Johanna Björg Christensen, of Iceland, is one of the millions of students around the world participating in Global Entrepreneurship Week Nov. 15-21. She is the founder and Editor in Chief of NUDE magazine and a Global Entrepreneurship Week ambassador.

This blog is part of a series of young entrepreneurs profiled on the New Enterprise blog at America.gov

NUDE magazine is a free online fashion magazine, the only one of its kind in Iceland.  In fact there aren’t many like it in the world, with videos and flash graphic. It comes out once a month, and our first issue was in March this year. A few days later the company won the 3rd prize in a contest of the best business ideas in Iceland 2010.

I lived in Denmark for many years where I also got my education as a Multimedia Integrator in 2002. Since then I have been working as a Graphic Designer and a Marketing Director.

A little over a year ago I lost my job when I was on a maternity leave as the company I worked for went bankrupt in the recession. Marketing and Graphic Design jobs can be hard to come by, especially when times are tough, and the recession hit really hard in Iceland. I had to think of new ways to make a living and decided to combine my two biggest interests — fashion and graphic design — and start my own magazine.

At first it was really scary, in fact it sometimes still is. Will people like it? Will it be a success or will I fall flat on my face? 

Thankfully that didn’t happen and people really like the magazine which today has over 9,000 subscribers. That is pretty impressive, considering there are only a little over 300,000 people in Iceland.

Since the first issue came out the magazine has really taken on its own life. Things have been happening so fast it can be hard to keep up, but in a really good way. I am so thankful for the experience I have gotten so far and really look forward to the future.

Bestu kveðjur / Best regards
Jóhanna Björg Christensen
Ritstjóri / Editor in chief
www.nudemagazine.is

tags: profile