Subscribing for students Magazine affords outlet for high school
students' voices
By Shannon Keck
East Aurora Bee - January 11, 2001
Teens may be too old to hang their pieces of
work on their refrigerator, but there is a place they can put it for everyone to
see.
They have the option of getting their work published; all they have
to do is submit it to a publication called Teen Ink.
Teen Ink is a
magazine, website and a new book series created by teens, for teens. There aren't
any staff writers for this magazine; they depend completely on the free
submission of work from youths age 13-19.
Each month Teen Ink Magazine is
distributed to 4,000 middle and high-schools nationwide. The magazine has been
used by English, writing and journalism teachers as well as school newspaper
advisers, librarians, guidance counselors and principals.
Iroquois Central
High School is one of many who has a subscription to Teen Ink
Magazine.
Iroquois librarian Karen Kibler says the library receives 30 copies of the magazine a month.
"I distribute a few of them to
different teachers or departments who may use the magazine in their
curriculum," said Kibler.
"Every day we offer teenagers the
opportunity to publish their creative work and opinions on the issues that affect
their lives," said Teen Ink's Editor and Publisher Stephanie and John Meyer.
"There is everything from love and family to teen smoking and community
service."
Other subjects the magazine covers are health issues, teen
pregnancy, racism, eating disorders, depression and violence.
A published
work could be a photograph, poem, fictional story or an essay. The magazine
includes the Teen Ink poetry journal, interview contest, student book awards and
educator of the year awards.
Hundreds of thousands of students have
submitted their work. The magazine has published 25,000 pieces sent in by teens
since 1989. Not all the work that is sent in can be printed.
"Obviously,
if we publish a story on a brother and sister relationship, we may run two or
three stories on the same topic but you don't want to keep printing the same kind
of story," said John Meyer. "We look for new perspectives, some thing that is
unique or says something in a creative way.
Originally titled 21st
Century, the magazine changed its name after publishing their first book called
Teen Ink: Our Voices, Our Visions.
The book is made up of 350 pages of
the best pieces of work published in the magazine.
The Meyers took more
than 300,000 submissions from Teen Ink Magazine from the past 11 years to 3,400
teenagers in 44 states and let them decide which pieces of work were to go into
their book.
The chapters in the book included friends, family, fitting in,
challenges, heroes, loss, memories, love and creativity.
"The stories in
this book will help parents identify with their children more so than by trying
to understand a thing like body piercing," said John Meyer.
Also, while
the students have a chance to see their work published, their parents and
teachers will relish their inspired pieces.
Most of the pieces are works
drawn up through experiences and are full of emotion.
Such as Clarence
resident Andrew Hammer's essay, "Granted," which was about losing his mother in a
car accident.
He was recently asked to do a book signing at Borders Books
Music Cafe on Walden Avenue in Cheektowaga.
Because Teen Ink promotes the
education of children, the royalties from its publication goes towards a
nonprofit organization called The Young Authors Foundation, which was founded by
the Meyers.
It was established to expand reading, creative writing,
critical thinking and the publication opportunities for young adults nationwide
by supporting a variety of educational programs.
Teen Ink also offers a
website, TeenInk.com. The site contains 12,000 teen works and showcases a daily
poem, photograph, story and essay. In addition, the site has a college directory,
contests, bulletin boards and more than 300 web resources for teens.
"Teen
Ink helps teens see the difficulties of life as not only universal but
conquerable, and they will understand that in a world of seemingly
never-ending obstacles, they are never as alone as they once thought," said John
Meyer.
Teen Ink PO Box 30 Newton, MA 02461 (617) 964-6800 editor@teenink.com
Copyright 2008 by Teen Ink, The 21st Century and The Young Authors Foundation, Inc. All rights reserved. This publication may not be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the written
permission of the publisher: The Young Authors Foundation, Inc.
Teen Ink is a national teen magazine, book and website featuring
teen writing, information, art, photos, poetry, teen issues and more. All
articles are written by teen authors who are students at schools. The monthly
print magazine is appropriate for any teenager -- teenagers age 13 to 19
attending secondary school: junior high school, middle school and high school.
This publication is used by professional people including English teachers,
writing teachers, language arts instructors, journalism teachers, school
newspaper advisors, librarians, guidance counselors, K-12 principals in addition
to the PTA or PTO. Each issue of Teen Ink magazine contains a wide variety of
student work: we publish nonfiction, fiction, poems, community service, sports,
heroes, interviews, college essays, college reviews, book reviews, concert
reviews, movie reviews, music reviews, video reviews, video game reviews, the
environment, opinion, sports, pets, cars, automobiles, travel and culture, jobs
and money, health issues, artwork, photographs, cartoons, short stories, essays,
writing contests, a college directory and the website also has a bulletin board
and resources for teens and educators. Subjects include racism,
eating disorders, depression, death, suicide, family, relationships, jobs,
grandparents, violence, the college process, college information, colleges,
driving, self esteem, the arts, movies and more. Teen Ink is also a book series
published by HCI Teens. Subjects covered in the book include Friends, Fitting In,
Love, Challenges, Family, Heroes, Loss and Memories. Teen Ink was established in
1989 as The 21st Century magazine by The Young Authors Foundation, a nonprofit
organization. More than 25,000 teens have been published in the magazine and its
companion Poetry Journal. Teen Ink runs a London Summer Program for teenage writers.
