Last month, wunderkind blogger Tavi Gevinson announced that she and Jane Pratt would no longer be collaborating after plans for a follow-up to Pratt's Sassy went south.
Of course, Tavi had another project in the pipeline. Launched yesterday, Rookie is her aptly-named new web magazine for teens and tweens. Even if one isn't within the site's target demographic, anyone can admit it looks pretty impressive -- tricked out with retro '50s photos and featuring contributions from Zooey Deschanel, Miranda July and Jack Black.
In an editor's letter, Tavi was quick to clarify the site's mission statement:
"Rookie is not a guide to Being a Teen. It is not a pamphlet on How to Be a Young Woman. (If it were, it would be published by American Girl and your aunt would’ve given it to you in the fifth grade.) It is, quite simply, a bunch of writing and art we like and believe in."
To give content more of a magazine-like feel, each month's worth of of Rookie's content will be structured like an issue. For September's theme, "Beginnings," writers reflect on their freshman year of high school. Other categories on the site include "Style," "Live Through This," "Eye Candy" and "Movies & TV."
"I don’t want to even think about what makes someone 'just your average teenage girl,' or whether I fit that mold, or if that’s who will read Rookie," Tavi states in her editor's letter. "It seems that entire industries are based on answering these very questions. Who is the typical teenage girl? What does she want? And, a lot of the time, How can we get her allowance?"
The updated schedule for Rookie will follow that of a typical teen, with one post afer school, one before dinner and one before bed.
