From elementary to middle school, I had a Teen Vogue subscription. Every month, somewhere in the pile between my new American Girl magazine and my mom’s Cook’s Illustrated, was the latest issue of Vogue’s younger sister in print. After reading it front to back and back again, I carefully examined each page in search of new collage materials to cut out. One day, I decided to decoupage a box with all the shoes, bags, and buzzwords my 11-year-old heart desired. 

This particular issue of Teen Vogue was advertising a photo of Rookie Yearbook Four, which was the fourth and final compilation of essays, advice, and photography created and edited by blogger icon Tavi Gevinson. In my crafting frenzy, I cut out the miniature Rookie Yearbook cover for my collage, plus the promo for the September 2016 issue that featured Tavi as the cover star with the tagline, “The for girls, by girls issue.” I loved the way the Rookie cover looked—pale green with an array of brightly dressed teenage girls sitting among vintage floral pillows and rocking Twiggy-esque makeup—and I appreciated the message infused into the special “21 Under 21” release. Tavi was 19 at the time, so I felt like a freshman watching the cool seniors do their thing. From then on, my knowledge of Rookie and its mastermind consisted of an interview here and there, my favorite of which highlighted Tavi’s apartment and her pink pom-pom earrings that I attempted to DIY. Last year, while searching for a tutorial on how to bejewel tights for my Eras Tour outfit, lo and behold, a Rookie Magazine article with the very topic materialized. Remnants of Rookie’s vast library have popped up throughout my life, but it wasn’t until this year that I found myself fully immersed.

Upon rediscovering my love for the publication, I curated all four Rookie Yearbooks from secondhand websites and made my childhood self very happy. While flipping through the pages, the tapestry of my favorite things and greatest inspirations suddenly came together. An essay titled “Freak Like Me” by Tavi Gevinson recognized the main character of Freaks and Geeks (my all-time favorite TV show) as a timeless role model. In her December 2013 editor’s letter, Gevinson wrote, “I remember learning in eighth grade that you could be alone without being lonely, and enjoying many nights of watching Freaks and Geeks in my parent’s bed, zine- and collage-making materials at hand, soft yellow light from the lamp on the floor in the corner.” Reading this for the first time, at 20 years old, I felt so validated. I, too, had watched Freaks and Geeks throughout middle school! Plus, my eighth-grade art teacher taught us how to make zines, and I fell so deeply in love with the task that I added it to my permanent reserve of binge-watching activities. Just like Gevinson, my adolescent experience had been reaffirmed by Rookie’s eclectic, realistic pages. 

Just like Gevinson, my adolescent experience had been reaffirmed by Rookie’s eclectic, realistic pages. 

Though their tagline through the years indicates Rookie was “for young girls, by young girls,” anyone can find themselves in alignment with some facet of the magazine’s repertoire. Three years post-Rookie, Teen Vogue published an article entitled “The Legacy of Rookie Mag,” where they said it best: “Rookie felt like a big sister and a best friend rolled into one, crafting a quintessentially teen visual daydream filled with glitter, stickers, journal doodles and vintage-style record players—but the aesthetics only tell half the story.” And that’s true. Tavi, in particular, interviewed many acclaimed creatives for Rookie (Daniel Clowes, Sofia Coppola, and many more), and every time, her professional yet fluid interviewing style made it seem like a conversation between two friends. In the best way, you were reminded that Tavi was indeed a teenager and a genuine admirer of the people she was speaking to. 

At face value, the beauty of Rookie lies within the funky, clashing patterned pages of scanned-in fabrics and watercolor portraits of superstars like Heart and Lana Del Rey—but it touches on so many more topics than that. One of the most powerful examples of its versatility comes from a series of essays collected in Rookie Yearbook Two. The theme for December 2012 was “Faith,” and multiple essays touch upon the word in its religious sense. The essay, “I Want to Believe,” by Shanzeh Khurram, charts her religious journey, detailing how she grappled with the idea of a higher power and where she stood with her Muslim roots. The essay is poignant, bringing forth the discrepancies of faith that contributed to her uncertainty. On the next page is an installment of Rookie’s “Literally the Best Thing Ever” series called “Literally the Best Thing Ever: God” by Jamia. Jamia writes about her evolving relationship with God and how her friend once called her “a divining rod” because she can find God anywhere. In contrast, the next two pages, titled “Beyond Belief” by Jenny and Danielle, are a transcript of a conversation between two atheists. This series of essays is a testament to Rookie’s encouragement of “figuring it out” as a teenage girl. Different perspectives are represented through well-written pieces—no topic is too daunting, and no one claims to have it all figured out. 

