Daianna Karaian is the creator of online magazine Thoughtful. Here she tells us about the lifestyle, culture and design magazine that is trying to change things for the better.

It all started as an experiment — a test to see if there were others out there like me.

I like having nice things, eating well, traveling. I know these things have an impact on the world around me, and I don’t want to leave a trail of destruction in my wake. I also don’t want to sacrifice the things that make me happy.

The thing is, consumers (and if you’re reading this, you are one) are the biggest force for change. Every single day, we make hundreds of decisions that affect the world around us.

What if, rather than being reminded that we’re part of the problem, we felt motivated to become part of the solution?

The good news is that human creativity and generosity are making it easier for each of us to live the lifestyle we want while changing things for the better, every day in every little way.

Chefs making outstanding meals using local and seasonal produce. Designers upcycling everything from fashion to furniture, to make stuff that’s even better. Entrepreneurs building successful businesses that solve more problems than they create.

These are the companies I want to see grow and succeed. The ones making a real difference in the world and in their customers’ lives. The ones carrying out a vision where everything we make, do and buy does more good than harm.

So I made it my mission to spread their stories in order to make more people aware of them, inspire more shoppers to buy from them and challenge more companies to act like them.

What began as a handful of articles on a self-built website has become Thoughtful, an online magazine that champions lifestyle, design and culture making a positive impact. Rejecting any hint of guilt, we show how easy it can be to live well in every way.

Our community of creatives and trendsetters is leading a movement to take conscientious consumerism out of the niche and make it desirable and accessible to everyone. Together, we’re spotting examples of how to live more thoughtfully all over the world, and using #thisisthoughtful in social media to identify and recognise them.

We collect all these posts on our website and share the best in our newsletter and social media—regular reminders that a better world isn’t just some conceptual future state, but part of our lives today that maybe just needs a little nudge.

#thisisthoughtful serves as a platform for inspiring random acts of thoughtfulness too. Leading up to the holidays we put loads of little origami envelopes all over London, each containing a lucky penny and a note encouraging people to pay it forward generously to people in need. We open-sourced the envelope template so that anyone, anywhere could get involved. People were making and finding envelopes far and wide, from Amsterdam to New York, Canada to Russia, Colombia to The Philippines.

The first step was seeing if there were others out there like me. Now that I know there are, I’m eager to connect us all through shared stories, projects, experiences and more.

View Thoughful here. For more about Daianna, see her twitter account here.

More: Website | Instagram | Facebook| Twitter

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