Girl Germs

{{Short description|Feminist zine published in Oregon}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}

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| image_file = Girl Germs (zine).jpg

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| image_caption = Issue 1 of Girl Germs

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| category = Riot grrrl

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| founder = Allison Wolfe
Molly Neuman

| founded = 1990

| firstdate = December 1990

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Girl Germs was a zine created by University of Oregon students Allison Wolfe and Molly Neuman, both members of the band Bratmobile.{{cite book|last=Mitchell|first=Claudia A.|title=Girl Culture: An Encyclopedia|year=2008|publisher=Greenwood Press|location=Westport, Conn.|isbn=978-0-313-33908-0|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=arQy0v_PBx4C&q=%22girl%20germs%22&pg=PA200|editor=Reid-Walsh, Jacqueline |page=200}}

Feminism was influential in the Pacific Northwest in the early nineties: Girl Germs identified feminist role models in its early issues and was one of the few Riot grrrl zines created by young white women to feature African American rappers.{{cite book|last=Kearney|first=Mary Celeste|title=Girls Make Media|year=2006|publisher=Routledge|location=New York|isbn=978-0-415-97278-9|pages=175–179|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uOlz0HaIOqcC&q=%22girl+germs%22&pg=PA179}}

The first issue of Girl Germs was completed by December 1990.{{cite news |author1=Amileah Sutliff |title=Taking Back Girlhood: The Power of Bratmobile's Sneering Debut |url=https://magazine.vinylmeplease.com/magazine/bratmobile-pottymouth-vinyl/|accessdate=22 November 2020|work=VMP |date=21 November 2018}} While home in Washington, D.C., on winter break, Neuman made several hundred copies of the zine at the Capitol Hill offices of Arizona Representative Mo Udall, who she had worked for during high school.{{cite book|author=Sara Marcus|title=Girls to the Front|year=2010|publisher=Harper|isbn=978-0-06-180636-0|pages=59–60|edition=1st}}

Contributors to Girl Germs included Kathleen Hanna; Jean Smith of Mecca Normal; Sue P. Fox; Kaia Wilson; the editors of Double Bill, G.B. Jones, Jena von Brücker, Caroline Azar, Johnny Noxzema and Rex; Jen Smith; and Erin Smith of Bratmobile. Groups interviewed by Girl Germs editors include Calamity Jane, Unrest, 7 Year Bitch, Jawbox and Fastbacks.

Girl Germs also documents the coming together of Bratmobile, during this time. Allison would go on to play with Cold Cold Hearts, Partyline, and Hawnay Troof and Molly played with The Frumpies and The PeeChees.

Archives that have copies of Girl Germs include the GLBT Historical Society in San Francisco, California, the Independent Publishing Resource Center in Portland, Oregon, Duke University in Durham, North Carolina,{{cite web|title=Guide to the Sarah Dyer Zine Collection|url=http://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/findingaids/sarahdyercollection/|work=David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University|accessdate=21 May 2014}} the D.C. punk and indie fanzine collection at the University of Maryland Libraries,{{Cite web |title=Girl Germs -- Issue 2 (Interview with Jawbox, writings on Bikini Kill, Nation of Ulysses), 1991 {{!}} Archival Collections |url=https://archives.lib.umd.edu//repositories/4/archival_objects/112675 |access-date=2025-01-15 |website=archives.lib.umd.edu}} and Barnard College.[http://clio.cul.columbia.edu:7018/vwebv/holdingsInfo?bibId=4790344 Columbia Libraries]