Rachel Kramer Bussel examines Violet, a magazine about "modern family living:"

I first heard of Violet through a blog entry singing the praises of this new magazine about "modern family living." With sex advice from porn star Juli Ashton and fiction from Jill Soloway, it sounded intriguing. At the newsstand, Violet was on the ground, next to magazines like Pink (for working women) and below a whole rack of glossy, gleaming, screaming magazines with names like Parents, Child, and American Baby. In contrast, Violet's understated cover features celebs Donovan Leitch and Kirsty Hume along with their daughter, named, appropriately enough, Violet Jean, looking decidedly casual in a forested background. Had I not been searching for Violet, I likely would've passed right by it. I'm glad I didn't.

I opened up the magazine on the train, thrilled to see articles that even I, as a single city dweller at least several years away from raising children, could relate to. Some were even written by people I knew, like Soloway or my friend Kemp Powers' article about racism within the video game world. The overall effect left me wondering why I hadn't hopped on the Violet bandwagon earlier, because Violet is offering something truly new-new ideas, new twists, new ways of looking at life and parenting, all wrapped up in a pretty (but never too pretty) package. When Violet profiles working parents, whether it's former pro-football player Ricky Waters (interviewed by Lisa Carver, herself a writer and mother), artist William Wegman, or designer Daryl K about their work and how they incorporate parenting into their lives, it doesn't treat them as superhuman forces able to be in 10 places at once. Instead, it probes the intersections-the ways being a parent has changed them and their craft, but never panders to clichés or burdens parents with the futile push to be perfect.