Bust covers music, news, crafts, art, sex, and fashion from an independent ("indie"), third wave feminist perspective.

In the book titled Girl Culture: An Encyclopedia Volume 1, Miranda Campbell wrote a section on Bust and its features, including "Real Life: Crafts, Cooking, Home and Hearth" which encourages readers to make their own items instead of buying them, "Fashion and Booty" which suggests clothing, accessories, and other novelty items readers might be interested in purchasing, and articles on car maintenance featuring auto technician Lucille Treganowan.

The trio founded BUST after meeting at Nickelodeon;[6] they wanted to create a positive and outspoken women's magazine for their generation.

"Our intention," Stoller said, "was to start a magazine that would be a real alternative to Vogue, Cosmo, Mademoiselle, and Glamour, something that was as fierce and as funny and as pro-female as the women we knew."

After receiving positive feedback on their zine, Stoller, Henzel, and Karp left their jobs to work on BUST full-time, putting out four issues a year.