Does anyone remember the American Girl Magazine? No, not the catalogue, I mean the 27-year spanning lifestyle magazine produced by the American Girl corporation. If you don’t, it’s probably because it was discontinued in 2019. But if you do, you’ll recall the age-appropriate pseudo-Cosmopolitan quizzes, recipes, crafts, party themes, and interior decor ideas that screamed teal and hot pink zebra stripe childhood bedroom. If none of this rings a bell, maybe Highlights, Girl’s Life, Seventeen, Bop, or Tiger Beat were more your thing. Of course, most of these publications have been discontinued or barely hold on to a sliver of the influence and production they used to have (besides Seventeen, shoutout to Willa Bennet).
Enter Teen Vogue. Which, up until recently, stood as a firm voice for America’s youth, serving up apt social and cultural reporting, allowing the magazine to almost stand alone from its Condé Nast parent. Unofficially, the youth magazine was considered Vogue’s most progressive arm, offering journalism which my mom once called “some of the best political reporting today.”
Unfortunately, but unsurprisingly, Condé Nast has chosen to collapse Teen Vogue’s independence, folding the publication into the greater Vogue name. Teen Vogue, as a magazine and website, will no longer exist. Its new form, a subsection on the Vogue website, will have no existing “Politics” editors or department, which led to sudden mass layoffs and resignations from former Editor-in-Chief Versha Sharma and multiple Style, Culture, and Politics Editors. As a result, the remaining shell of Teen Vogue’s staff no longer includes any black or trans staff members and leaves only one female POC editor (at the time of layoffs).
Teen Vogue’s new vision statement, released a la Vogue, now claims their goal is “career development, cultural leadership and other issues.” Besides reading like a vague, empty promise, I fail to understand the point. How can Teen Vogue aim to represent the new wave of culture when all cultural elements have been sanitized? This shattering shift is heartbreaking beyond a surface level. Teen Vogue has always served as a lily pad for POC writers, editors, and creatives. Think of a name, and most can be drawn back to the publication in one way or another. Eva Chen served as Beauty and Health Director, and both Elaine Welteroth and Lindsay Peoples were the former EICs. There are very few places left in mainstream, household media where up-and-coming young women of color can be platformed or young readers can access the kinds of political coverage, sexual health topics, or cultural reporting the way that Teen Vogue used to operate.
Of course, there is much more to this nightmarish saga than meets the eye. According to the Condé Nast Union, these layoffs are “ continuing the trend of layoffs at Condé disproportionately impacting marginalized employees.” When union members demanded answers this week, they were met with union busting, suspensions, and the immediate and (federally and contractually) illegal termination of multiple union leaders, now dubbed the “Fired Four.” Beyond Condé, we’re seeing Vibe Magazine face similar cuts post Rolling Stone merger, and The New York Times continuously going down the far-right rabbit hole with an op-ed (pre-multiple edits) entitled “Did Women Ruin the Workplace?” with an inappropriately appropriate subheader “And can conservative feminism fix it?”
One would think that now, post Zohran Mamdani election, is the time for Teen Vogue to be Teen Vogue. There is a thirst, a hunger, for next-generation change. Though we’re facing a disheartening lack of youth magazines, there is more to our world than outdated mainstream media. Independent magazines, zines, and substacks are an increasingly popular and accessible medium. There is community, there are like-minds, and there is always another way. It may not be the loudest or stocked at your local Barnes & Noble, but it exists. People are resilient. Resilient fighters, resilient helpers, and resilient creators. So sign the Condé Nast Union petition, share the Teen Vogue staff recovery GoFundMe, and pitch to your local publication. Youth mags may be dwindling, but your opinion can still be as boisterous as ever.
Words by Miia Popovics
Graphic by Owen Crosby