Bonnie Burton

Bonnie Burton (born July 12, 1972) is a San Francisco-based author, journalist, comedian, actress, and show host.[1] She is best known for arts & crafts books like The Star Wars Craft Book, and appearances on web series including Geek DIY on Stan Lee's World of Heroes YouTube channel, Ask Bonnie, Wil Wheaton's TableTop, and Felicia Day's Vaginal Fantasy Book Club.[2] She is the former Senior Editor and Social Media Strategist at StarWars.com for Lucasfilm and was staff writer for Star Wars Insider magazine for 10 years. She works as a freelance writer with a specialty in writing about topics for young child and teen audiences.[3]

Bonnie Burton
Born (1972-07-12) July 12, 1972
Dodge City, Kansas U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Alma materUniversity of Colorado Boulder
Occupation
  • Writer
  • Journalist
  • Comedian
Years active1995–present
WebsiteGRRL.com
Burton and Matt Busch signing their book You Can Draw: Star Wars for members of the German Garrison of the 501st Legion at Star Wars Celebration Europe in July 2007
Burton on stage with The Doubleclicks at w00tstock 4.0 in 2012

Early life

Burton was born and raised on a farm[4] in Dodge City, Kansas,[5] to a mom who was a librarian[6] and a father who was a farmer and animal medical salesman.[7]

Influenced by both the rural area and activities of her childhood like Sunday School, 4-H, and kindergarten—and supported by her mom who let her convert her playroom into a craft room—Burton created arts and crafts projects from the time she was young, cultivating a lifelong passion for making things.[8][9] Burton also started writing as a young girl. At seven years of age, after a poem about the town was published in the Canadian paper, The Western Producer, she began submitting her writing to essay contests, which she often won. During college Burton did a lot of do it yourself self-publishing through an active blog called GRRL, arts & crafts, and things like chapbooks.[7]

In 1995, Burton received a dual degree (B.A./B.S.) in English and Journalism from the University of Colorado Boulder. She also served as Program Director at Boulder's college radio station, KUCB.[2]

Career

Writing

While in college Burton worked as a writer and editor at Campus Press, a student newspaper that later became the CU Independent. During her time there, the Campus Press began publishing content online, which was a new method for delivering news at the time. Burton also wrote for the Digit newsletter and did freelance writing for publications like Wired. During and after college in Boulder, she worked as a freelance editor at Apple's fledgling eWorld website.[2]

After college, Burton decided to follow the dot-com era and moved from Colorado to San Francisco.[5] In between various positions, Burton continued to write for publications that included Wired, Craft, Bust, Geek Monthly, SFX, CNET, and Playboy.[10]

In 1996, Burton worked a senior web editor at @Home Network, which became Excite@Home,[11]:168 then as a website editor for AOL's Winamp music player.[12] From 2003 to 2012, Burton worked at Lucasfilm where she was Senior Editor and Social Media Strategist at StarWars.com for Lucasfilm.[13]

While at Lucasfilm she was also a staff writer for Star Wars Insider magazine.[2][14] In 2007, Burton contributed a chapter called "A Star Wars Fan Boy Field Guide" to the sequential art anthology, The Girls' Guide to Guys' Stuff: An Anthology of Comics by Women for Friends of Lulu.

Burton was an early adopter of blog writing, publishing a personal blog called Grrl.com since before April 1996.[15] As an author, Burton got her start creating collection of new-to-the-time blogs, co-editing the 2004 book Never Threaten To Eat Your Co-Workers: Best of Blogs with Alan Graham for Apress. With a foreword by techblogger Doc Searls, Never Threaten is a cross-section collection of this new form of writing online accompanied by interviews with the bloggers that provide context to the writing.[5]

Starting with 2007's You Can Draw: Star Wars Characters for DK Publishing (illustrated by Tom Hodges and Matt Busch), Burton began publishing drawing tutorial books focused on a long-time passion for arts & crafts, providing tips, tracings, fold out pages and stencils to help readers draw a range of characters from the Star Wars universe. In 2009, she published Draw: Star Wars: The Clone Wars for Klutz Press which includes instructions to teaching readers how to draw 20 different Clone Wars characters.[5]

