Many of you may not know the name Annabel Slaight… yet. But we all have a lot to thank her for. She was one of the two original editors of OWL and helped get the magazine through some tough times. There’d be no OWL blog — let alone OWL mag! — without Annabel.
So, last week when blog reader anonimous (not telling!) asked me, “How did you get the idea for OWL?” I decided to send the question to Annabel herself. I also sent her a few other questions you guys have asked.
Cool, huh? On with the questions!
Q: How did you get the idea for OWL?
Annabel: Back when OWL was started in 1976, many kids in Canada did not know that Canada was a different country from the United States. They drew pictures with American flags in them, and drew U.S. postage stamps on Valentine’s cards. We decided that kids in Canada needed magazines of their own that would connect everyone all over the country. Since then over 10 million kids and families have been connected.
Q: What was the hardest thing about working on OWL? What was the easiest?
Annabel: The hardest thing was getting enough money to make the magazines. One of our directors — directors are people who guide a business — thought we should save money by making all the photos black and white instead of colour. What do you think of that idea?
The easiest thing for the people who started OWL was laughing. We had fun making the magazines every day because we heard from so many kids who loved what we were trying to do. They helped by coming up with great ideas that made us smile too.
Q: What’s your favourite animal?
Annabel: Big guess… the owl, of course. I used to draw owls in my books when I was in school. We called the magazine OWL when I pointed out that it stood for Outdoors and Wild Life — which was mostly what the magazine was about in the early days. Some people thought the magazine should be named HONK — for the sound of a Canada goose. Do you think that would have been a mistake?
Q: Do you like golf?
Annabel: Yup. But I don’t play much. I no longer go to work, but I am working very hard on lots of things — like trying to help save Lake Simcoe from dying as a result of too much careless behaviour by people. We are helping people think a bit more about the environment. It’s working — and it’s fun!
Q: Would you rather travel 50 years into the past or 50 years into the future?
Annabel: The future is the only real choice we have, so of course I would choose that. As you know, things are very difficult in the world right now — this is not great but it is usually the way things are before big changes for the better can be made. I think people in the next few years will be a whole lot wiser about living in harmony with nature. In 50 years, we will have stopped harming the planet, and life will be much better and happier for everyone. We will all have our priorities sorted out better than today as well. But then as now my motto will be, “Be sure to have some fun every day!”
–
Inspiring stuff, no? With a founder like Annabel, it’s no wonder OWL is such a cool magazine. Also, isn’t it awesome to think that OWL might have been called HONK? That’s news to me!
Have a great weekend, guys! Talk to you on Monday.
Craig, owlblog@owlkids.com
Loading ...
