Marisol Flores-Aguirre, MBA, CEO
marisol(at)b-word.org
Marisol Flores-Aguirre, MBA, is an experienced mission driven executive with a talent for innovation, community building and problem solving. Prior to being named Chief Executive Officer of Bitch Media, Flores-Aguirre was a small business owner, lecturer and mentor in residence at the McGuire Center of Entrepreneurship at the University of Arizona. Marisol joined the Bitch team in late September 2021.
Flores-Aguirre has over 20 years of combined experience in the fields of small business, entrepreneurial development, public sector, non-profit and teaching. In 2019 she held the role of the Legislative Director for Ward 1 Council Member Regina Romero ( elected first Latina Mayor of the City in 2020), in which she advanced policy initiatives, and worked primarily in the areas of immigration, transportation and arts & culture among others. She also served as a mentor in residence and adjunct faculty for the renowned McGuire Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Arizona, in which she taught innovation, entrepreneurship to undergraduate and graduate students.
Flores-Aguirre is a lifelong community activist fighting for immigrant rights and just border policy. She holds an Executive MBA from the Karl Eller College of Management at the University of Arizona and is an M.A. candidate in Human Rights Practice class of 2022 also from the University of Arizona. She is an Indigenous Chicana raised and nurtured in Tucson, Arizona- occupied homelands of the Tohono O’odham, Yoeme and Tlamanalcah people. She and her partner have two incredible children that teach her humility, patience and remind her to laugh often.
Fatal weakness: Bachata music, black coffee, hoop earrings, hydroflasks, plants
Favorite authors: Tomi Adeyemi, Luis Alberto Urrea, Victor Villasenor, Adrienne Marie Brown, Namina Forna
What I’m listening to: Bad bunny, Encanto soundrack ( IYKYK), Lizzo, Maluma, Romeo Santos
Turn-ons: Interesting conversations, a clean house, a well timed meme, traveling
Turn-offs: Fox news, unpacking, bland food, waiting in long lines, bad planning, man-splaining
Secretly wishes she were: In Congress, orrrrrr a travel photographer
Andi Zeisler, cofounder
andi(at)b-word.org
@andizeisler
Andi is the cofounder of Bitch Media. A longtime freelance writer and illustrator, Andi’s work has appeared in numerous places, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, Time magazine, Ms., Mother Jones, The Toast, and the Los Angeles Review of Books. She is a former pop-music columnist for the SF Weekly and the East Bay Express, and also contributed to the anthologies Young Wives’ Tales, Secrets and Confidences: The Complicated Truth About Women’s Friendships (both from Seal Press), and Howl: A Collection of the Best Contemporary Dog Wit (Crown). She is the coeditor of BitchFest: 10 Years of Cultural Criticism from the Pages of Bitch Magazine, and the author of Feminism and Pop Culture (Seal Press). Her new book about the consumer co-optation of feminism, We Were Feminists Once, was published in May 2016 by PublicAffairs. She speaks frequently on the subject of feminism, media, and pop culture at various colleges and universities.
Andi graduated from The Colorado College in 1994 with a B.A. in Fine Art that has proved to be more or less useless, though she did use it to secure a job designing rugs for Pottery Barn back in the day. She passes her non-Bitch hours watching television, hanging out with her basketball-obsessed family, embroidering portraits of dogs, and subscribing to whatever magazines are left on Earth. Her other interests include drawing, snacking, hiking, traveling, and eating cheese.
Fatal weakness: candy, naps
Crushes: Gram Parsons, Steve Buscemi, Hugh Laurie, Domnhall Gleeson, the Portland Trail Blazers
Favorite TV shows: Mad Men, Parks and Recreation, Freaks and Geeks, UnREAL, Game of Thrones, and dog shows.
Favorite authors: Laurie Colwin, Toni Morrison, Joan Didion, Mary Roach, Alison Bechdel, Rona Jaffe, Jonathan Tropper
Turn-ons: clogs, flocked wallpaper, the Winter Olympics, rainbow cookies
Turnoffs: lip liner, improper punctuation, mansplaining, trend stories, people who say “It is what it is”
Secretly wishes she were: An arts-and-crafts counselor at a summer camp in the 1970s
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Laura June, Manging Editor + Program Lead
Laura(at)B-word.org
is a writer, editor, and researcher from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She loves pencils, pierogies, sleeping, old cemeteries and old paperback books that aren’t technically worth money. She likes buying makeup but hates wearing it. She is a vegetarian whose favorite meat was bacon. She doesn’t exercise. She is a mediocre guitar player who *will* take voice lessons in 2022. She lives in New York.