For 2011's The Star Wars Craft Book, Burton used her Twitter feed as a way of getting feedback from Star Wars fans on details of the characters.[9] The book includes craft project tutorials to create Chewbacca sock puppets, Jabba the Hutt body pillows, Ewok flower vases, All Terrain Armored Transport (AT-AT) herb gardens.[16] Projects originated from craft posts Burton wrote on StarWars.com from 2004 onwards on a weekly and then monthly basis, with the best projects selected for the book.[8][17]

2009's Girls Against Girls: Why We Are Mean to Each Other and How We Can Change, Burton discusses the issue of bullying and abuse between girls, including its causes and advice on how to cope. Burton outlines the physical and chemical explanations for mood swings that can cause seemingly irrational behavior in teenage girls and offers advice for managing relationships with 'mean girls.' Burton shares how readers can recognize these habits and behaviors in themselves and make changes to improve their relationships and stop perpetuating the cycle.[18] The book draws upon interviews with Go-Gos guitarist Jane Wiedlin, Mystery Science Theater 3000 writer and actress Mary Jo Pehl, tattoo artist Hannah Aitchison, Tegan Quin of the band Tegan and Sara, artist Elizabeth McGrath and singer/artist Jessicka from the bands Jack Off Jill and Scarling.[19][20][21]

2010's Star Wars, the Clone Wars: Planets in Peril for DK Publishing focuses on the newest worlds from the Clone Wars universe, and how they are being affected by fighting. 2016's Crafting with Feminism: 25 Girl-Powered Projects to Smash the Patriarchy includes craft projects that are focused on empowering young girls and features a foreword by Felicia Day.[22]

In October 2017, Burton released the book, J.K. Rowling's Wizarding World: Movie Magic Volume Three: Amazing Artifacts.[23]

Television

From 1994 through 1996, Burton hosted the Denver alternative music video program "Teletunes" (on PBS affiliate KBDI-TV/Channel 12). After moving to San Francisco, she hosted the San Francisco music video show "Subculture."[24]

Burton created, produces and hosts a comedy show called Geek DIY on Stan Lee's World of Heroes YouTube channel.[25] In this show she crafts with her guests,[26] who have in the past included Grant Imahara, members of Team Unicorn, Wil Wheaton, Clare Kramer, Javier Grillo-Marxuach, Robin Thorsen, America Young and more.[19]

Burton co-hosts the Vaginal Fantasy Romance Book Club Show on the Geek & Sundry YouTube Channel, along with Felicia Day, Veronica Belmont and Kiala Kazbee. In this show, she and her co-hosts discuss and critique romance novels.[27]

Burton has appeared twice on Wil Wheaton's show TableTop. In 2012, she appeared on a two part episode to play the role-playing game, Fiasco;[28][29][30] in 2015 she played Geek Out!.[31][32]

Burton guest starred in the "Social Traumas" episode of Felicia Day's show The Guild.[33][34]

She also starred with Andy Richter and Brendan Coyle in the animated short Batman: Year Minus Two by comedy writer Rob Kutner.[35]

Additional work

Burton is a long-time fan of Bettie Page.[36] In 1990, during her freshman year of college, Burton was at a comic book store and a clerk there she was friendly with told her she looked like Bettie Page, who Burton didn't know anything about.[11]:169 She quickly learned more and went on to compete in look-alike contests and created a website in homage to Page called The Bettie Page.[11]:183,185[37][38] During the 1990s, as a continuation of her interest in Page and the subculture and images she portrayed, Burton performed with the fetish performance dance and club kid troupe called Uzi, which was part of the community of the fetish store of the same name in Denver.[11]:167–169

In 2010, Burton performed at Writers with Drinks.[39] In 2011, Burton appeared in Wil Wheaton's geek variety show w00tstock in San Francisco and San Diego.[40] In 2016, she performed at SF Sketchfest.[41]

Personal life

A long-time resident of San Francisco, Burton moved to Los Angeles in 2018 where she now resides. In August 2010, Burton married R2-D2 at Star Wars Celebration V.[42][43]

