Urbanette® Magazine was officially launched in 1994 by Hilary Rowland when she was a young girl living in rural Canada, with an affinity obsession for magazines.
Chronological History:
1994 – The magazine is started over summer holidays, with articles written by Hilary Rowland, mostly about body image, on BHI/GeoCities (a simple website host that was bought by Yahoo in 2009 and shut down). Back then it was called “My Magazine”.
1995 – The magazine is launched at its own domain name, renamed to “HILARY Magazine”, and removed from GeoCities. Articles (written by Hilary) are published on a regular schedule, and are print-magazine style. Hilary lands her first in-person A-list interview: Hilary Swank.
As a side note, this is also the year that Hilary founded New Faces®, the world’s second job search website (after Monster.com), the first online portfolio site of any kind, and the first time casting was done online. (She has since sold the company.)
1997 – The magazine starts publishing articles by other writers. At this time, Hilary was also running a web development company (with clients such as the Canadian Government) called “Hilary Interactive”.
2005 – The magazine gets a major re-design. No more white and airy!
2006 – Hilary moves her offices from Toronto to NYC’s West Village.
2009 – Hilary starts Project Migration, one of the very first social enterprises in history, and runs it alongside the magazine, out of a loft in NYC’s SoHo. Sting and others become public supporters.
2010 – HILARY Magazine is renamed to Urbanette Magazine and gets a new website design (as always, designed by Hilary, whose tastes are constantly evolving). She adds a NYC/Hamptons section.
2012 – Urbanette Magazine becomes the first magazine to be 100% volunteer and give 100% to charity. Officially, a “social enterprise”. Hilary meets her husband, gets engaged in a month, and married soon thereafter.
2013 – Hilary learns print design and Urbanette Magazine publishes its first physical print issue: the ‘Bridal & Love’ issue.
2013 & 2014 – Hilary gets cancer and is forced to prioritize her health by completely relinquishing control of her other businesses (but still collect passive income), and shuttering Project Migration. Until now, she had been running several businesses alongside Urbanette, dividing her time between them. But now, she decides to free up her time and focus her efforts on learning about health and growing Urbanette.
2015 – Hilary is still recovering, having become a healthy lifestyle expert in the process, and learns how important it is to manage stress.
Hilary becomes an official “influencer” / “tastemaker” and Urbanette gets yet another web-facelift (coding and design by Hilary).
2016 – Urbanette begins to accept selected sponsorships and puts 100% of the profits in a fund which is used to help empower women in developing countries become self-sustaining entrepreneurs through micro-loans. Hilary moves from NYC to France.
2017 – Hilary invents a distinct new way of post-processing photographs for Urbanette, and starts the process to register a design patent. Urbanette’s design is further refined by Hilary:
2018 – Hilary moves to Monte Carlo, Monaco.
Here’s Hilary Rowland, the founder’s story, in her words:
During summer holidays in 1994 I began writing articles and posting them on a very basic website, with the intention of someday having a real print magazine. In early 1995 I realized that the web would play a big part in the future of publishing, and I launched my articles at my own domain name. I programmed everything myself in HTML, and I used photo software to make all the graphics and mock-up covers (complete with fake bar-codes LOL).
It was the first online magazine, and I called it HILARY Magazine (mostly because I was reading Jane, Marie Claire, etc. and since I was the only writer at the time, it seemed to make sense). It’s since been re-named to Urbanette Magazine, which I like much better.
Both as a teenager and now, I was frustrated by superficial print magazines that were crammed with advertorials and articles that make women feel like they need to look a specific way to be attractive or have value as a person. The primary goal of the magazine has always been to publish articles (on body image, culture, etc.) that are not only interesting, but that also benefit the reader in some way. We publish articles about body image, the over-sexualization and objectification of women in our culture, conscious living and how the media affects women. Through these articles, we help our readers adopt a healthy and accepting outlook on women and themselves.
I’m very proud of the magazine because of what it stands for, and the fact that it was the first and there’s still nothing out there quite like it.
xo Hilary
Want more? Read more about Hilary Rowland or connect with her on Instagram
Hilary’s content and even her contributors are really great authors.
Well, I’ve been reading Urbanette for years and never did I see content that’s not relatable.?
Great history. It’s very rare that magazines like this thrive but Urbanette has made it clear that success is always an option. I really love this magazine even though I’ve only become a reader just recently. I don’t know much about veganism, media, or feminism but I learned it all here. It angered me at some point that I was too oblivious of the truth around me. I’m a very sheltered person and I honestly haven’t experienced oppression but I’m not going to be blind about it.
Yeah, just because you don’t experience it, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t care about it.
No wonder this magazine has succeeded. It has quality content that you can’t find elsewhere. What did you expect?
I have been an avid reader of Urbanette since it was launched. I’ve seen this blog grow through the years and I’m thankful that I’m one of their pioneer readers. Everything in this blog is well-thought of and Hilary’s opinions are really something that I value. I trust her every word and Urbanette has become one of the magazines that I really value the content. This magazine has taught me the reality of the world especially for women and I’ve become a feminist, thanks to her.?
Hahaha, I didn’t know that Urbanette (Hilary Magazine) already existed since 1995. I bet all the kids during those years don’t even know what a blog is!
Wow you’ve come a long way! Congratulations!?
So impressive! Kudos!
WOW! You’ve come a long way! Kudos to the founder, Hilary Rowland! Here’s to more success! Keep on inspiring women 🙂 I would honestly say, that even at my age, I’m learning! Thanks for always sharing encouraging stories!
I’m really proud to say that I’m following Urbanette Magazine! I am with you as you promote your advocacy: Feminism and Veganism 🙂