Francesca Hodges|Photographer
in

The Entrepreneur Behind Lucid

Francesca Hodges|Photographer
Francesca Hodges|Photographer

A photographer, an editor-in-chief, a coder, a graphic designer, and most importantly  an entrepreneur; while most high schoolers are consumed with their studies and extracurricular activities, senior Jhanna Shaghaghi has been building a legacy through her self-run magazine, Lucid.

Shaghaghi possesses a plethora of positions for her publication.

“I assist in hiring new team members and I decide which articles that are sent in get to go in print,” Shaghaghi said. “I design and am in charge of publishing issues, and then sending them [out via mail] when we have orders. I also contribute to the issues with my own stories and photography.”

Although the name Lucid may appear trivial to most readers, Shaghaghi had a specific feeling in mind when she settled on the key word.

“The name Lucid was somewhat random,” Shaghaghi said. “We started the magazine because I would always be up in L.A. at shows, and I’d meet a lot of  really cool people. I just thought it kind of sucked because I would be meeting these musicians or icons, and I could talk to them and see them in a way that their fans couldn’t. And so I thought about the phrase ‘see them clearly’, and that’s kind of what the word lucid means.”

Shaghaghi has a unique opportunity to interact with public idols on an intimate level, which results in stories that the cameras alone cannot extract.

“Especially now that I’m actually working with them through Lucid I can spend a lot of time with [them] when I’m on a shoot, and I get to see their real personality,” Shaghaghi said. “They’re really different than the face that they put online, because usually that’s more professional. That’s what we’re trying to do with Lucid: share that these are some pretty cool people, and we want to tell you about it.”

Lucid is more than just a means of making revenue for Shaghaghi, as she is truly passionate about her vocation.

“I started shooting concerts in about 2013, in eighth grade I think,” Shaghaghi said. “I’m super into music personally and I love going to concerts. Pretty much every concert that I’ve gotten to shoot I’ve thoroughly enjoyed, which makes it really fun because I love love love my job so much.”

Shaghaghi lives out every music fan’s fantasies, and receives special opportunities that allow Lucid to be the credible source it is.

“Over the summer I got to go to the Vans Warped Tour, the San Diego show, and it was the coolest thing in the world,” Shaghaghi said. “I had never been to it before, but it’s obviously amazing. We got to go into this back area where they have all their trailers, and that’s where we were interviewing and doing some private shoots. It was really cool to not only be at the concert, but to be able to go backstage and then go even further behind the scenes, and see where the artists live on the tour.”

While the magazine has only existed for a short period of time, Shaghaghi’s endeavors have already amounted in a large following.

“We started in October of 2015, so it’s been almost a year!” Shaghaghi said. “None of us really had any experience, and so to take on all these jobs and have an amazing team that is really great. Monthly the amount of issues we sell is relative to who’s on the cover, but the average amount of views for an issues in a month is about 10 to 12 thousand reads. So I think in this amount of time with a team of basically all teenagers we’ve been very successful.”

Lucid has featured many large names in the music industry such as Never Shout Never, Haley Reinhart, and Grouplove. The magazine can be viewed both physically and online at www.lucidthemag.com.

Written by Nicole Glidden

Nicole Glidden is a proud Cheez-It addict, who spends her free time binge watching Netflix. She has trouble getting into jeans, due to her soccer calves. Nicole hates running with a passion, yet participates in multiple sports.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *