‘FELINE’ magazine is the purr-fect fashion accessory
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L to R: Molly Bales, Renessa Ciampa, and Jonathan Lansey proudly display the cover for the inaugural issue of “FELINE”, featuring celebrity feline Venus “the two-face cat” who has 1.6M followers on Instagram.

By Jim Clark

For Molly Bales, Human Editor-in-Chief of FELINE magazine, based in Porter Square, living up to the standards set by her employer, Clawdia Beauchat, provides both a stimulating challenge and a deep sense of satisfaction for a job well done.

The job in this instance involves the production and publication of what may be the first and only magazine specifically dedicated to celebrating the glamor and elegance associated with the cat milieu. As stated by its creators, it is “the most trusted source of fashion, beauty, and furnalism for the sophisticated feline.”

“I have say, it wasn’t my idea,” Bales explains. “It was actually my feline employer, Clawdia, who was chewing on one of my Vogue magazines, and was really disturbed by the lack of feline representation. So she decided that it was important to bring felines to the forefront of print and digital media.”

Bales went on to explain how Ms. Beauchat bemoaned that fact that cats have gotten a lot of attention on other channels on the internet and therefore there was a gap.

“FELINE was really meant to be an outlet for felines to share their best practices and their stories,” says Bales. “And also we’re trying to bridge the gap between felines and their human employees.”

The staff at FELINE views the magazine as a source of information on beauty, on entertainment in the form of toys, along with in-depth journalism. “We have an article, for instance, on your staff – what they really do when they leave the apartment,” said Bales. “That’s done by Walter Clawnkite, who’s one of our investigative furnalists. So we’re covering a broad range of topics, really just based on what we feel the feline community would like to hear.”

Renessa, Molly, and Jonathan fulfill their first orders just in time for Christmas.

Other furnalists include Kitty Furic, who interviews cover cat Venus, and Rachel Madmeow.

In terms of accepting submissions from outside sources, Bales says that in general they want to carry Clawdia’s message as far as possible. But they are also interested in moving towards a community based model where people would submit their photos, and submissions of written material by felines would also be something they are open to. Emails are welcome at business@felinemag.com, and participation on Instagram is likewise invited at https://www.instagram.com/felinemagazine/

“One of the really interesting things about FELINE is – sort of Clawdia’s vision – is that it’s not only a conduit for feline frustrations, but it’s also a potential launching pad for the careers of promising cats,” according to Bales. “In this issue we’re featuring Venus, who has 1.6M Instagram followers, and she’s been very supportive of what we’re doing. We’ve included Coby, who’s starring in several of our ads and has 1.4M Instagram followers and is very fashion forward. So we’re very excited to have him included as well.”

Bales also boasts that FELINE has Atchoum, who she describes as the hairiest looking cat you have ever seen.

The production team consists of Bales, who earned her MBA from MIT Sloan in 2016 with a focus on entrepreneurship and sustainability. A Somerville resident, she is cofounder of an Internet-of-Things startup focused on office space utilization.

Jonathan Lansey, Kazul’s roommate and Human Director of Operations at FELINE, is the resident “tech guru”. A data science/all-around techie with various ventures, including Loud Bicycle, a bicycle horn that sounds like a car horn. Lansey is a graduate of BU in Cognitive and Neural Systems and New Jersey Institute of Technology in Applied Math.

Rounding out the team is Renessa Ciampa, Corona’s staffer and Human Art Director. Ciampa runs her own graphic and web design firm, Ciampa Creative. She is a graduate of the New England Institute of Art and MassArt.

Founder Clawdia Beauchat reviews the final proof of “FELINE’s” inaugural issue. Viewing a spread featuring Coby, spokespurrson for Purrberry.

Executive felines are Clawdia Beauchat, FELINE Founder & Editor-in-Chief, felentrepreneur (the in-house term for a feline entrepreneur); Kazul Mouseslayer III, Director of Operations; and Corona de la Casa, Art Director.

Bales, Lansey, and Ciampa met at the Boston CIC (Cambridge Innovation Center), a coworking space in downtown Boston, where they were each working on their own projects. When the idea for the magazine took form they hit the ground running.

Bales has a message to all staffers who are employees of their felines: “Be true to your feline, listen to them, start learning how to speak cat if you haven’t already, and together we hope to bring an end to the age old feline-human conflict.”

The magazine publishes semi-annually and is available in print and in digital form. You can buy a single issue or subscribe to the two issues per year (available in print or digital) at www.felinemag.com.