Britney Kirwan

Jennie Bull and Emma Lueders are two Syracuse University students who plan to take the magazine they have created and turn it into a whole enterprise.

(Image: thedailyorange.com)

Jennie Bull and Emma Lueders are driving around listening to their favorite songs and talking about the most eventful things that happened this past weekend when all of a sudden Bull has an epiphany.

She turns to Lueders and expresses her desire to create a magazine based on topics that are deemed “taboo”. Lueders immediately nods her head and begins to explain that she has always wanted to start a “self-love” podcast, anyway.

Everything clicked and they began to think of different names. And just like that, after a very short conversation, Moody Magazine was born.

Both Bull and Lueders grew up in major cities. Bull is from Chicago and Lueders is from Philidelphia. Even though they are from different places, they both have always had similar qualities growing up.

There was always that drive between the two of them to be leaders. Bull was president of her high school Music Review and Business club, while Lueders started a Watercolor club in high school and a club to help women in need when she was only in middle school. They both have a niche for fashion.

“Fashion has always been at the core of whatever I want to do”, says Bull, and talks about how coming to Syracuse helped her find a true passion for it.

Lueders even majors in Fashion Design and describes using fashion as a way to be bold.

She says,” Growing up, I was told ‘I’m too much ‘ and now I’m entering this phase in my life where I’m making sure my inner little girl is allowed to be as much as she could.”

Running an organization with either a family member or best friend is not something everyone could pull off. However, Bull and Lueders make it work, and they definitely make it look easy.

Bull describes the dynamic of their partnership as a “push and pull”, where they balance each other out and end up doing the same amount of work by the time the magazine gets published.

No matter how stressful their jobs get, they are so passionate about their magazine that they don’t let it get in their way. After interviewing them separately, they both talked about how their magazine has created a community of many different people from many different backgrounds and that they wouldn’t give it up for anything.

A longtime friend of Bull and Lueders who also works for Moody Magazine, Laya Harrison, says,” One should be hesitant to work with their best friend, but for some reason, it really works for Moody. It’s set up to thrive in a creative college environment. The whole staff is really close and determined to make it big.”

From just being a small idea to becoming a fully student-run and operated magazine with over one hundred people involved, everyone’s wondering what’s next for Moody Magazine. They both eventually want to take the magazine off-campus and make it into a whole enterprise.

Specifically, Lueders says,” I could see Moody having stores with its own clothing line and with magazines on display in the stores.” To add to that, Bull says,” We wanna have a fashion section where Emma can pursue her fashion design and I want to also eventually have a podcast section where we can have open conversations and put on workshops for people in the workplace and for education facilities.”

The concept of Moody Magazine itself has allowed Bull and Lueders to come up with new and exciting ideas for how to take the magazine to the next level.

With all of the love and support, they receive daily from other students and with both of their ambitious qualities combined, it’s safe to say that they will make their dreams for Moody Magazine a reality.

Originally written: November 20, 2022