Lindsay Peoples Wagner on a brand new period in teen magazines
In a world where you can find out what your favorite celebrity had for breakfast with a simple scroll through Instagram, it's hard to imagine that a monthly print magazine could be one of the few lifelines between the boredom of the teenage suburbs and the rest of the US formed the big wide world.
Pre-social media marked the golden age for a slew of cult teen magazines, from Seventeen to Smash Hits and, of course, Teen Vogue, which launched in 2003 as the sister of Vogue US fashion bible. Lindsay Peoples Wagner grew up in the Midwest in the early 90s and was determined to make it into the fashion world. In the eyes of the goalkeepers of Teen Vogue, Lindsay Peoples Wagner should have been the archetypal reader – except that she wasn't.
Much like the rest of the mainstream glossy-fronted media of the 2000s, most teen magazines were guilty of driving the same conveyor belt of young, white, thin cover stars to the detriment of an entire generation of teenagers who didn't fit that look. “When I read Teen Vogue when I was younger I definitely felt, 'OK, if you're reading this magazine, you're a fashion Type A person and these are the only things that interest you in life "he says to Wagner.
“I've always had a great love for fashion, but I didn't know how I wanted to work in the industry. I always felt that there had to be a lot of different reasons why I really wanted to do it because I was obviously very interested in clothes and the glamor of everything, but I knew very early on that none of this would really support me as a person . "
Above: Teen Vogue's most recent partnership with HBO Max on the release of his new movie Unpregnant featured a photo series of real-life best friends. Image courtesy of HBO Max; Above: Editor-in-Chief of Teen Vogue, Lindsay Peoples Wagner