me and you little magazine began in february 2022 as a media project that listens closely to small voices and values individual pace. we want to open up more choices for each person’s life path and create a world where different “me” and “you” can both exist. with that in mind, we have been creating spaces together with people from many different genders, sexualities, and backgrounds.
in this time of deepening divisions, we are exploring how to stay together while respecting our differences. our first feature takes up the universal theme of “love and life” by looking at its difficulties. through articles, events, gifts, and products, we will share projects that connect love and life and think together with our readers.
the main visual is a new illustration by misaki tanaka. at launch we published interviews with ichiko aoba and michelle zauner (japanese breakfast) and rei nagai, as well as features such as “a week of outfits for imperfect days” and “in this room, i live.” we are also hosting a collaboration event with snow shoveling and tsuchiya swimming pool, and releasing a tote bag with yuki fujisawa.
coming soon are misaki tanaka’s original short manga “ishi”, a column series “where does the difficulty of love come from?”, an essay series “voice” written by creators from different fields, and “voice post” where more than 30 people have already shared words on the theme.
❤️ concept
everyone has the wish to love and to be loved.
sometimes we cannot love well or cannot receive love. sometimes twisted love hurts others.
but life itself is unreliable, so it is only natural that love is unreliable too.
there is no perfect or correct love. love changes as life changes. we want to live with that.
let us bring together the difficulties of love found in daily life. let us look at the fragments of love, mend them, and add small pieces of love to the world.
before we cut ties or give up being together, let us try to stay with love, even when it feels fragile.
may small lights of hand-warm love shine in our everyday lives.
💚 why we are doing this feature
at me and you we have tried to create a space that gathers voices about everything from personal feelings to social issues, from discomfort to small joys.
in daily life with others, our hearts sometimes get left behind in the flood of information. we face social structures that cannot be solved quickly. still, we do not want to be swallowed by big voices that sound like answers or by black-and-white debates. we want to treat each person’s feelings and thoughts, even if vague, as irreplaceable.
by listening to these many layered voices, we can ask: how do “me” and “you,” while different, live side by side? how can we hold each other’s stories with love, even when it is difficult?
we started this feature by asking questions we ourselves wanted to pause and think about, together with anyone who resonates.
💧 why now
what connects “me” and “you” in different worlds? we think one answer may be “love.”
but love does not stand alone. to give or receive love often depends on stable ground in life: housing, money, relationships, work, health.
love also takes many forms—family, friendship, romance, sexuality, care for animals. yet many “shoulds” still exist, and true wishes are not always respected.
this feature begins by accepting that love is imperfect. we assume love can still connect us across gender, sexuality, nationality, body, and all kinds of differences. we want to notice not only big or “correct” forms of love but also the fragile and incomplete loves that live in daily life.
we focus on two points:
❤️ looking at the difficulty, uncertainty, and unreliability of love
❤️ finding love not only in abstract ideas but in the concrete details of our everyday lives
🤝 looking for collaborators
we are inviting collaborators to think together with us about this theme. possible ideas include:
– co-hosting talks, concerts, or markets
– creating fairs or exhibitions with bookstores and galleries
– interviews, workshops, and dialogue spaces around the difficulties of love and life
– exploring alternatives to fast consumption and ways of sustainable caring consumption
– projects that connect love with sustainable work environments or ecological practices
– publications on local issues of everyday life such as childcare, care work, or disability
we also work on media consulting, communication planning, content creation, books and zines, and events.
please contact us if you are interested: hello@meandyou.co.jp
💙 support me and you
we are a small independent editorial team. we do not run banner ads or long-term sponsorships. to keep creating, we have opened a support page.
you can:
🎁 make a donation
💫 join me and you club
🛒 shop at me and you shop
📰 publish a sponsored article
🤝 ask us to work on a project or collaboration
your support will go directly to paying writers, photographers, illustrators, collaborators, and to covering editing and server costs. with your help we can continue offering fair compensation and keep this space alive.
