Willing to struggle so kids have a voice

By Andrea Domanick

Sunday, Sept. 21, 2014 | 2 a.m.

For as long as she can remember, Monique Charles has loved to write.

Growing up in New York, Charles, now 38, filled notebooks with poems and stories, and, as she got older, often was picked to deliver speeches and eulogies for family and friends.

As an adult, Charles struggled in an abusive relationship and became a single mother. In 2011, she started writing a blog to cope.

Musing about everything from parenting to Nicki Minaj, Charles began to draw a modest readership, and after an encouraging tweet from Minaj herself, branded the blog Lips Speak.

While in transitional housing at the Berks Women In Crisis shelter in Reading, Pa., Charles was encouraged to develop Lips Speak further, along with long-term goals for herself and her daughter, Angeliz, who also expressed an interest in writing. Charles transformed the blog from a personal outlet into an online magazine for young people.

Through a community resource center, she secured dedicated office space to transition Lips Speak from the web to print. With the support of the shelter, Charles gathered local at-risk students from what she calls “last resort” schools to discuss and write about the topics that mattered to them, from fashion and pop culture to the causes of Reading’s endemic poverty. Though her choice to focus on troubled students was met with skepticism, Charles said it was those students who benefited the most from writing as an outlet.

“Nobody took us seriously,” Charles said. “They didn’t understand how a bunch of kids could put something together like that when they’re still learning. Well, of course they’re still learning. They need the opportunity and the experience. Writing is a way to keep these kids off the street, it’s a chance for them to see that they can do something more.”

The magazine gained traction in the community, hosting events and a television segment for youths to speak out. Charles printed about 50 copies of each issue and distributed them for free.

“The kids were in shock; they couldn’t believe it,” she said of students’ reactions to seeing their names in print. “It was an opportunity that they will never forget. Finally, they were the cool kids.”

Still, steady funding remained an issue; Charles footed the magazine’s bill through a part-time job at a local grocery store, printing the booklets herself at OfficeMax while also managing the website.

“It was kind of a Catch-22,” she said. “To get the money we needed from others (to sustain it), I had to keep putting money in.”

Despite Lips Speak’s success, Charles said both she and the magazine needed to leave Reading in order to grow. In October, she and Angeliz moved to Las Vegas for a fresh start, and Charles has been working since to get Lips Speak off the ground here. She said her crowdfunding campaigns have failed to meet their goals, and local youth nonprofits, though receptive, say gathering kids for monthly meetings is too difficult.

Still, Charles remains determined to make Lips Speak a reality in Las Vegas. She recently rented space at the Bob Price Recreation Center to hold monthly magazine club meetings. The program is free and open to students ages 10 to 17. Charles hopes others with writing, design and photography experience will get involved as interns and mentors. The project’s latest iteration will provide a space for students to collaborate and network with other young writers, artists and creative types, with the goal of getting the magazine back online and eventually in print again.

Charles says her only source of funding remains her day job as a social media promoter. She admits it’s not enough to sustain the project but hopes Lips Speak eventually will attract donors.

“When I talk to people, they’re like, ‘You don’t have a car; how do you have a magazine?’ ” Charles said. “I say, ‘You can do a lot without those things.’ I’ve learned that you make something you love into a passion, and you make that passion into a career. Nothing else gets in the way.”