Teen Ink

Title - Teen Ink.
Editor - Stephanie H. Meyer
Publication - 1989 - Present

Plot - While I would not exactly call a magazine to a specific plot line, it is certain that Teen Ink wishes to be able to generate a magazine for teens that consists of materials that teens are interested in by having them be the people who write for the magazine.  While perusing through the various Teen Ink Magazines, it is possible to see a larger picture emerge, where the editors want to reflect a little bit of teen life in all stages.  They have sections about parents, relationships, political opinion, books, movies, etc.  And while some issues such as political ones seem to be limited to a particular time, they are not so current issues focused that the book reviews have to be current ones.  In fact, I saw reviews of Fahrenheit 451 in the book section and a review of Titanic the Movie in the film section.  While Titanic may not be quite as old as Fahrenheit 451, in terms of film history, 13 years is quite a bit of time.  The magazine desires to engage the reader in such a way that they can connect to the teenage experience of something else.

Critical Review - Teen Ink develops a fascinating connection with its readers almost instantaneously.  The essays here maybe be grouped by certain subject matter, but the important part of them is the human element in all of them.  They are about how the teen relates to a particular problem or issue.  I was heartily engaged by one essay about a girl who was trying to relate to her step dad.  There is a magical moment when the two, almost disinterested, parties share a connection.  And the girl feels that her step dad is now connected by a deeper love than before. 

Of course whatever things may be gleaned and appreciated from the magazine will change from magazine to magazine as they have an open invitation for anyone to write to it.  But the project of trying to get teens to connect to a magazine in a meaningful way I believe is accomplished.  If I was to level one complaint at the magazine is that occasionally I found the pieces to be slightly silly, especially some of the interviews done for the magazine.  It was a good interview that was done by the person doing it, but then there was an essay about how she got the interview and gushed about it.  Then there was another essay asking the interviewer questions about her experience.  I thought that it brought down the level of the intellectual content that had preceded it.

Readers Annotation - If you want to connect to someone who just "gets" you; if you want to read about movies, music and literature from someone who knows what its like to be a teen; if you want to watch your own literary talents shine; come to Teen Ink.  Its the magazine by teens, for teens.

About the Author - Stephanie H. Meyer helped create the Young Author's Foundation with the assistance of her husband John Meyer.  This foundation was created to help teens achieve a voice in the modern world.  She also authored Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul.  She has spent much of her times since attaining a masters degree in education and social work helping disaffected teens and other youth.

She has taken the profits from her work and translated that into action.  She takes the finances and puts them towards the Foundation which then helps with youth publishing throughout the world.  She is also the mother of two children.

Genre - Magazine

Curriculum Ties - Teaching the art of the Short Story in Literature.

Booktalking ideas - N/A

Reading/Interest Level - Grade 9+

Challenge Issues - None

Why included - I have a great deal of affection for the short story format, and this was another magazine that was aimed at teens.  It also had the added distinction of being written by teens and I was curious as to the level of their writing.