Filmography

TV and web series

Honors and leadership
  • 2007: Inducted as an Honorary Member of the 501st Legion of Imperial Stormtroopers by the League of Extraordinary Troopers [45]
  • 2009: Wired – 100 Geeks You Should Be Following On Twitter[46]
  • 2017: SYFY Advisory Council[47]

Works and publications
  • Burton, Bonnie (1990). "#1: Premiere Grrl; #2: Evil Kids & Halloween; #3: Santa Vs. Satan; #4: Puppets; #5: Drag Queens; #6: Sex; #7: Lucha Libre; #8: Alice in Wonderland" (Zine). GRRL. San Francisco, Calif: Grrl Enterprises. OCLC 467952014.
  • Graham, Alan; Burton, Bonnie, eds. (2004). Never Threaten to Eat Your Co-Workers: Best of Blogs. Berkeley, CA: Apress. ISBN 978-1-4302-0678-1-. OCLC 883383589.
  • Burton, Bonnie (2006). "Cool Trooper: The Star Wars Art of Nathan Cabrera". Star Wars Insider. IDG Entertainment. 90. ISSN 1041-5122.
  • Burton, Bonnie (2006). "Star Wars Goes to School". Star Wars Insider. IDG Entertainment. 90. ISSN 1041-5122.
  • Burton, Bonnie (2007). "Best of StarWars.com: Darren Hayes: Singing Star Wars' Praises". Star Wars Insider. Titan Magazines. 94. ISSN 1041-5122.
  • Burton, Bonnie (2007). "Best of StarWars.com: Kaiser Chiefs: I Predict An Intergalactic Riot". Star Wars Insider. Titan Magazines. 95. ISSN 1041-5122.
  • Burton, Bonnie; Busch, Matthew Stuart; Hodges, Tom (2007). You Can Draw: Star Wars Characters. London: Dorling Kindersley (DK Publishing, Inc.). ISBN 978-0-7566-2343-2. OCLC 156707625.
  • Burton, Bonnie (2007). "A Star Wars Fan Boy Field Guide". In Friends of Lulu (ed.). The Girls' Guide to Guys' Stuff: An Anthology of Comics by Women. New York: Friends of Lulu. ISBN 978-0-9740960-2-5. OCLC 173079053.
  • Burton, Bonnie; Klutz, Inc. (2009). Draw: Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Palo Alto, CA: Klutz. ISBN 978-1-59174-698-0. OCLC 316034399.[48]
  • Burton, Bonnie (2009). Girls Against Girls Why We Are Mean to Each Other and How We Can Change. San Francisco: Zest Books. ISBN 978-0-9790173-6-0. OCLC 849738949.[20]
  • Burton, Bonnie (2010). Star Wars, the Clone Wars: Planets in Peril. London: DK (Dorling Kindersley readers, 4). ISBN 978-0-7566-6690-3. OCLC 809219290.
  • Burton, Bonnie (2011). The Star Wars Craft Book. New York: Random House. ISBN 978-0-345-51116-4. OCLC 496956779.[49]
  • Burton, Bonnie (2012). "Team Bonnie". In Nocenti, Ann; D' Errico, Camilla; De Liz, Renae (eds.). Womanthology: Heroic. San Diego, Calif.: IDW. ISBN 978-1-61377-147-1. OCLC 757931802.[9]
  • Burton, Bonnie; Hickman, Jessica; Deering, Rachel (2013). De Liz, Renae; Eisinger, Justin; Simon, Alonzo (eds.). Womanthology: Space. San Diego, Calif.: IDW. ISBN 978-1-61377-607-0. OCLC 936438930.
  • Burton, Bonnie (2016). Crafting with Feminism: 25 Girl-Powered Projects to Smash the Patriarchy. Quirk Books. ISBN 978-1-59474-927-8. OCLC 933420535.
  • Burton, Bonnie (2017). J.K. Rowling's Wizarding World: Movie Magic Volume Three: Amazing Artifacts. New York NY: Penguin Random House. ISBN 978-0-763-69584-2. OCLC 983050069.

