What is Clever Girl?

In simple terms, Clever Girl is a magazine publication.

One that aims to place physical media in your hands once again. Each printed copy will feel nostalgic, capturing the good parts of the past while celebrating how far we’ve come. The pages will be full of a wide range of art, highlighting those who prove that life, hope, humanity - good - will always prevail.

We will have four issues each year that release mid season (January, April, July, and October), our first is slated for release in January 2026. Our intent with each issue is to shine a light on art and the artists making it - the life finding a way to survive, to uplift, even in the dark.

Our issues will have a broad focus around a different theme each season, while consistently centering on four creative outlets: Print, TV & Film, Art, and Music.

Each of these will be a featured part of the magazine, highlighted by an interview and photoshoot. Our goal is that these sections of the magazine will host a diverse and wide range of creatives, showcasing anything and anyone from your local sidewalk chalk artist, or your state’s film festival, perhaps a beloved bookstore, all the way to a well known musician or organization.

Amongst these interviews, between the pages of each issue of Clever Girl, there will be art in the form of poetry, photography, short stories, and more, that was submitted towards our theme that season. It could be art made as a hobby or as their full time gig - but it was submitted with the sole purpose of sharing it with the world in a new, and inspiring way. Shared to be a part of something bigger, to make us all feel a little less alone.

This art will be worthy of being ripped out and taped to your door like a J-14 Magazine poster, feel like a special and over analyzed CD insert full of lyrics that make you feel seen and understood, a memory you want to keep preserved and held close in a locket, or a bundle of polaroids rubber-banded together in your cedar chest until it’s time to look through them on a rainy day.

It’s the art made in the darkest of times, proving there’s always light - one that is welcoming, warm, and enveloping like honey colored amber if you just dig a little deeper and trust the process and path to get to it.

We look forward to continuing on this path, this adventure, together, discovering and uplifting art hand in hand. Clever Girl will always be here, encouraging you to never stop exploring, hoping, loving, creating, or dreaming. We will never stop reminding you:

Life will always find a way.

  • Submissions

    The theme for each season will be announced two months prior to the next issue’s release.

    You can find out exact dates and more information on how to submit for the current theme, here.

    Submit

  • Nominations

    We’d love to hear about the art and the life finding a way in your community!

    Please nominate those you wish to see within our pages - so we can shed more light and help them continue to spread their message and grow.

    Nominate

  • Interviews

    Our interviews and photoshoots will largely take place in the space the art is being made - with a slight twist.

    You can find out more about these sections of the magazine here, as well as send an inquiry if you or someone you represent is interested in being featured.

    Inquire

 “We yearn for something we can express ourselves through, something that allows us an escape while our cups refill so we can get back out there to help others fill theirs. And us humans, we have this incredible knack for taking tragedies, injustices, pain and fear, and turning them into something we can come together over. We figure out a way to create something good out of the bad, to show it to others and ask: Do you see and feel it too? I’m not alone? Can I stand with you?

We fight, we find light, we hope.

So, to quote Ian Malcolm: “Life, uh, finds a way,” and here at Clever Girl we see that there are people out there proving just that.”

Who is Clever Girl?

  • Her name is Taylor Budesky, she’s 29, and though she’s based in Minnesota, she never stays put for very long.

    When she isn’t traveling the world, exploring and hoping to discover more art and befriend the people making it, she’s a writer and photographer. She hopes to have the pages of her Romantic Comedies in your hands and adapted and playing at your local theaters one day very soon.

  • If you’re patient, you may often find her in one of her favorite habitats: laying on the ground to take a photograph while on a hike, staring up at an exquisite shot on a theater screen with awe and envy, scribbling and highlighting in a book’s margins while on an airplane or in a hammock by the lake, or dancing and singing like nobody else is at the live music performance she’s in attendance of.

    She prefers the cozy weather of Autumn, and is at her happiest during sunset each night. Her diet mainly consists of coffee and pasta, but she loves pickles and cherries and peanut butter the most.

    Interested in learning more about Taylor or her personal projects? You can find more information on her website or Instagram.