FAQs

*If your question isn’t answered here, write to us at sesimag@gmail.com to send us yours!

1) What is Sesi magazine, anyway?

Sesi means “sister” in Sotho, a Bantu language mainly spoken in Southern Africa. As *the* Black teen magazine, we rep to the fullest — filling that void in mainstream magazine media, in which Black girls and their voices are virtually invisible. Sesi is 100% Black woman-owned and operated.

Check out our recent features on the Teendom Talk Show, NBC News Washington, D.C., and ABC’s Let’s Talk Live!

2) Is Sesi an online magazine?

Nope.  Sesi is a print magazine. You can get yours by subscribing here. Sesi is printed quarterly, which means we publish a spring issue, a summer issue, a fall issue, and a winter issue each year.

3) Can I buy Sesi in stores?

YES!!! You can pick up your copy at a Barnes & Noble or Books-A-Million store listed here.

4) Can I give a gift subscription?

You sure can! Just click here!

5) You don’t have a lot of ads. Why?

Over the past decade, we’ve been working to bring on more advertising partnerships; however, major brands have historically denied access to such partnerships when it comes to Black-owned media, especially independent Black media like Sesi. Even over the past year with major brands claiming they’ll increase spend with Black-owned media, things haven’t moved past claims. Learn more here.

Nevertheless, we continue to actively seek out advertising partnerships — we have a fantastic one with Kinky-Curly, which has advertised in every single issue of Sesi since 2018! (The PGA also advertised with us in four issues in 2020, and we’ve had a handful of one-time ads over the past 9.5 years for a TOTAL of 20 brands. “Mainstream” magazines have that many ads in a single issue.) Also in 2020, we joined the Black-Owned Media Equity & Sustainability Institute, which is working behind the scenes to help remedy this issue, as well.

If you have a brand you’d like to advertise in Sesi, visit this page for more info and check out our media kit here.

6) Besides subscribing, how else can I support Black media like Sesi?

You can donate via PayPal or join our Patreon! An indie Black media company with very little advertising (see #5), we have a small (but mighty) team, and we’ve got a lot planned for the future — more discussion on Black girls and mental health, our annual Natural Hair Love issue, and soooo much more.

Why do Black-owned businesses need support? Historically (and still today), Black-owned businesses in general don’t receive the same access to funding as non-Black-owned businesses do. Forbes reports, “On average, annual sales at businesses owned by Black women are … five times smaller than for all women-owned businesses, according to the Federal Reserve.”

7) My issue never arrived. What do I do?

Your first issue will arrive within 6 to 8 weeks after your subscription has been ordered. Subsequent issues will arrive as follows: Spring issue (between the middle of March and the end of April), Summer issue (between the middle of June and the end of July), Fall issue (between the middle of September and the end of October), and Winter issue (between the middle of December and the end of January). 

If it’s been 6 to 8 weeks since your initial subscription and/or your magazine has not arrived within the specified timelines above, we may have an incorrect address on file or we may not have received your payment. E-mail us at sesimag@gmail.com to verify if your name and address are correct. Other reasons that may cause a missed issue:

• Did you recently move? We may not have your change of address on file. Update yours here.
• Your subscription may have expired or not yet begun.
• The postal service may be experiencing delivery delays due to weather or Covid-19.
• If none of the above applies, e-mail us at sesimag@gmail.com and let us know which issue you missed. We’ll extend your subscription to compensate for that missed issue. (EX: If you missed the spring issue and your subscription ends the following winter, we’ll extend it through the following spring.) 

Please notify us immediately of a missed issue. While we do not refund for issues that have already been shipped, we will compensate for a missed issue by providing a digital copy of that issue or extending your subscription to compensate for the missed issue. Please note: We will not be able to extend a subscription because of a missed issue if more than three months have passed since shipping of that missed issue, per the shipping schedule above.

8) How do I cancel my subscription?

If you’d ever like to discontinue your subscription to Sesi, simply send an email to sesimag@gmail.com with “Unsubscribe” in the subject line. Please include the first and last name of the subscriber along with the mailing address. You will be refunded for the issues left in your subscription (if any) that have not yet been shipped and your auto renewal will also be cancelled. (Please note: We do not refund for issues that have already been shipped.)