Tavi Gevinson started her personal blog, Style Rookie
(http://www.thestylerookie.com), in 2008, when she was
eleven years old. It was a place where, from the confines of
her bedroom in the suburbs, she could write about personal
style and chronicle the development of her own. Within two
years, the blog was averaging fifty thousand hits per day.
Soon fashion designers were flying her around the world to
attend and write about fashion shows, and to be a guest of
honor at their parties. Soon
Tavi’s interests grew beyond fashion, into culture and art
and, especially, feminism. In September 2011, when she was
fifteen, she launched Rookie (http://rookiemag.com),
a website for girls like her: teenagers who are interested
in fashion and beauty but also in dissecting the culture
around them through a uniquely teen-girl lens. Rookie broke
one million page views within its first six days. Rookie
Yearbook One collects articles, interviews, photo
editorials, and illustrations from the highly praised and
hugely popular online
magazine. In its first
year, Rookie has established a large inclusive
international community of avid readers. In addition to its
fifty-plus regular writers, photographers, and illustrators
(many of whom are teenage girls themselves), Rookie’s
contributors and interviewees have included prominent makers
of popular culture such as Lena Dunham, Miranda July, Joss
Whedon, Jon Hamm, Zooey Deschanel, David Sedaris, Elle
Fanning, Amy Poehler, Paul Rudd, John Waters, Chloe Sevigny,
Liz Phair, Dan Savage, JD Samson, Ira Glass, Aubrey Plaza,
Daniel Clowes, Carrie Brownstein, Paul Feig, Bethany
Cosentino, Kimya Dawson, Fred Armisen, and Winnie
Holzman. As a young teenager,
Gevinson couldn’t find what she was looking for in a teen
magazine; Rookie is the one she created herself to
fill that void. Her coolheaded intellect shines in
Rookie, arguably the most intelligent magazine ever
made for a teen-girl audience. Gevinson writes with a humble
but keen authority on such serious topics as body image,
self-esteem, and first encounters with street harassment.
She’s equally deft at doling out useful advice, such as how
to do a two-minute beehive, or how to deliver an effective
bitchface. Rookie’s passionate staffers and faithful
readers have helped make Rookie the strong community
that it is. To date, Gevinson
has written for Harper’s Bazaar, Jezebel,
Lula, and Pop, and is a contributing editor
for Garage magazine. She has been profiled in The
New York Times and The New Yorker, and has been
on the cover of Pop, L’Officiel, ZeitMagazin, and Bust. As a speaker, she has made
numerous presentations at venues such as IdeaCity, TEDxTeen,
L2 Forum, and the Economist World in 2012 Festival.
Last year Lady Gaga called her “the future of journalism.”