The Girls Entertainment Network is a community that focuses on females in modern pop-culture and entertainment.




Hey guys!

This week has been crazy and I will tell you why! The Girls Entertainment Network has finally launched! Now, please don’t accuse me of being a traitor yet, GEN has been in the works since before I even knew what Destructoid was. Becky “Aktrez” Young is the mastermind behind the site, and after two years of planning, networking, building a site and starting over from scratch – we have a working site. While the site is not what it will look like in all its glory (we are already working with people to improve the site in the future and add additional features) we now have a main page with blogs and stories from our female editors and a functional forum for all of our users to chat!

So what is GEN? The Girls Entertainment Network was created to do just that, act as a network for girls to get to know other females who are interested in geek culture and more importantly, to encourage females to become active online. People always complain that there are not enough females interested in video games, anime, gadgets, comics and other fun stuff. It is not that they don’t exist, it is simply that not many are very vocal online. We are just lucky right now that the really vocal ones who are online at the moment rock, such as our fine ladies of Destructoid.

I understand the goal of the GEN very well because 12 months ago I would have been a part of its primary target audience. Up until last year at GDC (where I met the Destructoid guys for the first time – I was frightened.) I was a solo gamer. Becky found me through a video game group on Myspace, but other than that I had never joined a forum, used a website to check a review, or really participated in an online community. I had no idea what I was missing out on. Before that, my gaming routine consisted of playing games with my brothers and a weekly game night with all the guys. It was not because I was not interested in an online community; I simply did not know they existed to the extent that they do.

GEN’s primary goal is to get these girls online, to introduce them to the greater geek culture and community and to prove that we are a viable market. With this being said I want to clarify that we in NO WAY discriminate against guys! We want guys to join the site and become active. While our staff will remain primarily female, we want guys to be a part of the community. We also need you to talk to your girlfriends, sisters and other lady friends, tell them about the site and try to get them involved. Hopefully the site will be a great and non-intimidating entry point for them into the gaming, comic, cosplay, or anime world!

So what does GEN offer at the moment? Like I said, we are already working on adding features to what we have. Right now we have a simple site that allows for front-page blogs and articles from our 11 female editors. They range from personal experiences, researched articles and simple, entertainment blogs. We will have a stronger news presence as soon as we are able to get the girls out to events. Right now GEN covers the world of Anime, Comics, Cosplay, Gadgets, Video Games and Girl Talk. While most of our editors dabble in two or three (or all) of the categories, we have a resident expert in each of them. My main focus will be video games, while our other Dtoid resident Kannaya will be focusing in anime and manga. While we do have minor photo and video galleries at the moment, our other primary feature is the forums, which are already off to a good start! Please feel free to check them out.




Some of the GEN editors out at VGL!


I hope that I have done GEN justice in trying to explain its purpose to all of you! I also hope that you all have a chance to stop by and let us know what you think. Also – as I mentioned above, please let any girls in your life who are remotely interested in our geek culture know about the site. We want more than anything to bring that geek to the surface!

So that is what I have been up to. It is true that it has been taking up the majority of my time lately, but it in no way means that I am abandoning Destructoid. Dtoid was the first gaming community I ever became active in and there is no way I could go long without a dose of the site. Really, if you think about it, there is no substitute for this site…LOL. I will still be around reading and commenting! Thanks for reading!