Laura June was previously the editor of Gay, Roxane Gay’s magazine for Medium, an editor at The Cut, and an editor at The Verge. She is the author of a memoir about her always-tanked mother, Now My Heart is Full. She has written extensively on feminism, video games, the meat industry and vegetarianism, motherhood, and music. She is an accomplished genealogist and works as a volunteer helping adopted people locate their birth parents using DNA and genealogical research.
Fatal weakness: pickles, rye bread, tiny earrings, old maps, the Rancho Gordo bean club
Favorite tv shows: 120 Minutes, Six Feet Under, Yellowjackets, Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr., The Victim, Twin Peaks, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Absolutely Fabulous
Favorite movies: Gosford Park, Heathers, Beautiful Creatures, Casablanca, The Craft (1996), Purple Rain, Interview with the Vampire,
Favorite authors: Otessa Mossfegh, Charlotte Brontë, (+Emily and Anne too!), Toni Morrison, Jesmyn Ward, Laurie Colwin, Alex McElroy, Da shareZ0ne, Blake Butler, Deborah Levy, Anne Rice
Listening to: Kurt Vile, Lush, Courtney Barnett, Snail Mail, Alvvays, Fazerdaze, The Ronettes, Tegan + Sara, John Frusciante, Mitski, PJ Harvey, The Dixie Cups, Bjork, ABBA, Merce Lemon, Lorde
Turn ons: pickles, clothing that is falling apart or rotting, Karl Ove Knausgaard (with beard only), incense
Turn offs: guns
Secretly wishes she were: an undertaker
Meredith Felt, art director
meredith(at)b-word.org
Meredith is an art director and graphic designer who’s helped create everything from campaign collateral for progressive candidates, to user interfaces for National Park Service apps, to 6 years’ worth of BUST print magazines, to the occasional protest sign. She graduated from Western Michigan University with a B.F.A. in Graphic Design.
When she’s not staring at her computer she can be found cutting and pasting by hand, tie-dyeing all her clothes, collecting tiny, strange objects, and exploring new places on foot or roller skates. Equally in love with wide open spaces and chaotic concrete jungles, she splits her time between Michigan and New York.
Fatal weakness: flea markets, thrift stores, every other type of treasure hunting
Favorite screen stuff: The Office, Dead to Me, Broad City, I May Destroy You, Better Things, Insecure, Black Mirror, Escape to the Chateau, tiny house tours on YouTube, cult documentaries
Turn-ons: free cheese, singing in the car, the smell of a bonfire
Turn-offs: loud chewing, raw onions, commercials
Secretly wishes she were a: back-up dancer
Marina Watanabe, senior social media editor
marina(at)b-word.org
@marinashutup
Marina is a social media enthusiast, cat mom, and INFP. Born and raised in Sacramento, she recently moved to Los Angeles and is still largely unimpressed. She graduated from Sacramento State University with a B.S. in Women’s Studies and Communications
Aside from her work as Bitch’s senior social media editor, she hosted an intersectional web series called Feminist Fridays that analyzed topics like queer representation, multiracial identity, mental health, and Game of Thrones. Her work has been featured on Upworthy, Elle, Refinery29, Ms., Bustle, Everyday Feminism, MTV’s Decoded, GLAAD, and more. Formerly, she was the social media manager and a contributor at Everyday Feminism.
You can find Marina writing about YouTube culture and reluctantly feuding with influencers on Twitter.
Favorite Shows: BoJack Horseman, Bob’s Burgers, Degrassi, Steven Universe, PEN15, King of the Hill, The Good Place, Buffy, The Office, and (begrudgingly) Game of Thrones
Favorite Movies: Lady Bird, Ex Machina, Parasite, Little Miss Sunshine, Eighth Grade, What We Do in the Shadows, Get Out, The Farewell, Booksmart, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Twilight
Turn-ons: Pizza Goldfish, when Bath & Body Works candles go on sale, succulents, Oscar Isaac
Turn-offs: Olives, cleaning the bathroom, people who think they’re too good for Twilight
Rosa Cartagena, senior editor
rosa(at)b-word.org
Rosa is a culture writer, arts editor, musician, retired fencer, and Bad Bunny buff. Before becoming Bitch’s senior editor, she spent five years reporting on theater, film, music, museums, and books, at Washingtonian magazine in DC. Rosa has covered anti-racism efforts in the theater community, sex lives in the pandemic, and the horrors of taking a digital detox. Most recently, she ran a newsletter about fun things to do at home that included her writing on pop culture and social criticism. She’s also written about the women’s suffrage movement in Puerto Rico for Smithsonian magazine.
