Why I don't use magazines to make Dream Boards

To build their Dream Boards, many people use magazines to cut and paste pictures and bring their visions to life.

I no longer do that.

Here's why:

1. Magazine pages are mostly ads.

2. Most magazine ads feature women who are "young, thin, white, beautiful, carefully groomed, and polished."

3. I am not a young, thin, white woman.


"But, Mahlena; what if I am a young, thin, white woman?"



If you are a young, thin, white woman (or any other person) who would like use magazine pictures to make their Dream Board, that is fine with me. Do you, boo!


However, I suggest you watch Miss Representation, a documentary by a (at the time) young, thin, white woman, who got semi-woke about white feminism after encountering sexism and ageism while trying to become a Hollywood actress.

tldr? American mainstream media objectifies women! News at 11.

Ironically, the documentary--which Columbuses the idea of US media oversexualizing girls and women as a brand new concept discovered in 2011--features Jean Kilbourne, the creator of Killing Us Softly, a decades-long documentary series which pioneered video exploration of this very topic in 1979.

"So, how did you make your semi-woke Dream Boards, Mahlena?"

I started by using Google Images searches to find pictures to represent my Dreams. Although the same white supremacist bias does exist on Google (and in Google), it is easier to find a wider variety of images on Google than those presented in magazines.

Once I found the pictures that I wanted to represent my Dreams, I placed them on my Dream Board, which I created on PowerPoint.

I arranged all the pictures in an organized fashion on a PowerPoint slide, and then saved it as a PDF. Finally, I printed the PDF and pinned my Dream Board next to my bed where I could see it on a regular basis. I also saved my Dream Board as a JPEG file and uploaded it as my desktop image on my computer.

Dreamers, what methods have you used to create your Dream Boards? Share your creative strategies in the comments, or email me at iHaveADreamBoard@gmail.com.

Thanks for reading!