Working Draft magazine

The character of the Final Girl has been a horror staple since the classic horror movies of the '70s and '80s. What does what she wear say about her and how has it changed over time?

In the messy middle of Winnipeg lies an opportunity. A suite of city development plans paint a bright future for the city and its residents.

Every outfit tells a story. For Tope Okunuga — who grew up in Nigeria and now lives in Winnipeg — his outfits speak of resilience, adaptation, and self-discovery.

When reality as I knew it began to crumble, I turned to a virtual landscape to take back control. What transpired was a journey through a virtual reality - one that led me through dark times and loneliness, but ultimately, led me to my calling in life.

I spend my Sunday mornings watching an eight-person band perform for a crowd of 400 — this is the reality in many contemporary Evangelical churches. As a musician and a Christian, I'm questioning why worship is done this way.

Throwing punches and lifting six days a week. Praying through vivid nightmares. Sobriety isn’t the finish line — it’s the fight you wake up to every morning. This is recovery.

Come for the miniature orcs and goblins playing football. Stay for the camaraderie.

A name is something given to you. But for almost 10 years while Luis was part of the "hidden population," he couldn’t use his. Instead, he borrowed a dead man’s name until he could reclaim his own.

After a series of concussions left me with debilitating treatment-resistant depression, I finally found a treatment that worked — but I didn’t hear about it from a doctor. I heard about it from a friend.

Dana Goertzen's four-year journey to win the National Aboriginal Hockey Championship brought her closer to her heritage and created lasting memories.

Where do you see social change happen? For a group of educators and university students, it’s in an unlikely space: an elementary school music room.

In 2019, my high school esports club had fewer than 10 students showing up each week. Today, 72 schools are registered with the Manitoba School Esports Association. So what changed? As it turns out, a lot more than I ever expected.

Eldest daughters wear a lot of hats: the role model, the parentified child, the mediator, the responsible one. But online communities like #eldestdaughter are building a narrative of support that recognizes the backbone of the family.

How does a late-diagnosed Autistic navigate professionalism in a world built for allistics?

Growing up, my brother and I shared almost everything, but were defined by our differences: the wild child and the perfectionist. I thought I knew what ADHD looked like because of him — disruptive and impossible to ignore. It took a long time to realize we shared even more than I thought.

Technology in the classroom is supposed to enhance learning. AI is no exception. Like the tools before it, the impact of AI will depend on how we use it. Government guidelines for AI use in education don’t exist in Manitoba yet, which means teachers and schools are doing their best to figure it out.

After my best friend died and my dad moved to a different city, I lost my connection to music. After years of feeling numb, I discovered Witch House music and finally began to confront my grief.

For years I believed escaping into fantasy meant I was avoiding my problems. Only later did I realize my mind wasn’t failing me, it was trying to survive the waves of borderline personality disorder.

People say that the kids these days are lazy, good-for-nothings that don't want to work, but are they lazier than any generation has ever been? Let's find out.

When romance and fantasy are more popular then ever, why are the readers who love them still so often ridiculed?

Gambling is usually associated with poker chips or slot machines, but these collectors gamble on blind boxes.

Morley Daniels is no stranger to career changes. He’s worked manual labour jobs outside, installed satellites in Alberta, and until a few years ago, led a gang in Winnipeg’s North End. Now, he builds bridges for Pier Solutions as Step Up Construction’s lead hand.

Schools have been working to be more inclusive towards 2SLGBTQIA+ students, but many queer students have had to bear the weight of finding themselves on their own. Where do we go from here?

My first Yu-Gi-Oh! meetup seemed doomed to disaster after I unwittingly used an illegal deck against a perfect stranger. Little did I know, friendship and community were in the cards.

A business collapse. A child's leukemia diagnosis. A realization that life could be different. For three Manitoban women, midlife became the moment to rethink work and to rebuild their careers on their own terms.

Anxiety has always felt personal, like something wrong with me. It wasn’t until I looked at the patterns around me — the planning, the instinct to expect the worst, that I realized it was learned.

A job interview begins the moment someone walks into the room. What they are wearing is part of the first impression that follows.

