Welcome - Needing Women Young and Old
Welcome to the LIA Magazine - Ladies in Autosports. My name is Julia Aschenberg and I am the proud owner of LIA Magazine. The reason for the website is to acknowledge and find a common interest between women in the field of Autosports. Therefore, this website is for women, young and old, to communicate and network with each other about their particular interest, history, or background in Autosports. Men who want to share anything about a lady in their life are also encouraged to contact us.
I want to begin by communicating with all of you my background history in the world of Autosports. John, my husband, handed me my first introduction to drag racing. Years ago when we were both single, he asked me out on a date to go with him to the NHRA U. S. Nationals at Raceway Park in Indianapolis, Indiana. John was very patient with me that day explaining the concept of drag racing in the various categories. My husband also introduced the world of photography to me that day. John had a camera with him, which he intended to take pictures of the day's happenings, however, he didn't photograph much that day since he was busy sharing with me his love of drag racing. I ended up picking up his camera to capture the events for the day. Therefore, that day began my love for Autosports as well as photography.
After a few years of attending the NHRA U.S. Nationals, with camera in hand snapping the day's happenings, I was able to pick out the media for the magazines covering the event. One year I approached a staff member to ask what it would take for me to freelance for the magazines. After a lengthy discussion of all the cons, he soon realized that I wasn't discouraged from trying my hand at freelancing. The staff member was nice enough to give me his phone number to make contact with him in a few weeks to receive an assignment. This job would be the deciding factor if I would or wouldn't like doing event coverage, along with shooting car features for magazines. In 1990 I was given my first assignment. I am proud to say this past year made my nineteenth year of freelancing for the magazines. Therefore, yes I loved all aspects of the job in 1990 and still do today. Going to shows through the years gave my husband and I many things that we couldn't get in any other job. We truly respect the many people we have met through the years. They unselfishly shared their love of Autosports along with the vision they have for creating their own automotive art. We respect their art as many have respected my vision in photographing their masterpiece. Through the many years of freelancing, we have acquired some great friendships across the world that might not have been possible had we not done the work for the magazines.
Over the course of nineteen years, I have seen many changes take place in the Autosports Industry. When I first began freelancing for the magazines I never gave any consideration that I was delving into an industry that was a male dominated sport . Little did I realize that I could be making history for other women in the future wanting to do the same line of work. Some might possibly call me a pioneer in the field of freelancing for the Autosports industry. Similar to Shirley Muldowney, and Judy Lilly in drag racing or Lynn St James and Janet Guthrie in Indy cart racing just to name a few. During those nineteen years, there were times when I began back at ground zero. Re-proving myself to the magazines again that I am quite capable of doing the job! Just like many of you women and men, I have had my heartaches; however, there were angels along the way who helped me out by giving me breaks.
This brings me back to my reason why I'm doing LIA Magazine - Ladies in Autosports. The time has come for women in the industry of Autosports to get recognition and acknowledgement for their accomplishments that go unnoticed. We also need to band together so other women coming into this great sport do not repeat our mistakes by sharing our valuable information. Come on ladies lets network with one another and share our common tribal knowledge with others. Please help me to get the word out about LIA Magazine. Let me know the kind of articles that you would like to see in the online magazine. My hope is that by the sharing of your ideas or information from all walks of the automotive industry this will help each and every one of you. And it will help to shape the best direction for the online LIA Magazine. It will not only help us to put out a quality classy infotainment magazine, but you the viewer or reader will benefit from the valuable content available to all. Come on ladies lets make this magazine one class act for all of us. This is the 21st century!
Talk to you on the blog!
Your LIA Lady,
Founder and Editor-in-chief
Julia
