Forget Cosmopolitan and Glamour, the real women’s news is in Clover Letter and Teen Vogue.
Over the past few years, news sites and newsletters targeted toward pre-teens and teens have gotten good… Really good.
The start
Rookie, a groundbreaking website made by then teen Tavi Gevinson, started the thoughtful, teen-focused online magazine and book series trend in 2011. Rookie stood out because it covered issues that matter to teens: college prep, school anxiety, and online bullying. It also had a healthy dose of well-written beauty and dating content. The site was and continues to be so good that many adults read its content.
The tradition continues
Since Rookie’s start, other like-minded writers and editors have got wise to the public’s desire to read well-written content with a unique voice. The following two news organizations have replicated Rookie’s ability to produce great content—for teens and adults—by way of two different mediums.
Clover Letter
Clover Letter started as a daily newsletter in 2015. Liza Darwin and Casey Lewis, the newsletter’s founders, knew their stuff before founding the news organization—they were former editors, and worked at publicans such as NYLON, MTV, Teen Vogue, Refinery29, and Vice.
Although Clover does cover many news stories you see on other sites, it has developed a voice that makes these stories more relatable. Its writers do this by writing accessible headlines and keeping story descriptions short and sweet.
In addition to having a unique voice, Clover’s writers and founders have figured out how to make heavy news stories applicable to pre-teens and teens. The writers don’t downplay or dumb down the news, but present it in a way that’s inviting and geared toward the concerns of young people. The newsletter’s ability to find different angles to old stories is delightful.
Teen Vogue
This teen magazine made its revolutionary mark in 2016 when its writers began covering the American presidential election. The magazine has kept up its great news coverage in 2017.
Just this past week, Teen Vogue wrote a helpful piece about presidential impeachment and a story about abortion stigma. In fact, Teen Vogue’s abortion piece got under the skin of the National Review, a right-wing news publication. Now, you know a teen publication is getting something right when it’s able to do that.
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