Lauren Jade Martin

In this issue of Boredom Sucks, high school student Lauren writes about the pros and cons of Megan's law - a law that mandates informing the community when a sex offender moves into the area - as well as experiencing a sexist guitar class, presenting on abortion rights, jumping on the "information super highway," eating healthy as a v, and lamenting the decline of Sassy magazine. She also includes drawings of what's in her closet and zine reviews.

Ex-PI Joe Kurtz's survival is on the line when an ambush leaves him badly wounded and his parole officer, Peg O'Toole, clinging to life. Their respective professions have ensured that neither suffers from a shortage of enemies, so narrowing down the suspects isn't easy. But Kurtz knows who's at the head of his list: Angelina Farino Ferrara, the lethal beauty who leads the Farino crime family, and her mob rival, Toma Gonzaga. The odd thing is, each would rather hire Joe Kurtz than fire at him. Someone's causing trouble beneath the gray skies of western New York, and it's drawn the notice of the mobs and the cops. Kurtz is caught in the middle along with the rest of them, and no one knows who's tightening the vise.

Full of contributions from prolific zinesters, this sexuality comp zine contains first-person accounts from a variety of sexualities, with homosexuality, heterosexuality, bisexuality, and asexuality all represented. Women write about identifying and coming out as queer, questioning the "dyke-otomy," having unattainable crushes, feeling disinterested in sex, pornography and sexuality, losing their virginity, and struggling with definitions of sexuality and their place in it. This zine contains a list of contributors and the zines they do, as well as photographs, comics and clip art.

Lauren Jade Martin, author of perzines Boredom Sucks, You Might As Well Live, and Quantify puts out this "condensed and simplified" version of her senior project, which focuses on the intersections of race and class in reproductive rights. She considers reproductive rights other than those related to abortion, such as forced sterilization, forced birth control, and population planning, issues that often disproportionally effect poor women, women of color, and immigrant women. The zine explores the tension between second-wave feminism and these reproductive rights abuses, and describes how the interests of middle and upper-class white women are often different from and even oppositional to the interests of poor women or women of color. Lauren includes a lengthy bibliography, photographs, historical and current information, and her email address.

Bard student Lauren Martin and Sandi Ward from West Virginia collaborate on a split zine that focuses primarily on music, with interviews with Vehicle Flops, the 6ths, and Fuzzy. Lauren and Sandi review albums and zines, conduct music polls, and share Lauren's listing of projects by young zinesters. Sandi interviews zinesters Denise and Allison, who write I Can't Stop Smiling and Scruffy. Also included are several pieces of short fiction as well as articles on race and classism in zines, gender, college, and sexuality. This zine contains photographs, clip art, and illustrations, and is type and handwritten.

This book examines the United States as a destination for international consumers of assisted fertility services, including egg donation, surrogacy, and sex selection. Based on interviews conducted with fertility industry insiders who market their services to an international clientele in three of the largest American hubs of the global fertility marketplace - New York City, Los Angeles, and San Francisco - and focusing on the providers rather than the consumers of assisted fertility services, the book shines a light on how professional ethics and norms, in addition to personal moralities, shape the practice of reproductive tourism.

Mxd is a collection of poems and articles about being a mixed race person in the United States. Contributors including Lauren Jade Martin express the often uncomfortable and racist interactions they've had with others attempting to pin down their racial identity. The zine covers experiences of being a hapa, being half-black and half-white, creating a film about being half-black and half-Asian, having to "come out" as a Jew, and critiquing the faux-patriotism of America. The zine is stab bound with yarn.

Issue 5 of You Might As Well Live features more of Lauren’s young adult fiction, including stories about relationships and roommates. She writes about queer identities, confronting privilege, her experience of anti-Chinese racism, riot grrrl, crushes, depression, and the struggles of being at home. She also includes a comic about insomnia and reviews zines and books.

Fuck You, High School! is a compilation issue of Boredom Sucks in which high school students reflect on their experiences throughout high school as they get ready to graduate. Subjects include boring classes, waking up early, painful gym class, popular people, geeky memories, not going to prom, and summations of high school experiences in prose and comic form. Additionally, there are pieces that describe actually liking high school, Degrassi, and a list of high school zinesters.

This issue of You Might as Well Live by Lauren Jade Martin was created to tell important stories of her identity. She writes about how her half-Chinese and half-Jewish ethnic identities interact with the “blindingly white” zine scene, the history of her family's immigration, her class privilege, where she grew up, experiencing depression, and being an “insider-outsider” in NYC Chinatown.