World Pulse

By SU-JIN-YIM

The Oregonian

You might pass Jensine Larsen on the street and not know the revolution she's stoking in her Northeast Portland home.

After more than two years in the making, the 29-year-old magazine editor's project is to get more women's voices into the global media is ready to be served up.

What: World Pulse Magazine, a new, bi-monthly publication about "women and children transforming our world." First issue available next week at Powell's, In Other Words Women's Bookshop and other shops nationwide. The magazine not only writes about women around the world but also uses them as writers and experts.

Why: Five years ago the Portlander wrote about the indigenous and refugee communities in the Ecuadorean Amazon and the Burmese-Thailand border, where she met inspiring women leaders. "They were trying to tell their struggles to the world. The world for the most part wasn't listening."

First things First: When she returned, she finished college. The daughter of a Wisconsin farmer and university librarian, Larsen took classes at Lewis & Clark College and Portland State University before getting her degree in comparative international studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1999.

Her first thought about starting a global women's magazine: "That it was a great idea, but someone else should do it."

Magazine with a mission: "The vision was to create a publication that could be a bridge.... These incredible women are not very well-known in the U.S. That's the beauty of what we get to do. We put the spotlight on these women and their work."

How she pays the bills: As a massage therapist. The magazine is run by volunteers worldwide, including herself. She raised $35,000 from private donations for the first issue and counts 700 subscribers worldwide.

Why women need and want a magazine like hers: "These are voices that just aren't being heard.....Women face the brunt of the world's problems. They are the majority of the world's poor. They suffer the most in health and education. I believe we can't solve our problems without listening to the solutions being proposed by the people affected the most.

Sample articles: "1,000 Nobel Women"; "Iraq: A Way Forward"; "Columbia: We Are More Than Survivors."

The article that made her cry the most: "Congo: Emerging From a Nightmare." But, she says, it's inspiring too.

Still to Come: Additional funding. The pilot issue features ads from big names such as clothing designer Eileen Fisher as well as human rights group Amnesty International and other nonprofit organizations.

Larsen plans to apply for more foundation grants now that the first issue is out. Each issue retails for $5.95. You can find more info at www.worldpulsemagazine.com (the site shows an earlier draft of the magazine).

Su-Jin Yim 503-294-7611
suyim@news.oregonian.com