NEW YORK — Most mornings, Sophia Mitropoulos, 30, units off from her condominium, biking by way of a mixture of residential and industrial blocks, previous auto outlets and quite a bit “where the ice cream trucks sleep,” to a factory-turned-studio-space in Queens.
Inside, a pile of magazines sits on a shelf, awaiting delivery. In the nook, a mini print vending machine sits beneath a wall of fluorescent prints. “A day without women’s sports is like a day without sunshine,” reads one. “Lesbian fans fill your stands,” reads one other.
A stack of prints sits on the desk, beneath a CD participant softly taking part in Destiny’s Child. On a rack stuffed with delivery supplies, a mini-printer spits out stickers studying “Do not bend.” A bit of butcher paper covers half a wall with a to-do checklist: Restock concern 1; edit YouTube vlogs; migrate to Shopify; promote to (1) wholesale buyer.
The product? “Snatch” — named for an Olympic weightlifting transfer, although additionally a cheeky double entendre — a new women’s sports magazine born out of Mitropoulos’ New York condominium, which launched its second concern in March.
“Snatch” is way from the first women’s sports magazine to make a go of it. Magazines line a shelf in Mitropoulos’ studio: Sports Illustrated Women, Girljock, Billie Jean King’s girlsSports.
Those publications have been out of print for years; Mitropoulos sourced her copies from eBay. So when women’s sports entered a pivotal interval of development — elevated media protection, higher TV offers, record-breaking audiences — Mitropoulos had an thought for a new twist on a really previous idea, one the place women’s sports tales wouldn’t be beholden to company whims or a social media algorithm.
“We could write it down,” she stated. “We can print it out. We can find some pretty pictures and put them together and tell this story.”
Contributors signed their items at a launch celebration for concern two in March. Chloe Brenna and Marcella Petiprin by way of Sophia Mitropoulos
Some may see Mitropoulos’ stack of out-of-print magazines as a cautionary story — who would begin a print magazine in the present day, in a digital world that has seen the downfall of numerous publications, in an business that pivots and pivots and pivots once more?
But Mitropoulos sees her stack as an archive. As inspiration. A legacy price constructing on, in an period when women’s sports is seeing historic funding, and when there are nonetheless at the least some individuals on the market who need paper tickets and vinyl albums and hardcover books. When, regardless of the much-declared loss of life of print, small artists and publishers like Mitropoulos reinvent and reinvent and reinvent once more. Or at the least attempt.
The thought for the magazine got here in 2024, when Mitropoulos was working full-time in social media design for an company.
“(It) was taking a lot of my creative energy, and I knew that I wanted to be working on my own work,” she stated.
In April of that yr, Mitropoulos give up to go freelance. That’s when she started tinkering with a rebrand of “Snatch,” initially a zine about women’s weightlifting she had created in 2017 for a remaining undertaking whereas a pupil at the University of Southern California, publishing a couple of points earlier than sunsetting it in 2020.
In 2024, as women’s sports boomed, Mitropoulos obtained to work. No extra stapled, folded paper — this model of “Snatch” could be over 90 pages, that includes articles and paintings by 36 contributors, with two commercials, professionally printed and sure and offered for $38.
Mitropoulos launched an editor’s model in December 2024, a smaller, self-bound version to create a proof of idea. Then, she spent a lot of 2025 soliciting submissions on social media and modifying and designing the first concern, an ode to women’s sports followers.
She saved up together with her freelance purchasers to pay the payments, however give up a contract job as a photograph sales space technician to commit herself to the fledgling magazine. In October, Mitropoulos launched a mail club, a month-to-month subscription the place clients get a unique women’s sports-themed print every month — a gradual income supply that allowed her to hire the studio.
Monthly mail membership prints line the partitions of Mitropoulos’ studio in New York. Rebecca Tauber / The Athletic
Mitropoulos launched the first concern at a launch celebration in December 2025. There are reported items on curler derby and the Women’s National Football Conference; private essays like “Healing from half court” and “The 2019 FIFA women’s world cup definitely made me gay”; a photograph sequence about WNBA trend; a crossword; poetry.
While contributors and readers found “Snatch” on social media, Mitropoulos hasn’t posted the articles on-line. The smooth matte cowl, the images, the design all require handheld, in-person studying.
“I just am an analog girl,” Mitropoulos stated in December. “I also do think there’s a huge resurgence for anti-algorithm content.”
Mitropoulos offered all 300 copies of the first run inside three weeks, making again the roughly $10,000 she invested to make concern one after which some.
It shortly grew to become clear that “Snatch” had tapped right into a world of writers and artists — principally girls and members of the LGBTQ+ neighborhood — with one thing to say about this second in sports.
Mitropoulos acquired 72 submissions for concern one and 85 pitches for concern two, excess of may slot in a single magazine.
Shipping supplies, previous magazines and tasks in progress fill Mitropoulos’ New York studio. Rebecca Tauber / The Athletic
One of these items got here from Provvidenza Catalano, a Los Angeles-based instructor and efficiency artist whose piece about internet hosting Angel City FC’s delight night time opened the first concern.
