At 14, I went on two exchange trips to Fuerteventura and Mataró (Barcelona). I fell in love not only with the language, but also with the people, making my first close Spanish friends along the way. A whole new world of music, culture, and other ways of living life opened up to me, motivating me to take learning Spanish seriously.

At 16, I organized a year abroad by myself and moved to Fuerteventura to attend high school. This experience challenged me in ways I couldn't have imagined and allowed me to discover and embrace parts of myself that I didn't even know existed. I built lasting friendships and was introduced not only to Spain but also to many different Latin American cultures. However, most of my closest friends there had grown up between Germany and Spain, so from the very beginning, we naturally mixed up languages.

Back in Germany, I completed my Abitur with Spanish as one of my advanced courses (Leistungskurs). Due to the pandemic, I wasn't able to travel to Spain for some time, but Spanish remained part of my everyday life through texting, phone calls, and TV series. Over time, many of my friends from Fuerteventura also moved to Germany, at least temporarily.

During my studies, I went on Erasmus to Madrid, intending to "update" the Spanish version of myself and experience university life in Spain. Living with nine other women, mostly from different parts of Spain and Latin America, I made close friends and met even more people living between Germany and Spain. It made me realize that, despite this large community, there are no media platforms reflecting that reality, so I started developing the idea for a Spanish-German magazine in the summer of 2024, initially under the name amourtopia.

Back in Germany, I started working on the project more intensely. I took journalism and storytelling classes, began an internship at an intercultural newspaper, and joined the EXIST Women program. During this time, I realized two things: first, that the idea had real potential, and second, that to make it great, it would take much more work and editorial skills. I also realized that I was actually developing two different projects under one name, so amigazine was born. Every two to three months, I travel to Spain to see my friends, keeping both cultures and languages an active part of my life.