Originally from Jersey City, NJ, Rosa started her journalism career after graduating from Mount Holyoke College with a degree in International Relations and French and a minor in Journalism and Public Discourse. Outside of work, she is a drummer, singer, and dancer with her family’s Puerto Rican folkloric music ensemble Segunda Quimbamba based in New Jersey. When she’s not reporting or performing, Rosa is usually reading sci-fi/fantasy (just finished Angela Mi Young Hur’s Folklorn), catching up on TV both old (Sailor Moon) and new (Lovecraft Country), and tending to the mini jungle that is taking over her room.
Fatal weakness: plants, rice krispie treats
Favorite TV shows: Broad City, Superstore, The Daily Show, Sailor Moon, The L Word, Big Mouth, Buffy, Sex Education, Euphoria, Game of Thrones, Rick and Morty, Charmed
Favorite movies: Spy, Get Out, She’s the Man, Lord of the Rings, Shrek, The Dark Knight trilogy, Pride and Prejudice, Parasite, Devil Wears Prada, Back to the Future, Footloose
Favorite authors: N.K. Jemisin, Toni Morrison, Gabriel García Márquez, Dorothy Parker, Stephen King, Octavia Butler, Kurt Vonnegut, Akwaeke Emezi
What I’m listening to: Megan thee Stallion, Bad Bunny, Cardi B, Blood Orange, dvsn, Rico Nasty, Rihanna, iLe, Kendrick Lamar, Dua Lipa, Bob Marley, Janelle Monáe, Sam Smith, La Dama
Turn-ons: Gin martinis with a twist, bookstores, egg sandwiches, Mario Kart, roller coasters, the beach
Turn-offs: hot takes, typos, oysters, calculus, playing devil’s advocate, people who think Halloween is only for kids
Secretly wishes she were: a marine biologist
Danny Fish, bookkeeping and office manager
danny(at)b-word.org
Danny is a musician and general nerd who has spent most of their time on the clock working in finance, operations and as a music teacher. They worked at the School of Rock in Portland, OR from 2011-2017. In addition to working at Bitch, they spend lots of time playing music, reading and hanging with friends.
They grew up in a fundamentalist Christian church in North Florida and moved to PDX in 2009 in search of gay, trans and feminist community after receiving a B.S in Theology at Southwestern Assemblies of God University. Originally connecting with Bitch by DJing disco on vinyl at our magazine issue release parties and curating a few of our BitchTapes, they’ve been a long time fan of the magazine.
Favorite tv stuff: Daria, Insecure, AHS, Twilight Zone, Escape To The Country
Turn-ons: ice water year round, sleeping, food, jokes, physical forms of media, details
Turn-offs: capitalism
Writers: Audre Lorde, NK Jemisin, Jeanette Winterson, Carter Sickels, Alison Bechdel
Music: Team Dresch, ESG, The Wipers, Frank Ocean, Neo Boys, Shuggie Otis, Hole, The Cure, Liz Phair, Sleater-Kinney, Solange, Oasis, Eve’s Peach, The Lemonheads, Cocteau Twins, MBV, Mope Grooves, Hailu Mergia, The Clean, Julee Cruise, Sylvester, B-52s, Space Lady, Black Sabbath, Sneaks
Secretly wishes they were: a screen actor
2021 Writing Fellows
Oliver Haug | Writing Fellow in Sexual Politics
Oliver Haug is a writer and recent graduate of Smith College, currently based in their hometown of Berkeley, California. They have previously written for Ms. magazine and the New York Times’ newsletter “The Edit.” They enjoy writing about gender, family, unlikely trans narratives, and Frankenstein.
Jenna Mahale | Writing Fellow in Technology
Jenna Mahale is a freelance journalist and editor living in the United Kingdom who is extremely, extremely online. She writes and edits primarily for i-D, covering film, art, music, books, beauty, politics, and digital culture, especially frog memes. Find her on Twitter @jennamahale.
Amanda Gokee | Writing Fellow in Global Feminism
Amanda Gokee is a writer living in Vermont. Her recent work has been published by the Los Angeles Review of Books, Atlas Obscura, and VTDigger, among others.
Jennifer Chang | Writing Fellow in Pop Culture Criticism
Jennifer Chang is a born-and-raised Californian and brand strategist living in New York, with a degree in English from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is fascinated by pop culture’s intersection with social systems and power structures, and passionate about fostering empathy through storytelling. She writes an infrequent blog and is very opinionated on Twitter.
