Cindy Crabb

Cindy Crabb (born February 19, 1970) is an American author, musician, and feminist. Her zine, Doris, played a central role in the 1990s girl zine movement associated with third wave feminism. Doris drew attention for its frank, personal exploration of topics, such as sexual assault, consent, abortion, addiction, queer identity, intentional communities, death of family members, among other topics. Crabb continues to publish and self-publish while also running an on-line zine distro that highlights feminist and personal zines by various authors.

Early life Crabb was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She described her early home life as a difficult one, in which she experienced abuse and financial hardship. She first attended an alternative school, which she liked, but she later moved to a public school in the sixth grade, which was "...a huge, terrible change." When she was seventeen years old, Crabb enrolled in a Women's studies class. During this time, "...I started retreating from society and dealing with some abuse stuff." Some of her friends participated in heated protests against United States intervention in Central America. She did not attend the protests, but the brutal experiences of her friends left an impression on her. She then moved to Plainfield, Vermont, where she worked at the Institute for social ecology and lived for three years. During this period, she began to explore anarchism in her personal studies. She was inspired by Miranda July and Johanna Fateman’s zine Snarla.

Her diaries, papers, and website are archived at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard's Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America.