Frankie

A lot has been said about what summer in Australia represents.

It’s the season of celebration, day-long-barbeques-turned-balmy-nights, beach trips and new romances. It’s the season of taking stock of the people you love and the passions you cherish, so that you can head into a new year with a fuller heart and a...

“At our core, humans are social beings. We’re not wired to go through life alone.”

That’s a quote from clinical psychologist Rachel Harker who, on page 56, chats to writer Cait Emma Burke about the elusive spark that so many of us seek, yet struggle to find: connection. It’s a concept that we’ve been thinking about a lot at frankie...

When you think of frankie, ‘sport’ doesn’t exactly come to mind.

Our art director Kate describes her high school dodgeball experience as “nightmare fuel”. Our marketing coordinator Iris’s most embarrassing moment took place during a school camp game that involved rotating your head on an upturned baseball bat (??)...

For a good stretch of my kiddie years, my main hobby was ‘potions’.

There was a spot next to Dad’s shed where I had set up a dedicated ‘potions area’ which consisted of sacred stones (i.e. rocks and leftover pavers from the front yard), cubbyhouse crockery and cuttings from various plants around the garden. Sitting...

Six curious things we learnt while crafting this issue.

1. British actor (and your eccentric aunt’s style icon) Helena Bonham Carter is a distant relative of the founder of modern nursing, Florence Nightingale. We explore Florence and other historical cat ladies on page 59 (although, sadly, Helena didn’t...

retro aussie milk bars

Growing up, my favourite place in the whole world was Willow Bend Caravan Park, located in the tiny town of Wentworth on the border of New South Wales and Victoria.

My family would spend every summer holiday there, either camping in tents or, if it was particularly hot, staying in the park’s old, air-conditioned cabins. We’d sit in deckchairs on the ‘beach’ by the Murray-darling River, nibbling on ham and cheese...

Part of the fun in putting together an issue of frankie is getting to learn about all the cool, weird topics we cover – from craft techniques to historical events to quirky people with unexpected backstories.

This time around, for example, we learnt that another item can be added to the long list of New Zealand things that Australia has co-opted: Tex Morton, the ‘father of Australian country music’, who was born in New Zealand and moved to Australia as a...

let’s get comfy

There’s a famous – supposedly motivational – saying that goes a little something like this: Great things never came from comfort zones. To that we say, pfft! Literal or figurative, comfort zones are often exactly what you need to feel inspired,...

frankie m zine’s ver first issue hit the shelves in October 2004.

Launched by editor Louise Bannister and art director Lara Burke, issue 1 highlighted the stories of regular folks and up-and-coming creatives. It had single mums, badass movie heroines, wine facts and tattoo enthusiasts. It had relatable, cheeky,...