References
  1. Syfy Wire Staff (7 September 2017). "Geeky Q & A: Bonnie Burton". Syfy.
  2. Granshaw, Lisa (1 June 2014). "Profile: Bonnie Burton". Coloradan. University of Colorado Boulder.
  3. Williams, Jenny (1 April 2011). "Interview With Long-Time Geek Bonnie Burton". Wired. Retrieved 10 September 2016.
  4. Burton, Bonnie (13 July 2012). "Bonnie Burton Extended Interview from Fiasco - TableTop ep 8". TableTop. Geek & Sundry. Retrieved 10 September 2016.
  5. "An Interview With Lucasfilm's Bonnie Burton". GalacticBinder (10). 11 March 2009. Retrieved 10 September 2016.
  6. Pantozzi, Jill (29 April 2011). "LucasFilm's Bonnie Burton Gets Crafty with Star Wars". Newsarama. Retrieved 12 September 2016.
  7. "Freelance Interview: Writers Manual is proud to introduce Bonnie Burton, Freelance Writer ..." Writers Manual. 2002. Archived from the original on 28 December 2002. Retrieved 10 September 2016.
  8. "Star Wars Craft Book Interview!". Geek Crafts. 13 April 2011. Retrieved 12 September 2016.
  9. Woods, Laurel (2011). "SDCC 2011: Bonnie Burton Talks 'Star Wars' Twitter" (Video interviews (7)). MTV Geek! San Diego Comic-Con. Retrieved 12 September 2016.
  10. Burton, Bonnie. "By Bonnie Burton". Playboy. Archived from the original on 17 September 2016. Retrieved 10 September 2016.
  11. Foster, Richard (1997). "Bettiemania". The Real Bettie Page: The Truth About the Queen of the Pin-Ups. New York, NY: Citadel Press. ISBN 978-0-8065-2075-9. OCLC 607084426.
  12. Burton, Bonnie (22 November 2013). "Waving goodbye to Winamp, paying respects to Nullsoft". CNET. Retrieved 10 September 2016.
  13. Jones, Dominic. "Bonnie Burton Leaves Lucasfilm". The Star Wars Underworld. Retrieved 10 September 2016.
  14. Woods, Laurel (13 January 2011). "My Q+A w/ StarWars.com Sr. Editor Bonnie Burton!!". MTV News. MTV. Retrieved 10 September 2016.
  15. "Whois Record for Grrl.com". DomainTools. Retrieved 11 September 2016.
  16. Megan S. (24 March 2011). "An Interview with Bonnie Burton, Star Wars Crafter Extraordinaire". Stellar Four. Retrieved 12 September 2016.
  17. Geek To Me (5 April 2011). "Bonnie Burton talks about the Star Wars Craft Book". RedEye. Archived from the original on 18 September 2016. Retrieved 12 September 2016.
  18. Presley (14 May 2015). "Bonnie Burton's Girls Against Girls - Day 699". ActOutGames. Retrieved 12 September 2016.
  19. Knox, Kelly (26 July 2012). "Bonnie Burton Stars in Geek DIY". Wired. Retrieved 10 September 2016.
  20. Booth, John (21 May 2009). "Girls Against Girls – Figuring It Out with Bonnie Burton". Wired. Retrieved 10 September 2016.
  21. Geek Girl Diva (14 April 2011). "Five Questions With Bonnie Burton – Geek Girl Diva". Geek Girl Diva. Retrieved 11 September 2016.
  22. Burton, Bonnie (7 July 2016). "Exclusive: Learn to Make Superheroine Wrist Cuffs, from Quirk Books' Crafting with Feminism!". The Mary Sue. Retrieved 12 September 2016.
  23. "J.K. Rowling's Wizarding World: Movie Magic Volume Three: Amazing Artifacts by Bonnie Burton". Penguin Random House. 2017.
  24. "Bonnie Burton: Biography". IMDB. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
  25. Sacks, Jason (20 August 2012). "Bonnie Burton and America Young: When Crafts and Therapy Meet Geekdom". Comics Bulletin. Retrieved 11 September 2016.
