A Liverpool woman who started her own fashion magazine to prove her doubters wrong is about to release a third issue

Aleisha Petafi, 22, from Aigburth, said she faced discrimination whilst studying in London because she was from Liverpool, and started Destined Magazine as a way to celebrate her upbringing.

She said:

“So, I started it in 2023 as just an Instagram account. I started it because I moved to London when I was 18 to study fashion. When I moved down there, I realised that it wasn’t home, it wasn’t Liverpool. I was very pushed out because of where I was from. I felt really homesick and felt like I had imposter syndrome, so I needed an outlet to make me feel better.

“People will say that that’s a common thing to experience down there, but I wasn’t listening to them. I thought I would be fine, but you do get a lot of comments from people ‘You can’t break into the industry’ et cetera. I just wasn’t having it. It kind of got to me and I thought, I want to continue this from home.

I want to bring everything I know back home. I want to help people back home and I want to see if I can make this work.

“I started that Instagram account and communicated with creatives from home and it made me feel like I was at home with that Instagram account.”

Aleisha left London two years into her degree and started publishing Destined in print.

She added:

“It’s one of those things that you’ve just got to kind of take a risk with. I mean, when I started out I wouldn’t have thought there was an audience for a Liverpool fashion magazine, but now that it’s gained a bit of popularity I thought I’d give it a go. It’s been successful so far, but in terms of the publishing it’s definitely been a task. There’s been a lot of pushback, expenses and losses, but I do it because I want to do it and people are starting to love it.

“I saw a lot more people making magazines, print was coming back and I thought this is such a perfect opportunity to make a magazine. I started working on the first issue a year ago now and it came out in September 2025, the second in April.

“We cover all things fashion in Liverpool, whether that be designers, stylists, photographers, students. I’ll also cover things like fashion history, we’ve got a big fashion history in Liverpool that kind of goes with our music history. I cover small clothing businesses as well, and I’ll cover any fashion events or creative events.”

With Issue 3 of Destined Magazine in production, Aleisha gave us a hint at what to expect from the future.

She commented:

“So, it’s all very hush hush in terms of everything, but we are going to be working with a big boy band based in Liverpool that are very immersed in the music scene and we’re going to put a fashion lense on it. We’re going to try and relate it back to Liverpool fashion in the 80’s and 90’s.

“When I started Destined Magazine. I just wanted to kind of get a space where we can get like-minded people in the same room sharing ideas with each other and networking with

each other. In Liverpool we’ve got such a big creative scene and a great fashion scene, but it isn’t really being showcased or like there’s no place where it can all come together. So I wanted Destined to be that point of meeting where everyone can find each other.”

Find out more about Destined Magazine here.

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