“I think it’s really important to specifically document women’s sports at this time,” Catalano stated. “Having the stories of the players and the teams, but also the world around it and the people that are around it.”
There’s a standard thread to a lot of the “Snatch” contributors and readers: Women and nonbinary and transgender individuals like Catalano who all the time beloved sports, performed sports, however by no means felt like sports beloved them again — till they discovered Angel City FC, or the PWHL, or Ellie the Elephant.
“I had to live my whole life knowing no one cared about the sport I played, but if my brother played it, they cared about it,” stated Mitropoulos’ accomplice, Elizabeth Limonta, who performed faculty basketball and now works as a nurse, serving to with Snatch in her spare time. “Circuits are changing in people’s brains.”
Some contributors are skilled artists and writers, others are seeing their work printed for the first time.
“There are media empires around men’s sports, and we’re starting to see things like Snatch pop up in women’s sports,” stated Anne Paglia, 28, a contract copywriter and Mitropoulos’ former roommate, whom she recruited to edit the second concern. “There’s definitely opportunity for more of it.”
Jules Fennell, a Connecticut-based oil painter, typically paints portraits, and had by no means considered portray girls taking part in sports till she noticed Mitropoulos’ name for contributors on social media.
“So much of the way that you’re taught to depict the figure, and especially the female figure, in these traditional artistic practices, is sort of in stillness and in neutrality,” Fennell stated.
“Snatch” obtained her itching to paint girls in movement. She pitched Mitropoulos on a 24×36 inch oil portray of a school rugby sport. Thirty hours of labor later, it landed on the cowl of the second concern.
Jules Fennell created a 24×36 inch oil portray for the cowl of concern two. Chloe Brenna and Marcella Petiprin by way of Sophia Mitropoulos.
Another artist, Heidi Hicks, illustrated the curler derby piece in concern one and a narrative about Irish sea swimming in concern two — their first contribution to a print magazine.
“I personally have not seen the integration of art and sport in a magazine in the way that Sophia has done,” Hicks stated.
Mitropoulos doesn’t completely body “Snatch” as a queer women’s sports magazine, “but you have to know that that’s the room you’re in,” she stated. In the similar means that women’s sports can’t be separated from the LGBTQ portion of its fanbase — even because it grows and widens its crowds — “Snatch” can’t be separated from queer tradition.
“That’s how we live our lives,” Mitropoulos stated.
There can also be the political context wherein Mitropoulos has created “Snatch.” While she labored on getting the magazine off the floor, greater than two dozen states have restricted or outright banned transgender athletes, and transgender and LGBTQ+ rights have come underneath assault by the Trump administration.
“What sucks is that leagues are backing out on their stances on trans athletes, but I’m not a league, so I don’t have to change my stance on trans athletes, and I think that’s where indie publishing can benefit,” Mitropoulos stated. “There is nobody else in charge of me.”
On a Saturday in April, a couple of weeks after launching concern two, Mitropoulos arrived at her studio to pack magazine orders, whereas Limonta sat at the desk in gloves, folding miniature zines.
Mitropoulos made sufficient in gross sales of concern one to cowl concern two, however like many media firms, she is aware of the magazine in all probability received’t be her foremost income, which is why she can also be engaged on rising the “Snatch” model. Mitropoulos’ studio is roofed in tasks in progress: the mini zine, a notepad Mitropoulos is experimenting with hand-gluing herself, subsequent month’s mail membership.
“What else can we make in the creative world?” Mitropoulos stated. “That’s a fun challenge for me as a designer.”
Mitropoulos’ accomplice, Elizabeth Limonta, helped fold a run of zines about fan etiquette. “You don’t have to know every stat line and every box score,” it reads. Rebecca Tauber / The Athletic
She realized quite a bit between points one and two — to tighten deadlines, to usher in Paglia as editor, to get a trolley for supply day. She retains a doc stuffed with optimistic suggestions she has acquired from readers, like a instructor with a transgender pupil in Nebraska and a fan simply stepping into women’s sports, a reminder that her work will discover its viewers.
But Mitropoulos nonetheless has lots to determine. She is aware of she wants to ramp up her advertising and marketing. She wants to discover a lawyer (simply in case), arrange a subscription system for the magazine, end the type information, get “Snatch” in shops, get extra readers.
“It’s definitely scary,” she stated. “But also, I think it’s just really fun.”
Mitropoulos nonetheless does freelance design and social media work, which helps hold the lights on, as does her accomplice’s medical health insurance. But she desires of constructing hires of her personal, of bringing in individuals who can do advertising and marketing and accounting and hold the present operating if she takes a trip.
For now, Mitropoulos shuts herself in her studio every day and will get to work, rising practically 10 hours later, solely when she runs out of potable water. She imagines concern three — slated for this fall — and desires up the subsequent mail membership print, the subsequent launch celebration.
“For me as an artist, it very much feels like my magnum opus,” Mitropoulos stated. “But also, Snatch has become the conduit for other people to share their stories.”