OUR STORY
It's My Magazine was born out of a London based mother and daughter's (Pauline and Krystle's) mutual love for history, design and creativity.
"My great grandmother Anita was a veritable fountain of family stories and history, from tales of buried family treasure to intricate genealogy trees, she even said how Bob Marley used to read palms as a little boy and of course we believed her, she was best friends with his mum! She entertained us for hours. I'd always pledged to write her life story, but life, or should I say, university just got in the way. Unfortunately she developed Pancreatic cancer and went downhill very quickly. When she passed away, it soon dawned on me that in addition to losing a fun, loving and central family member, a whole kaleidoscope of family history had disappeared forever, in an instant as nothing had been written down.
I resolved that there must be a way to preserve stories and pictures in a comprehensive yet affordable way, which wasn't just the exclusive domain of celebrities. After we both won money together on popular UK game show The Million Pound Drop, this gave us the push we needed and I left my job as Head of Consumer PR for the NHS website. This move saw the birth of the It's My Life series, capturing history whilst the elders were still around to enjoy it.
Utilising our backgrounds in photography, design and journalism, it was just a natural fit. The It's My Wedding series was added as we saw that many brides were dissatisfied with the limited scope of conventional wedding photo albums.
This is Edna, my grandmother's magazine
We then appreciated that this service would be of interest to anyone anticipating any special life event, from a new birth to a milestone birthday or anniversary celebration. Before Covid struck we had been in talks to trial our life story capture service in care homes for dementia residents to capture the memories before they faded.
Gathering a flock of skilled photographers and journalists, we uniquely weave your story together, combining imagery and prose to majestically present you with a heirloom to be enjoyed by generations to come. Being nominated as being amongst the UK’s top three most innovative new businesses by the British Council was a particularly proud moment.
Anita Downie, the woman who started it all
Our vision is to continue to transform your stories into art, and we're grateful you've shared them with us, we hope you’ve enjoyed ours."
*Note I'd just like to say you can come across the right people at the right time. When I heard this song it filled me with so much positivity that I had to feature it in some way. Putting it on this video I was astounded and amazed at how much it fit the imagery. So I have to give a massive shout out to the talented team behind this tune, their details are below.
MUSIC: Celebrate - Self Taught Beats ft. My'Key Iso, AKS, & Ryan Carty
Instagram handles: @selftaughtbeats @mykeyiso @aksonline @Iamryancarty