As someone who grew up with scoliosis, I often felt alone in my experience. While I didn't have peer-support as a kid, I recently talked with two other people who also grew up with the condition. I hope our stories will resonate with other young people who are dealing with bracing or surgery. 

The worldwide craze for matcha has sparked a global shortage, a steep rise in prices, and new local businesses. Is this your average internet trend or is matcha here to stay in Winnipeg?

Since The Beatles, women and girls have been shamed for what they like, but female fans haven't let that stop them. In every era, fangirls have found each other and bonded over their interests, getting together in bedrooms — and stadiums — to celebrate the things that make them shriek.

Incels, looksmaxxers, and pick-up artists - what draws young men to these communities? Follow me as I descend into the depths of the Manosphere to learn what it truly takes to become a Top G.

Working abroad has become a billion-dollar industry in the Philippines and provides for many Filipino families, but at what cost to those who leave and those who are left behind?

As the gap between community need and government support widens, Winnipeg’s non-profit staff are caught in a violent undertow that is felt in every shift.

For as long as I can remember, my sweaty hands have told a story before I could.

As a cheerleader, I already knew that my sport was so much more than pompoms, chants, and big smiles, but when my sister got a serious concussion after being kicked in the head during practice, I began grappling with how cheerleading is perceived — and the real-life consequences of those stereotypes.

Like Sophie, my dad’s life features three potential fathers. Unfortunately, no singing and dancing are involved in this story.

Caught in the space between my old and new home, I discovered that travelling a great distance was the shortest path back to myself.

Does skydiving hit different for people living with depression? By Kelsey Ainslie

No one likes throwing up, but what happens when that aversion goes too far? 

In the summer of 2023, my high school friend Ash asked me to guide him through a ritual he believed would cure him of his OCD. What he didn't know is I was struggling with a compulsion of my own.By Jesse Brogan

Baybayin, an ancient script pre-dating Spanish colonialism in the Philippines, is making a resurgence. Its defiance against near-extinction is a testament to how cultural identity can be found through a script almost lost, especially for diasporic Filipinos seeking to reconnect with their ancestral heritage.

A miracle drug? An easy way out? How about neither. Like most things, using Ozempic as a weight loss tool is more nuanced than its reputation suggests. One Winnipeg woman shares her story with GLP-1.

If you enter any eighth-grade classroom in Manitoba, about every fourth student would fail to read at the standard reading level. Literacy skills are on the decline in Manitoba and after the COVID-19 pandemic, this decline became more drastic. With students spending less time reading and more time on screens, the issue remains: What are Manitobans doing to improve children's literacy?

Many young Canadians dream of becoming professional hockey players — a dream that women and girls were excluded from until the inaugural season of the PWHL in 2024, which finally provided female players a livable wage. How has the reality of a professional women's hockey league impacted elite female players? For Manitoba's Katie Tabin, it changed everything — and the effects are rippling out to younger women and girls across the province.

“Abinojii Mikanah” – it’s the name that’s been in everyone’s mouths, but not because they’re learning to pronounce and appreciate it. From historical and linguistic perspectives, there are many reasons for place names to change and move forward as society does the same.

I thought I had my faith all figured out — until leaving my Christian comfort zone left me feeling vulnerable. Over drinks in a Vancouver pub with my older sister, I realized faith comes with uncertainty.

What is the impact of an instrument that can create or replicate any conceivable sound? The synthesizer has challenged the music world since its invention in the 1950s. As technological advancements accelerate, musicians like me must reconcile them with our own creativity.

The Twelve Tribes, a well-resourced new religious movement with chapters across the world, says they value free expression and debate. The media labels them a cult. JP Conan’s been hanging around, hearing them out, and he’s got some things to get off his chest.

Filipino women and girls are in a century-long battle of reclaiming basketball, a game that was once theirs. In the middle of the Manitoba prairies, half a world away from the homeland, they're getting off the bleachers and aiming high.

When the federal and provincial governments signed the Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreement in 2021, Manitoba’s early learning and child care sector received millions of dollars to lower the cost of child care, create new child care spaces, expand training programs, increase wages, and provide more funding to child care centres. So then why are early childhood educators, the most critical factor in providing quality child care, leaving the field faster than we can train them?