•EDITOR'S NOTE : DAHLIA
"Support their projects. Buy their magazines, their bags, and their cds. Listen to their radio shows and wear their clothes. They're doing it for real, help them keep it that way..."

•WENDY : BUILT BY WENDY
"I have a retail shop and website where I sell the clothes that I design and manufacture. I also wholesale my collection to about 40 stores worldwide. I would like to open my own stores in different cities..."

•JENNY : TROPHY QUEEN
"I am really focusing on keeping everything made in-house and not having it made overseas. I want to keep Trophy Queen a small little 'Cult Nitch' company..."

•MARISA: 'SUP MAGAZINE
"The 'Daily Tar Heel' was more concerned with covering the Alanis Morisette concert than writing about all of the amazing bands coming out of Chapel Hill at the time, so in a fit of rage, I told them all to 'Fuck off, I'm starting my own magazine.' And then I did..."

•SANDI : NYROCK
"We're a technology entertainment company that offers good music, a few laughs, and a community for musicians to communicate with others..."

•SEGRID : MOMMYX
"Mommyx started as a place to showcase other mama artisan's work but than became both a creative outlet for me and a 'mall' (albeit strip mall) of not only mama art, but mama-run sites and businesses as well as cool stuff that a mama like me might find interesting..."

•SPERBER SISTERS : 31 CORNLANE
"We wanted to start our own company and decided tote bags was the way to go!!! We support independently made rock, rock independently made totes..."

•JEN : HONEY I PUNK THE KIDS + PUNKTUATION
"I whipped up a proposal and we submitted a demo tape and ba-da-bing, 'Honey, I PUNK the kids!!' radio was born. It's been on the air since June 2000, word to that..."

•JESSICA : GIRLPUNK.NET
"I wanted to create a site where people who actually appreciate the beauty and strength of female vocals could access a variety of information about these amazing bands who go unnoticed..."

•RACHEL : VARLA MAGAZINE
"If you want to see airbrushed ultra thin models, they are everywhere, but if you want to see models with tattoos, exotic style, and figures that span outside of mainstream model ideals, there isn't anywhere to find them..."

•KATHERINE : DORISMARTINI
"I realized that there are so many great things that never get played on mainstream radio. This just seemed like a logically progression -- if you want to do something that hasn’t been done yet, find a way to do it..."

•ELISE : HELLKATS L.A.
"I initially started the website as a web-based retail/wholesale catalog for my jewelry designs. I also wanted to feature the work of other creative people, things that would not be found in mainstream or 'chain' stores..."