In Conversation: Rhona Ezuma, Editor in Chief of THIIIRD Magazine

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In our first interview of 2023, we’re talking to Rhona Ezuma, Editor in Chief of THIIIRD Magazine about their recent issue, Body Movements. The issue is centred around exploring sports and non-competitive physical activities like yoga and dance. THIIIRD is an independent magazine and inclusive platform amplifying the voices and visibility of talent from underrepresented backgrounds.

Hello! Introduce yourself, who are you? What do you do?

I’m Rhona, I’m the Editor in Chief and founder of THIIIRD Magazine. I’m also a fashion stylist and occasional writer.

Tell us more about Thiiird Magazine and how it began!

The idea of THIIIRD started bubbling up between myself and a few other creatives I collaborated with when we realised the stories we wanted to create, weren’t being given space in other publications. Stories that referenced models of different races, with darker skin and bigger bodies, were rarely featured, and when they did make an appearance, it would often feel stereotyped. With THIIIRD we wanted to see a fashion, arts and culture magazine that wouldn’t pigeonhole people on the basis of race, gender or sexuality. Instead, we wanted to make the representation of people with marginalised aspects of their identity, firstly visible, but also nuanced, plural and exciting. Today we are still about that, and pushing for better representation in front of and behind the screens of the creative industries.

The most recent issue of your magazine, Body Movements, is out! What are your highlights from the issue?

We split the issue into three parts and I think Utopian Arena’s, exploring sports inclusivity, especially for the LGBTQ+ community, is my favourite. There is a feature in it on gender binaries in sports. Daniela, one of our writers, spoke to three amazing sports professionals about how gender shows up in their sports, and how that binary affects competition and fairness in their view. There are loads of really important takeaways to reflect on about things like menstruation, hormone levels, body mass and transition that feature in those interviews. It’s also the section that Queer Olympics, the ten model editorial I creative directed and styled features in. And the intention of that shoot is to reimagine sports as a stage in which queerness can be celebrated.

You explained to Fuse that the magazine is a response after a year of witnessing racism, transmisogny and sexism in sport spaces. Why do you think it was important to highlight this and what have people said about the issue so far?

Sports is such an exciting space. There can be so much to celebrate about sports and the way it enables us to feel community, sense of identity and national pride but it is not without fault. Some people would like to believe that sports are purely about competition. Maybe this is why they become outraged when they see an athlete set boundaries for themselves, and say, put their mental health before the games. Sporting associations are so far behind with how they deal with acts of racism, sexism and homophobia, and what they do to protect mental health. It felt important for us to point this out and start having these conversations with people with real lived experience on it. The idea of ‘fairness’ is becoming quite a loaded and polarising term used in connection to sport and we wanted to challenge that. In the feedback we’ve been getting most people talk about appreciating hearing these stories and say it’s inspired them to take up a particular sport and do things with their bodies – that’s a great outcome for us too.

What's next for Thiird? Are there any exclusives you can tell us about?

Right now we are enjoying the fact that our issue is out and ready to buy in our store, but we have also just launched a tik tok and a weekly newsletter. People can sign up to that for resources, recommendations and news about THIIIRD. We will soon also be announcing a IRL event so keep your eyes peeled on our instagram for news on that. 

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Image credits: THIIIRD Magazine