  26. Jedeikin, Desi (13 March 2013). "National Craft Month: Geek Crafter Bonnie Burton". Geek Nation. Archived from the original on 18 September 2016. Retrieved 12 September 2016.
  27. Elise (23 May 2013). "Found It: Vaginal Fantasy Book Club". That's Normal. Retrieved 12 September 2016.
  28. Wheaton, Wil; Haislip, Alison; Burton, Bonnie; Rogers, John (13 July 2012). "Fiasco: Alison Haislip, Bonnie Burton, and John Rogers join Wil on TableTop, episode 8". TableTop. Retrieved 10 September 2016.
  29. Wheaton, Wil; Haislip, Alison; Burton, Bonnie; Rogers, John (27 July 2012). "Fiasco pt. 2: Alison Haislip, Bonnie Burton, and John Rogers join Wil on TableTop, episode 9". TableTop. Retrieved 10 September 2016.
  30. "Fiasco: Alison Haislip, Bonnie Burton, and John Rogers join Wil on TableTop, episode 8". Geek & Sundry. 13 July 2012. Retrieved 10 September 2016.
  31. Wheaton, Wil; Kramer, Clare; Wheaton, Anne; Burton, Bonnie (22 January 2015). "Geek Out!: Clare Kramer, Anne Wheaton, and Bonnie Burton join Wil Wheaton on TableTop S03E06". TableTop. Retrieved 10 September 2016.
  32. "Tabletop season 3 – the complete list of games and players". Wil Wheaton. 21 October 2014. Retrieved 10 September 2016.
  33. Cohen, Joshua (13 September 2011). "The Guild Reveals Guest Stars: Zachary Levi, Nathan Fillion". Tubefilter. Retrieved 10 September 2016.
  34. Cobb, Kayla (18 February 2016). "How 'The Guild' Helped Shape Web Series And Why Felicia Day Is A Life Champion". Decider. Retrieved 10 September 2016.
  35. Kutner, Rob (17 July 2013). "Batman: Year Minus Two". Rob Kunter @ YouTube. Retrieved 10 September 2016.
  36. Burton, Bonnie J. (1995). "I Was a Teenage Betty". The Bettie Paige. Retrieved 10 September 2016.
  37. Burton, Bonnie. "The Bettie Page". GRRL. Retrieved 10 September 2016.
  38. Spier, Ben (16 August 2002). "Paging Bettie: A pioneering '50s pinup queen gets the royal treatment on the Web". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 10 September 2016.
  39. "Writers With Drinks past events: Saturday, Sept. 11, 2010: Strange Horizons 10th Anniversary Party!". Writers With Drinks. 11 September 2010. Retrieved 10 September 2016.
  40. Hoevel, Ann (14 October 2011). "'Dammit Liz' went to Geek Girl Con (and it was worth it)". CNN. Retrieved 10 September 2016.
  41. "Bonnie Burton". SF Sketch Fest 2016. 2016. Retrieved 10 September 2016.
  42. Burton, Bonnie (7 August 2016). "Romancing the Droid: Why I Married R2-D2". Grrl Still Kickin': Blatherings from Bonnie Burton. Retrieved 10 September 2016.
  43. Ellingson, Josh (18 August 2010). "R2-D2 Marries StarWars.com Editor Bonnie Burton". Laughing Squid. Retrieved 10 September 2016.
  44. Day, Felicia; Burton, Bonnie; Belmont, Veronica; Kazebee, Kiala. "Vaginal Fantasy Romance Book Club - YouTube" (Videos). Geek & Sundry. Retrieved 10 September 2016.
  45. http://www.501st.com/honorary.php
  46. Denmead, Ken (13 May 2009). "100 Geeks You Should Be Following On Twitter". Wired. Retrieved 10 September 2016.
  47. Ahr, Michael (22 September 2017). "SYFY Appoints Genre Giants to Advisory Council". Den of Geek.
  48. Blum, Matt (30 November 2009). "Review and Giveaway: Draw Star Wars: The Clone Wars — Win a Copy, You Can!". Wired. Retrieved 10 September 2016.
  49. Booth, John (29 March 2011). "It's a Craft Trap! The Star Wars Craft Book by Bonnie Burton". Wired. Retrieved 10 September 2016.
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