Roxane Gay, R.O. Kwon Write Hinge Love Stories

Dating app delivers the romance

My wife, Rosella, is the most successful online dater in the world. She met one person—me—and we got married … 12 years later. The highlights of our love story include a long-distance relationship, the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act, a wedding in Central Park, a two-year immigration process and a triumphant border crossing with a whiny mini Goldendoodle (on the 14-year anniversary of the day we first met online). And now there’s a happily ever after in NYC.

But this piece isn’t about me and Rosella (anymore). It’s about a romantic zine of real-life love stories ignited on the Hinge dating app.

The 80-page anthology, created in collaboration with Dazed Studio, is called No Ordinary Love. It features stories written by Roxane Gay, R.O. Kwon, Brontez Purnell and more. You can read it online, and print editions are available in New York and London.

Here, Hinge chief marketing officer Jackie Jantos talks about the work, driven by love and literary stars:

THE THINKING BEHIND THE CAMPAIGN

Jackie Jantos: “Hinge’s ‘Designed to Be Deleted’ philosophy grounds everything we do in getting people off our app and onto great dates. Nothing is more exciting to us than sharing the true stories of couples who met on Hinge. We’re focused on serving Gen Z daters. So sharing these stories in channels and spaces that resonate with Gen Z is important to our work.”

WHY A ZINE?

“Dissimilar to many brands, we don’t post on our own social handles, so we’re always innovating in ways to engage young adults,” Jantos says. “We know they have a real interest in romance lit and BookTok and connecting to visual and physical mediums. So we were excited about creating a printed zine as a way to nudge young daters to discover how imperfect and unexpected the start of a relationship can be.”

HOW THE CONTRIBUTORS WERE CHOSEN

“We were looking for leading writers who have experience telling romance stories in different forms, whether through memoirs, advice columns or in literary fiction,” says Jantos. “We also wanted a mix of styles and tones—such as compassion, irreverence, vulnerability and humor—that would resonate with current and future users of our app. We landed on six amazing romance writers: Roxane Gay, John Paul Brammer, R.O. Kwon, Isle McElroy, Oisín McKenna, and Brontez Purnell.”

MINING HINGE FOR LOVE STORIES

“We receive a ton of mail and outreach from couples who have met on Hinge. Our office walls are covered in wedding invitations!” she says.

“For this effort, we hosted an open casting call for couples who met on Hinge and we selected six from hundreds of submissions. We paired the writers with couples based on their stories and backgrounds. We provided each writer with details about each couple but didn’t prime them with prompts for writing. Additionally, each writer had multiple conversations with the couples.

“In the end, each story ended up beautifully unique. Finding someone special is rarely a simple, fairytale experience. We believe creating your own love story with someone includes all the pieces of the puzzle coming together over time—especially the surprising and imperfect ones. We loved how each writer captured that.”

THE REACTION TO THE CAMPAIGN

“We’re in the early days and have loved the positive feedback from daters, especially those on BookTok. People have been so excited to see us work with writers of this caliber. It was a first for us but definitely not the last,” she says.

“Each writer’s audience brings a jolt of excitement to this initiative. And we can’t wait to get the printed zine in people’s hands. Ten-thousand copies are being distributed around New York and London this month. Additionally, Dazed Studio and our team have launched out-of-home advertising campaigns in London, Los Angeles, NYC and Sydney. The magic of this is inspiring daters as they go about their daily lives—and maybe on their way to a first, second or third date. Love stories are made every day.”