The Origin Story
INT. Living Room. Day.
Ayushi and Smriti, despondent. The name they’d been wedded to for their magazine was already taken. They tossed phrases into the void—creativity reduced to a shrug. Smriti’s gaze landed on Ayushi’s bookshelf. A single word stared back.
Smriti
“What about Butter Paper Magazine?”
Ayushi
“That’s… actually not terrible.”
Fade out.
Words, smells, objects—nearly everything—has a story if you pause long enough to notice. Nearly everything just needs a little nurturing to root it down.
That’s how we’ve always seen the world: sometimes messily, sometimes obnoxiously, but always deeply.
Butter Paper Magazine is born from that exact contradiction: a space shaped by women who are both trying to disappear and fighting fiercely to be seen.
In a way, that makes perfect sense. The self-doubt, the hesitation, the discarded pages—none of it serves the narrative. So we name it, own it, and move through it.
Butter Paper is an ode to every insecure bone in women who still show up to write, speak, bake, build, laugh—and live.
It’s a seriously fun online magazine for anyone trying to live and die at the same time.
The Real Origin Story
This magazine exists because of the women in our lives—our community, our lifeline. From friends who’ve read early drafts to mentors who challenged us to dig deeper, each one has lent her voice, her strength, her brilliance to help shape Butter Paper. We are endlessly proud to be surrounded by such an incredibly talented group of women—writers, artists, thinkers—who we’ve learned from in ways big and small.
Our hope is that this space becomes a continuation of that community.
That it grows to be a space for the chaos.
For women to feel, think, fall apart, and rebuild.
For big feelings and louder thoughts.
A space to just be.
