I’d always hoped for a lezzie version of the revered and fashionable Butt magazine and was more than a little disappointed when its counterpart, Kutt, didn’t last more than a couple of issues. So it was great to hear about GLU magazine , a Danish-produced, US-published title that adds some long-overdue edginess to the queer girl magazine rack. It was also great to see that, alongside Kathrin Hero, Jessica Gysel (who who was responsible for Kutt) edits GLU. Consider it GLU in beta mode. As it’s a quarterly magazine and I’m looking at issue 7, this means I’m more than fashionably late coming to the GLU party. GLU stands for Girls Like Us, but I prefer the alternative version that appears on the editorial page; Gueer Lipster Utopia.

They’ve packed a lot into this issue of GLU, loosely themed around ‘hair’. Issue no. 7 is apparently the first shiny, glossy issue and it looks great and comes complete with centrefold. There are interviews with filmmaker Maria Beatty (who also used to publish French magazine, Tetu), Pauline Boudry (Rhythm King & Her Friends) and Melissa Plaut (New York Hack blog), interviewed by Ariel Shrag. The interviews are varied and interesting and extend beyond the usual interview/subject mould. The Fresh Faces section is where the hair theme really takes off, featuring a bunch of creative New Yorkers photographed by Sophie Mörner and asked about issues of hair and place.

It has no book or magazine reviews, it’s really not that kind of magazine. Its brainy and arty, like the radical queer younger sister of Face magazine. Or something. It has ads but not the conspicuous kind. It has lots of gorgeous photography. It has a column called “Kim’s Cabinet of Lesbian Typicalities” that contributes phrases like “Rotweiller Femme” to the lesbian lexicon. And it has a centrefold, but I know I mentioned that already.