So a lot of you wonder..

HOW DID WE START?

Those may argue that social media has disrupted traditional business models and became the cheatsheet to one's dreams.. We argue that it's finally given the power to the people. For the first time people get to choose what THEY WANT TO SEE, BE WHOEVER THEY WANT, AND AS DOPE & AS SEXY AS THEY WANT.

Arsenic was founded off that exact notion. We don't let traditional media, corporations, and in Co-founder Amanda Micallef's case, the head honchos in Hollywood triumph our visions. In 2014 Micallef left her day job as an independent filmmaker to tend to her new hobby, creating a new print magazine: Arsenic. Billy Hawkins, co-founder joined the movement as he lent his home for Arsenic shoots. Hawkins' emotional investment to Arsenic stems from the opportunity to invest in the community - for his mother would question corporate media as he was growing up. 

On the second Arsenic shoot, the photographer was kicked out for aggressively directing the shoot to frame commercial beauty. The shoot continued with the models taking photos of each other and themselves, posing and dressing exactly how they wanted to. Micallef comments on this experience to Business Insider, "...there’s a nuance when you look at a picture of a girl when she’s feeling empowered and beautiful — her hair is the way she wants, she’s wearing what she wants, she’s standing the way she wants — that’s very different than when a guy is like 'stand there, turn your cheek that way,' and projecting what he thinks is sexy." 

This experience was the catalyst of Arsenic. However, instead of sharing the vision with print, the sexy and daring visual content from our community spread like wildfire on social media. 

THIS is what Arsenic is founded on. Giving the power to the people, to the creators, breaking the rules of traditional media and beauty.