Being a teenager is terrifying. It’s a half-state between child and adult, when you’re tangled in knots over friendships, looks, and dread for the future. Teen Vogue was conceived as a guide through the more shallow horrors of being 16: fashion, makeup, crushes; expected fare from Vogue’s younger sister in the larger Condé Nast family.
But over the course of its 20 years, it evolved. Through the blending of the personal and the political and the rising prominence of younger Americans as a voting force, the magazine’s own coming of age has been forged by dizzying cultural and social change.
It’s been years since Teen Vogue’s Trump-era heel turn toward progressive politics made national news of its own — a revolution that roughly coincided with the end of its print run in 2017 and that gave the magazine a much-needed boost as it transitioned into a fully digital shop. Building on the mission in 2023 means doubling down on political content, focusing on quality representation and finding a balance between its lefty bonafides and mainstay lifestyle content.
Teen Vogue’s print run ended in 2017, but the magazine still produces digital covers for profiles on a monthly basis. From left to right, model and activist Aoki Lee Simmons, musician Ice Spice and musician Olivia Rodrigo are featured in cover photoshoots. (Courtesy: Condé Nast)
Two years into her tenure as the magazine’s editor-in-chief, Versha Sharma sees the magazine’s responsibility — taking young people seriously as they figure out how to navigate the world — as largely unchanged. She came to the magazine in 2021 from a position as managing editor at the video news publisher NowThis, having observed Teen Vogue’s Trump-era metamorphosis as a political reporter.
“Young people have always been political,” she said. “But I do think that today’s younger generations and Generation Z understand intersectionality and global community in a way that no other previous…
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