections.

Page 2: small letters says “this might help to understand” and arrow points to the title “Split Attraction Model” — “a way of understanding attraction by separating it into types: sexual, romantic, platonic, alterous, aesthetic, etc.

“Sexual Orientations: bisexual, heterosexual, asexual. Romantic Orientations: biromantic, heteroromantic, aromantic. — sometimes they match, sometimes they don’t! Words like biromantic and heteroromantic commonly refer to both S. O. and R. O.” End ID 2.

Image ID 3: pages 3 and 4.

Page 3: titled “A-spec Community”. Below is a Venn diagram, the left circle labeled “aro”, the right circle “ace”, the overlap space “aro ace”, this is all within a larger circle labeled “a-spec”.

“Aromantic is not the same as Asexual (little to no Sexual Attraction to anyone at all). The identities and communities are related but distinct”

Page 4: titled “Myths” with dark teal flower silhouettes on either side. Myths include “hates all romance, childish “late bloomer”, not LGBTQ+, unemotional, wants to be alone, can’t be in a relationship, afraid of commitment, can’t also be gay/hetero/etc” End ID 3.

Image ID 4: pages 5 and 6.

Page 5: “Are you aro? some common experiences: made up crushes, flirting doesn’t make sense, hard to identify romantic feelings, dating isn’t a priority, don’t like romance heavy media, dating because you’re “supposed to”, rarely if ever “fall in love”, don’t have celebrity crushes. *these are not exclusive to aros though!”

Page 6: the top of the page has the shape of an umbrella, the text inside reads “the Aromantic umbrella”. The body has four microlabel examples;

“Gray-romantic — romantic attraction rarely or weakly.” Next to it is a small rectangular flag with 5 horizontal stripes: green, gray, white, gray, green.

“Demi-romantic — romantic attraction only after a bond has formed.” Rectangular flag with a wide white stripe, narrow green, and wide gray stripe, and a black triangle on the left side.

“Allo-aro — allosexual and aromantic, no romantic attraction, has sexual attraction.” Rectangular flag with even horizontal stripes: green, light green, white, yellow, dark yellow.

“Aro-ace — aromantic and asexual, no romantic or sexual attraction.” Rectangular flag with even stripes: orange, yellow, white, light blue, dark blue. End ID.

[gdsplicer]

Notice as of Dec 2024: After some revisiting, I've briefly taken down this zine to rework and improve it. I'm also disabling reblogs of this post whilst i develop a better version.

I loved making this piece, it was great at the time. However I don't feel like I made it in a way that was properly planned out. This decision wasn't lightly made but I want something that could be shared and clear from the upstart.

Happy #AroWeek everyone! 💚🤍🩶🖤 I finally, FINALLY am ready to share my first zine, Aro-Other; it's a mini zine covering a few aro terms and factors that go beyond the commonly known aroace identity.

Of course this lays close to me as a non-ace aromantic, and there is still a way to go in breaking the assumption that all aros are ace or that aro falls under ace, and I hope this encourages someone else to help in that or even to help someone else like me feel seen.

And I've made it available to get for free on my Kofi page! You can get all three PDFs I've made, the main digital colour zine you see here and two printable A4 versions to share around if desired too; You will need to follow a zine folding tutorial but there are bounties of resources on how to fold a zine so don't you worry!

My fellow aroallos and non-SAM aros, I see you, I am you.