Rookie Mag

Even though I just turned 26, it seems like just yesterday that I was a teenage girl trying to figure out exactly who I was and what I wanted out of life {well who am I kidding, I am still dong that}.  So when I read Rookie Mag I can't help but be taken back to my high school years and wish the amazing zine would have been around for me ten years ago.  Rookie is an online publication for teenage girls filled with brilliant stories, essays, art, videos, comics, photography, and more.  They create about 15-20 pieces of content per week around each month's theme {for example, last months was longing}. 

There is something about reading Rookie that makes me so nostalgic for my youth.  Exhibit 1: An excerpt of the June Editor's Letter: "The sun when it dances on water, the way old memories of summer are kind of overexposed and blown-out from the sun, the way the sunshine cuts in and out of your vision when you walk under the shadow of scattered branches and leaves, the way sun persists against closed eyelids."  Reading this takes me back to being a 16-year-old girl laying in my yard on summer vacation, toes in the grass, staring up at the clouds, dreaming about the future.

And the girl behind the zine?  None other than teen queen Tavi Gevinson.  Tavi, a senior in high school, started her blog "Style Rookie" five years ago and within a year was sitting front row at the NYFW shows next to Anna Wintour.  A quirky middle-school student with a passion for vintage fashion, she instantly became an icon amongst her readers, and in 2010 created Rookie Mag, which focuses on pop culture, art, and feminist discussion.  She has at least 40 different contributors to the magazine, but still creates her own content multiple times per month.  Her mentor is Ira Glass and his wife, Anaheed Alani, is the Editorial Director of Rookie.  And Tavi, the Editor-in-Chief of her magazine, does all of this while being a senior in high school living at home in the suburbs of Chicago.  Seriously, how does the girl do it?!  Regardless of how, I am so looking forward to watching Tavi and her beloved Rookie grow into what I think could become a true media empire.

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Images via Rookie Mag