YA Periodicals Take Two: ‘What if’ teens developed their own content?

A Canadian YA magazine asks this question, What If?. The periodical bills itself as ‘Canada’s Creative Magazine for Teens’ and consists of reader-submitted works of creative fiction, poetry, book and video game reviews, and even editorials and opinion/perspective pieces. Compared to traditional YA magazines like Seventeen and the newer CosmoGirl, What If? is almost entirely [...]

We’ve got the (Shojo) Beat: Adventures in YA Periodicals

At my old library in Calgary Shojo Beat was one of the most heavily circulated YA periodicals. It circulated until, literally, the covers fell off and the spines split. And even then library staff attempted to mend it using heavy-duty tape to try and circulate it once or twice more to meet the demand. Shojo [...]