Since 2019, the global collective Alphabettes has spent nearly every International Women’s Day doing what it does best: hastily dis-organizing a sprawling, 24-hour online hangout spanning time zones, continents, and digital borders. Built on a loose, spontaneous schedule that welcomed anyone on the internet to drop in, these annual events became a beloved tradition for the community. Participants would take virtual type walks around Mumbai with Tanya, or join Romina and friends in Mexico City for an 8M March, brandishing hand-lettered signs crafted during community poster-making workshops. Attendees could tune in to hear compelling conference stories from Theresa in San Francisco, spend an hour chatting in Spanish with Laura, Dafne, and Caro, or simply wave hello to pets and babies while making breakfast, lunch, and dinner together—all at once, across a fragmented globe.
For International Women’s Day 2026, however, the dynamic has shifted. Instead of hanging out online for a full day of continuous streaming and conversation, some members of the collective have decided to hang in. Or perhaps, hang on. The community remains as vibrant and active as ever, but for this year’s iteration, the collective consensus is that it is entirely acceptable to hang up the internet for the day or connect in quieter, alternative ways.
The reason for this pivot is both monumental and deeply tangible: this International Women’s Day marks the final, intense push to bring a very different kind of creation to a simmer. After two years of non-stop planning, writing, editing, organizing, emailing, type pairing, proofreading, and endless spreadsheeting, Alphabettes Soup: Feminist Approaches to Type is heading off to the printer very soon. The milestone arrives after every tiny error has been painstakingly uncovered and corrected across 400 beautifully designed pages, bringing a massive collaborative publishing effort to its long-awaited fruition.
For those who have followed the exhaustive production cycle, the volume represents a staggering accumulation of creative and intellectual labor. While a comprehensive breakdown of every single element could easily span a full day of discussion, the finished book speaks for itself. Alphabettes Soup features 47 articles, 8 in-depth interviews, 115 distinct typefaces, and 252 unique headers, weaving together a rich tapestry of critical thought, historical analysis, and contemporary design practice centered around feminist approaches to typography.
With the book heading to production, the collective notes that there is still a final window of opportunity for supporters to secure their copies. Pre-orders for Alphabettes Soup: Feminist Approaches to Type remain open through Bikini Books, offering readers a chance to back the physical publication directly.
Behind the scenes, bringing a project of this scale to life has required immense dedication. Producing a high-quality, comprehensive design book demands significant time, effort, and financial resources. While the collective has expressed deep gratitude to its generous sponsors and donors who helped champion the project from its inception, the production costs ultimately came up a bit short of their original financial goals.
Because of this funding gap, pre-ordering the book does more than just secure a copy for the reader’s bookshelf; it serves as a direct form of financial support for independent, feminist design publishing. It directly sustains the ongoing work, research, and visibility of women and gender-diverse individuals within the type and design industries. Furthermore, it ensures that supporters will have their very own physical copy to read, reference, and spend time with for years to come.
As International Women’s Day is observed around the world, trading the usual 24-hour digital marathon for the impending arrival of a 400-page feminist type anthology feels like a fitting evolution. It represents a transition from ephemeral online gatherings to a permanent, tangible artifact of the community’s collective voice—proving that hanging in there through years of meticulous editing and production was well worth the wait.
