Whew. Who knew that launching a magazine could be so much work … or so much fun?

Yes, the first Memphis edition of Skirt! is in boxes and racks all over town. Click here for a list of places to find us, and post a comment below or send me a message (kleinmann@skirtmemphis.com) if you want Skirt! — it’s free — in your favorite hair salon or shoe boutique. We’ll do our best to oblige. You’ll also want to check out the new Skirt! Web site; click on Memphis and tell the world what you think about our new magazine.

The best thing about this week has been the terrific reaction we’ve all heard from women in Memphis. I’ve been doing publicity for the magazine everywhere from Channel 3′s Live@9 (loved the camera guys wearing skirts the day I was on!) and Fox 13 to speaking engagements at Hutchison and St. Agnes. Of course I’ve been thinking a lot about how I got to this place as I zoom around town, and thinking about how proud my mom would be of the magazine, and me.

Below is an essay I wrote when I was thinking about the launch, and left, a couple more pictures from our way fun launch party at Elfo’s (thanks to Cortney at Elfo’s and the party planning queen, Sally Shy), shot by photog Gordon Johnson. With me and the magazines are, from left, Lisa Sanchez-Sullivan, Kelley Morice and Cynthia Saatkamp. And the creative women at Kittie Kyle made “shirts” of our Skirts for their windows. Go have a look; they’re still there.

And tell me what you think, who I should profile, and about events for women and girls I might want to list. Here’s to many more Skirts!

I guess it’s not surprising that I’ve thought of my mother almost constantly in the weeks leading up to the launch of skirt!.

The day we sent the October issue to the printer was her birthday. She would have been 77, though she’s been gone now nearly 20 years. Of course I still think of her, and miss her, and wonder about her.

Editing skirt! has made her even more present. After all, it’s a magazine for women with a certain attitude, not just women in a particular demographic group. As it says right on the cover of every issue, “skirt! is … spirited, independent, outspoken, serious, playful and irreverent, sometimes controversial, always passionate.”

The thing is, for a long time, I didn’t think of my mother as being much like that. Serious, yes. Smart, certainly; she was insatiably curious about everything, had two degrees, and collected new words like other moms collected coupons.

But outspoken? Playful? Passionate?

I see now that she was those things, too, even if in my adolescent self-absorption I hadn’t really noticed. She led her fellow teachers on an informational picket line when a new union contract wasn’t good enough. She taught my sister and me to dance, to sing and to stand up for ourselves. And she loved us unconditionally, even to the point of letting me move to

She never really felt that way about herself, though. I remember one painful day, late in her life, when she told me she never felt like people remembered her. That she was nothing special.

So as I thought about the kind of women I want to feature in skirt!, I realized that we have an opportunity here to think a little differently about what makes a woman special.

We can look at not just her accomplishments, but her spirit. We can take the measure of the lives she touches, not just how much money she has or how pretty or thin or well-connected she is. We can value her sense of humor and hear her authentic voice. We can look into faces that look different from our own, and learn something we’d never see otherwise.

And we can have fun and celebrate each other, in all of the ways we know how.

Here’s to us … here’s to skirt!