Publishers celebrate local women of color

COURTESY CHARLOTTE PINC

Lynn Leary (left) and her daughter Paige are the executive team behind Charlotte PinC magazine.

Years after developing an idea to highlight women of color, Lynn and Paige Leary created more than that.

In 2020, Lynn, a former attorney, had an idea: A platform that brings attention to and celebrate women of color in the Charlotte area.

“I just felt didn't get enough attention for the wonderful things they were doing,” she said. “And that was whether it was running a business, running a nonprofit, being a creative and artist. I wanted to do something, and I wasn't quite sure what that was.”

Fast forward, and that idea developed into a magazine called Charlotte PinC, which stands for Profiles In Color. The magazine not only highlights an overlooked audience, but it has also expanded throughout the Carolinas.

Lynn’s daughter Paige runs the magazine alongside her mother to ensure their mission is showcased.

”I don’t even think we had an Instagram page,” Lynn said. “We didn’t have an Instagram page until Paige came in.”

The Learys said their magazine is different from others because of their focus in the community.

“We’re not a gossip magazine.” Lynn said. “We're not giving you celebrity sightings and things like that. Our focus is mainly on who's in the community. Doing things, whether it's an artist or an art show, you know, what are they're doing? Go see their work. Our focus is really us not being biased. More like it's for everybody but that is the difference. We try to write when, you know, the stories that are beyond just the profiles or just things that we think that women in general would be interested in or that anybody would be interested in, not even just women.”

Paige said another thing that distinguishes them is they do not charge anyone to appear in the publication.

“We don't charge our women to be profiled,” she said. “There are other publications out there that will do business profiles on women, but a lot of them, they're paid profiles. We wanted to be able to do this as a community service.”

In the beginning, Lynn thought about highlighting women by just creating a website and doing a photo shoot. With her daughter about to graduate from UNC-Greensboro, the pair got to work to make their dream a reality beginning with an Instagram page after creating the website.

“I wanted to do media,” Paige said. “I wanted to create something, I wanted to direct something, and I thought that her idea was giving me my first platform. It was just an Instagram page. Before it was even a real magazine. It was just Instagram. Highlights of women in business in Charlotte and our local events and news stories, too.

“So, it was really just a platform where women of color were highlighted. And over time it grew into being like a resource. Charlotte women use us as a resource, a guide, for businesses to shop with for local events, to see what events we're hosting.”

After being put on hold because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the first issue debuted in November 2021, titled “Making Charlotte Beautiful.” From then, the magazine came out with new content and fresh topics quarterly. In 2022, the pair added staff to assist with the mission.

“Paige came on and we knew that we needed a photographer, so we brought on a photographer,” Lynn said. “That then led to ‘You know what? We need more voices writing the story.’ So, we then reached out and started getting writers to come in, and we were growing.

“People were looking a little bit more to us, and that led to ‘We need someone to assist us with content.’ Just getting content for us because prior to that, Paige was doing an awful lot of it. She's the true creative behind Charlotte PinC. And it really just said, ‘If we want this to grow and we want this to succeed, at some point, you have to realize you can't do everything.”

Not only do the pair create content, they also host events, starting last year with a “Vision Brunch.”

The magazine is supported by local sponsors who are small business owners and folks who support the pair at paid events.

Since coming on board, Paige has dedicated her time to running the magazine full time. Her mother, who oversees the magazine’s progress, also runs a human resource consulting company.
The pair’s goal is to expand into a full-fledged media company.

“Covering all things social media, magazine, podcast, your email list. Maybe we'll even get a TV show,” Paige said.

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