By Zoë Agnew
Now this site is a prime example of what a web site should be: TeenVoices.com
is very clear on who their audience is, teenage girls 18 and under,
and they do an excellent job of meeting the needs of this audience.
TeenVoices.com is a companion to the print magazine, with a global
circulation of 75,000 readers. The idea behind the magazine is that
teenage girls are barraged by marketing messages that lead to low
self-esteem and forever waste opportunities for authentic dialogue
and learning between teenage girls. This is a problem for all Americans,
but teenagers seem to be especially targeted as consumers first, people
second.
The site flips that marketing model on its end. Instead, the readers
are also the writers and producers of both the website and the magazine.
This model reminded me of The Computer Clubhouse, born of the MIT
Media Lab, which also affords teenagers the opportunities of self-expression
and to learn by doing. There is also a mentorship model built into
TeenVoices where adult volunteers assist the teenagers in any facet
of the production of the site and magazine that they might need.
The site is a little clunky until you click to the Latest Issue page.
Then the design is impressively clean and does not subtract from the
author's and artist's submissions. This is a design where the content
appropriately rules over the visuals.
The strength of the site lies in the strength of the voices of all
the contributors.