Behind the Scenes with Al Onkka

by Hannah Crawford

This month we talked with Rainbow Rumpus staff member Al Onkka, who holds the prestigious title of longest-serving member on our editorial team.

What do you do for Rainbow Rumpus?

I was the Rainbow Riot editor for three years. Now I am joining the board of directors.

As an editor, I helped our writers with their articles for the Rainbow Riot part of the website. We would come up with article ideas and then figure out who we needed to talk to. 

How did you discover Rainbow Rumpus and why did you start volunteering for the magazine?

I found Rainbow Rumpus on a volunteer website. I wanted to volunteer with them because I thought it would be fun to help make a cool magazine with a great mission. Rainbow Rumpus is a small magazine, and I thought I could learn a lot about how a website and magazine work. 

What has been the most challenging part of working for the magazine?

Because kids visit Rainbow Rumpus from their homes or schools, I never get to meet them! It would be fun to meet more of the kids who read the magazine. 

What is your best memory from working on Rainbow Rumpus?

My best memory was the first time my team and I saw the new website that Rainbow Rumpus put up last year. We were all so excited about how cool it was and we even got to help pick out the colors. 

Tell us about your awesome handmade bag business. How did you get started? What’s the most fun to make?

I sew backpacks and other bags from my apartment in Minneapolis, MN. Then I sell them online to people all over the world. I first started sewing backpacks about 10 years ago when I worked at a summer camp. Now I have many more designs and colors. People who order a bag from me can pick out just the bag they want. The most fun bags to make are the ones for people that I know, because then I can see them using the bags around town.

As the longest-serving member of the editorial team, how have you seen Rainbow Rumpus change?

Our editorial team has grown over the past three years, both in numbers and in experience. We've always had talented and dedicated people, but now we have more of them, and more experience utilizing their skills. Our ability to go out and get great content for the site has increased and we have more content on the site than ever before. I can only imagine that this trend will continue as we draw more volunteers to our talented editorial team.

What’s something you’d like to see in Rainbow Rumpus’ future?

I'm excited to see the expansion of our printable picture books. These books are a great way for Rainbow Rumpus to take the unique stories that we have published online and reach a new audience. As you know, we are the largest publisher of fiction featuring LGBT families and with that we have a responsibility to get these stories in front of as many people as possible. We've already got a good start on this and will continue to expand. It's exciting to think about where we'll be in a few years!