This past Saturday, was the official launch party for The Young Houston Magazine. The introduction of the newly premiere Houston magazine brought out a barrage of talented artists, entrepreneurs and Houstonians from all parts of the city. The affair was held at a local downtown coffee shop Ben’s Beans, on Dallas Street, across from the eminent House of Blues. The live neo soul band blazed through the walls of Ben’s Beans, at times, sprinkling vibes of the favored bourbon street in New Orleans. As DJ Steezila ripped the 1s and 2s, guest danced to good music and connected.
I got a chance to talk to the founder of THYM and Certified Dress Code, Willie Ntim, to shed light on his magazine, to the city of Houston.
“The main motive of the magazine is to connect, promote and inform young talent in the Houston area. The magazine is going to mainly focus on young talents doing great things with their lives, nothing crazy, just young Houston talent. For a while now, I’ve known a lot of young talents and everybody is doing something great, so I figured it would be kind of cool to have everyone under one umbrella to bring them together to connect, inform ourselves and grow together. That is what builds The Young Houston Magazine.” Says Willie.
Realizing the vast amount of talent in Houston, Willie excluded any reservations about his mission to put young adults on the map. Willie explains, “There are a lot of talented people here. They’re entrepreneurs, artist, poets and everything, so creating this avenue just felt natural. Meeting different people all the time, it just hit me. Talents are everywhere. We look for all talents, from music, art, fashion or someone that’s good at dancing and they’re on the rise. We want to pick them up, connect them and link them with the right people.”
Willie spoke on the success of the magazine, “It’s only been like 3 months. It’s crazy. This is our first edition. I created a page on Facebook and the likes started shooting up like crazy. I started getting messages and emails from people saying that we really need this and thank you. I guess it started good and its good energy for everybody.”
Willie also talked about his t-shirt line, Certified Dress Code, that’s manifested pretty nicely. “Certified Dress Code is a t-shirt brand in Houston about a year old and we make square neck t-shirts. We’re actually the first brand to make square neck shirts. When I lived in Africa, in high school, I had a t-shirt brand and I would just buy blank t-shirts and create designs with a sharpie and sell them. So when I came to Houston, my mindset was more mature and I wanted to do something greater. I thought about it for a year, trying to come up with something different and eventually it hit me and we put the square neck out. People are loving it and I love it too.”
As for TYHM, the magazine will have 3 issues a year which will be for free, not including shipping and handling, and made available on The Young Houston Magazine website and select retailers around the city of Houston.
What more can you expect from TYHM?
“We will be doing a lot with the website a lot of videos and shows. We’re going to be covering shows and sponsoring events, so we will be posting videos and certain events going on in different parts of Houston. We are going to be all over,” says Willie.
For more information about TYHM or if interested in exposure and opportunities, you can visit their website @ younghoustonmagazine.com
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