Denver Designer Created Girl Pervert Magazine to “Explore Curiosities”

Growing up in a Vietnamese immigrant household, Denver graphic designer HÁ  Pham was taught to pursue a career that reaped great financial benefits. In her sophomore year of high school, she discovered her talent for the cello and was classically trained in the instrument. During her first year in college, she connected with other creative people and became obsessed with physical media. As Pham continued to explore other creative outlets, she had a moment of self-reflection.

“I didn’t really like cello that much. I didn’t like classical music that much,” says Pham. “I just liked the artistic gateway it gave me.”

After playing the four-string instrument for seven years, Pham decided that music wasn’t the best avenue for her future and dropped out of college, instead learning about production and how to operate a camera through working with local creatives on their films. She also taught herself graphic design through designing title cards, feeling that she could touch “a little bit of everything” in the creative world.

Pham had a lifelong admiration for magazines and hoped to work in the industry someday, so she decided to create her own alternative magazine.

“Why should I wait to apply to these jobs when I can just go out there and make something on my own?” reflects Pham. “Having something physical that you can hold within your hand felt so much more intimate to me; I really wanted my work [and] my design to manifest in that way.”

Pham started Girl Pervert Magazine last summer as a project to help her continue the practice of graphic design techniques and skills. Pham says she wanted to push not just the topics of discussion the publication would showcase, but also what experiences and skills she would learn from these creative decisions.

The very first volume of Girl Pervert came out in July 2024 and addressed the impact pornography has on people and how their abnormal fetishes have developed due to the content. With over thirty interviews, bold fonts and an essay about sexuality, Pham says that she wanted the issue to be a “box of contradiction” with things she did and didn’t align with.

After wanting a fresh start, Pham revamped the magazine into a publication for women and the LGBTQ+ community. In March, Denver-based creative Amayas Gonzalez was the face of Girl Pervert, which highlighted her journey of self-acceptance through art, fashion and a sickening photoshoot.

Girl Pervert is an annual publication that releases a main magazine yearly and smaller projects, like zines, throughout the year. The issues and content are printed at Artisan Press Works in Denver before they’re released online and distributed at public events, but Pham is actively working to get Girl Pervert in bookstores.

Pham writes the articles in the magazines herself and hopes to expand the writing with freelancers in two years.

“[Girl Pervert has] always been this platform for me to explore curiosities and push the conversation a little bit,” says Pham. “I just wanted to put it out there and stir up the pot, even if people looked at me as a freak or whatever.”

Volume Two of Girl Pervert, “The Manifesto,” launches August 2 and explores what it means to be a girl pervert, whether it’s a hillbilly, an office siren or a married woman.

Director of photography Justen Key came across Volume One of Girl Pervert on his Instagram feed, and its design and photos stood out to him. Growing up, Key’s grandfather captured family events through video, and eventually, Key filmed YouTube videos surrounding sneaker and streetwear content during high school.

When Pham reached out to Key to capture Volume Two, “The Manifesto” in video, he felt burnt out after post-production for a music video he had just completed and was eager to dive into a “new creative outlet in a different genre.” Key says he had always wanted to shoot for editorial, and this was the perfect opportunity for him.

“I think people are naturally drawn to quality concepts and the ones that excite well become timeless,” says Key. “There’s a type of adrenaline when supporting something you truly believe will blow up one day.”

As a cinematographer, Key notes that successfully capturing someone’s vision, like Pham’s, and seeing the real-time positive feedback never gets old. Key says that directors who have a strong sense of what they want the final result to be is something he appreciates, which Pham embodies.

Throughout the process of creating “The Manifesto,” Key says that Pham’s ability to curate, be intentional and dedicate herself to the overall vision makes her a “true mastermind.” Whether it be the brainstorming process for a photoshoot theme or the final copy, Key believes the Girl Pervert is truly crafted.

“Sooner or later, even you’ll have a copy of Girl Pervert on your coffee table,” says Key. “Don’t sleep on this publication.”

For the launch of “The Manifesto,” Pham is hosting an immersive event at contemporary art gallery SP_CE13 that combines Girl Pervert, fashion, and media into one. Recreations of photoshoot sets featured in the newest issue, the first public screening of the Girl Pervert Video Series, and a marketplace of creatives who contributed to bringing “The Manifesto” to life are key experiences of the one-night-only event.

During a time when it’s difficult to be creative, Pham says that art is an “anchor of hope” that creates culture, and without it, society would crumble on itself. Pham wants Girl Pervert to be a fun and campy outlet for women and queer communities to take a breath from the harsh realities that cause stress, uncertainty and worry.

“[Girl Pervert] is serious, it means a lot and holds a lot of power and it’s also not that fucking serious,” says Pham. “Girl, it’s camp. You either get it or you don’t, for real.”

Girl Pervert Vol. 2 Launch Party, 7 to 11 p.m. Saturday, August 2, SP_CE13, 3157 South Broadway. RSVP here.