Since curating this old-new collection of yearbooks, I’ve been thinking about where Rookie fits into 2024 teenage girlhood. Is there an equivalent to Rookie Mag that offers impartial advice and a platform for conversations between young girls? Remains of the 2011-2018 Rookie blogger era are still apparent in modern media. Petra Collins was the resident photographer for Rookie Magazine and is now known for directing/shooting Olivia Rodrigo’s music videos. Petra’s newer work demonstrates that the essence of Rookie’s visual spirit is still with us, but what about the written? Gevinson herself has said that fans of Rookie should check out zines such as Polyester Zine, which offers a similar array of female-focused features. New Zealand magazine Coup De Main encourages the DIY, connecting with musical artists to design their own zines, complete with handwritten Q&A answers and custom stamps. All My Friends Zine is a platform for young creatives, exemplifying a mission statement similar to Rookie’s, “for Gen Z, by Gen Z.” In a world of X, TikTok, and Instagram Reels, the medium in which we proclaim our love or distaste for something has shifted. I would venture to say there isn’t a singular publication out there offering the same experience as Rookie during their eight-year reign. YouTube “video essays,” popularized during the pandemic, offer a similar unfiltered perspective of hyper-specific topics. However, while entertaining in a way comparable to Rookie’s “Literally the Best Thing Ever” installments, most of these modern outlets lack the “big sister and a best friend” unadulterated advice aspect of Rookie. Engagement with a like-minded community comes in the form of comments or discussions on Reddit, and the idea of events like “Rookie Prom” or Rookie meet-ups seems like a thing of the past. In some ways, we are more connected than ever, but in other ways, the Internet promotes a sense of interconnectedness that is too artificially promising.

Is there an equivalent to Rookie Mag that offers impartial advice and a platform for conversations between young girls?

Just like the title of 15-year-old Gevinson’s TEDXTEEN talk implies, we’re all “still figuring it out.” A part of me wishes I would have fully immersed myself into the world of Rookie Magazine back when I was at my most impressionable, but I’m just grateful to have found it at all. Even the fragments of Rookie I familiarized myself with at a young age were formative and helped to shape my style. Just the recognition that someone as intelligent and effortlessly cool as Tavi Gevinson existed in my world was enough to inspire me for years. Now, in college, while rediscovering Rookie, I’m still gaining insight and timeless advice. After all, aren’t we all rookies at heart? No matter how old you are, I think everyone could benefit from the informative yet euphoric escape of a Rookie deep dive.

“We don’t have all the answers, we’re still figuring it out too, but the point is not to give girls the answers, and not even give them permission to find the answers themselves, but hopefully inspire them to understand, that they can give themselves that permission, they can ask their own questions, find their own answers, all of that. And Rookie, I think, we’ve been trying to make it a nice place for all of that to be figured out.” – Tavi Gevinson, First Rookie Editor’s Letter and quoted in TEDXTEEN 2012

“We don’t have all the answers, we’re still figuring it out too, but the point is not to give girls the answers, and not even give them permission to find the answers themselves, but hopefully inspire them to understand, that they can give themselves that permission, they can ask their own questions, find their own answers, all of that. And Rookie, I think, we’ve been trying to make it a nice place for all of that to be figured out.”

-Tavi Gevinson, First Rookie Editor’s Letter and quoted in TEDXTEEN 2012

Some of my favorite Rookie essays:

• “I Know What I Don’t Know” – “I could fill a library with the books I’ve told people I’ve read”
• “Super Heroine: An Interview With Lorde”

• “Literally the Best Thing Ever: Joan Didion”  (Honestly every single installment of “Literally the Best Thing Ever” because they cover everything from The O.C. to Golden Girls to abandoned theme parks to Lifetime movies) 

For fans of fiction, the Rookie archive pages have a great array of book reviews, short stories, and more!