“Tekla and I are connected by our families. I don’t remember my life without Tekla, she was always there. I was probably 25 years old when Atina came into our lives and we immediately became friends”, – Sopho tells us and adds with a laugh: “And after that we have been walking around hand in hand”.
Sopho Buadze, Atina Bregvadze and Tekla Tevdorashvili are co-founders of GrlzWave. It is a platform that works for the rights of women and queers, raising awareness in this direction through materials conveyed in simple language.
Curated by girls, the collective from Berlin became their first inspiration to create a similar platform in Georgia. They discussed how our country lacks similar spaces and started thinking about creating them. At first, they considered working more in the art direction, but after discussing where it was most needed and how to inform the audience, they settled on queer and feminist content.
“At first we thought a lot about what we can do and how. Then we started thinking about what is needed more and what experience, knowledge and skills we have. Tekla studied and worked in video, I studied journalism, Sopho marketing, and when we combined all this and joined queer feminist activism, in which we were already involved and we were interested, GrlzWave was born,” says Atina.
Sopho says that the work on these topics happened naturally, and they did not plan long in advance what the content of their platform would be.
“There was no simple, fun content written in simple language on similar topics, which we and people our age would understand without making special effort, not like, let’s study about Feminism, but when the information that is given naturally, by itself,” she says.
They thought a lot about the name of the platform. Initially, only Georgian-language options were discussed, among them was “wave”. They say we don’t know how we got to GrlzWave, but it’s been a running joke for years that almost everyone misspells our name.
“Our primary focus is women’s and queer rights, but due to the intersectionality of feminism, it contains everything, especially spreading the word about the rights and concerns of marginalized groups. We try to spread information and raise awareness on various issues and, most importantly, to do all this in a simple and human language, with a friendly attitude,” Tekla tells us.
According to her, there is no such thing as a taboo subject for GrlzWave, and if another organization or media platform can fit into a certain framework, the red line for them is only ethical, not taboo. Tekla notes that this makes her very proud, “especially now and especially in the Georgian context”.
Women’s Fund in Georgia was the first to financially support their idea and, they say, believed in them. All three mention that this support was very important, because if they had only been volunteering in activism before, it increased their self-belief and gave them more motivation, paving the way for finding other partners in the future.
“It raised us,” Tekla adds, and Atina notes: “It was a shock. We didn’t even know how to write a project properly. We really didn’t know anything except making content, and Women’s Fund gave and taught us a lot.”
The main activity of GrlzWave is the preparation of educational materials in various formats, be it posts on various social networks or videos.
“We have priority topics, for example, queer rights, mental health, beauty standards and in general everything that relates to us and concerns us. There are also topics that may not be directly related to us, but we think that in the country and the political climate where we are and the way we are, it is important to talk about all of these things,” says Atina.
In addition, they have murals in different cities of Georgia – 10 in total at the moment.
GrlzWave also organizes physical meetings on various topics. Among them can be, for example, a yoga session, as well as exhibitions.
According to Sopho, GrlzWave believes that education, whether formal or informal, defines who they are, and the topics they work on are not taught in school, but it is important that people are informed about their health at an early age.
“I think it’s important to provide this information just so we can all be healthy and have a better, quality life together.”
Atina adds that this information is especially important for GrlzWave’s core audience, women between the ages of 16 and 25.
“At this age, it is especially important to know that you are not alone in the things you are going through in life, and you are not the only one who faces obstacles, obstacles, feels bad, etc. I think GrlzWave creates and fills this space in a way, and we got similar feedback from the audience that it’s a safe space where they can share things themselves and receive things,” she says, and Sopho adds: “It’s important to know that you have like-minded people, that you are not alone in things that you thought you were alone in. Then even small battles become easier.”
Sopho, Tekla and Atina are involved in other activities at the same time, but devote most of their time and resources to GrlzWave.
“I identify myself as an artivist. I really like this term because it is the intersection of art and activism and really expresses my work. For example, I also make music, I am a DJ, and my activist side here is that I can make a specific statement, include a specific message at any event. That’s why I like this term, it combines both”, Tekla adds.
They tell us that they started GrlzWave with three people, but people have gradually joined us and we are now up to 10.
“We are a small team, but we are very cute,” adds Sopho.
Atina notes that they have slowly grown up a lot, and if they were small and inexperienced at first, now GrlzWave has become a space for some people where they take their first steps, which makes her happy and proud.