Is the independent route enough?

           When a blog not only receives criticism from a fashion editor, but also features guest contributors such as Lena Dunham, Judd Apatow, Jon Hamm and Paul Rudd, the natural first impression is usually whoever is in charge of this blog must be a developed, at least mid-twenties writer in the media industry. However, this is not the case with RookieMag.com. Up until early 2011, Tavi Gevinson, the sixteen-year-old fashion aficionado and feminist and RookieMag Editor-in-Chief, had been writing a fashion blog known as Style Rookie. The blog, consisting of fashion trend commentary as well as photos of Gevinson in unique get-ups, would receive approximately 30,000 readers each day. Just to clarify, Gevinson is still attending high school, has never written for a well-known publication and doesn’t seem to have any direct or distant relatives that are journalists or bloggers.

In the fall of 2011, she founded RookieMag.com, which is an online magazine aimed mostly at teenage girls. While the overarching theme of the magazine focuses on the issues teenage girls face, it has a category that will satisfy almost anyone in search of quirky content. The magazine does include advertisements on the website, indicating that it is for profit. Even though they are trying to generate some revenue from advertisements, “[they are] beholden to no one.” Since this is an online magazine, several mediums including video, photography and illustration are utilized to diversify the blog from other blogs. With Tavi and her staff publishing new content “three times a day, five days a week,” you start to wonder how they are able to produce so much new content so frequently. However, the guest contributor list does not end with Paul Rudd. RookieMag insists that those seeking to contribute to the website should do so, which gives it an interactive element that makes it that much more attractive to young readers. Gevinson’s inspiration for starting this online magazine was due to a discontinued magazine called Sassy, “the Nirvana-era teen magazine that folded in 1996,” (The New York Times, Michael Schulman). This might explain why Jane Pratt, the founder of Sassy, helped develop RookieMag with Gevinson. The one million page views within six days could be due to an ongoing trend for teenage women, who are “precocious, indie-minded, with a D.I.Y. fashion sense and a belated love of the slacker cartoon ‘Daria,’ ” (The New York Times, Michael Schulman).

Whether it’s Garance Doré, the French Fashion blogger or Tommy Ton, the revered Canadian blogger, famous for Jak & Jil, I find that most of these popular fashion bloggers are in their mid-twenties, didn’t necessarily begin reporting on fashion through blogging or write predominantly about fashion. Garance Doré’s blog seems to have a more professional looking format, which might be intimidating for a younger viewer. Additionally, the decision to name her blog after herself suggests that she is trying to promote her own name. Her blog does succeed in keeping up with the current fashion trends, but most of the content on the website seems to relate back to her. That said, RookieMag has a certain youthfulness that is more inviting for young and older readers. Although most of the readers are aware that Tavi Gevinson is the Editor-in-Chief, they’re not constantly reminded in big bold letters that it is her blog. What distinguishes Tommy Ton’s Jak & Jil and RookieMag is it is more basic, only consisting of large photos of fashionable strangers. There doesn’t seem to be any writing, so it could be inferred that not much time is spent on this blog. However, Tommy Ton has done coverage of fashion weeks on Style.com and GQ.com, so with that mind, some of his career has been spent working for the man.

Tavi Gevinson’s RookieMag has been around for over two years, so for those who either recently started reading her blog or really liked a piece from several months ago, they can have a physical copy, which is entitled Rookie Yearbook One and encompasses everything from the blog’s first year. It was a wise decision to release a book because when a blogger reaches a certain level of popularity, they develop a devoted following that will support them financially, whenever the opportunity arises. Having said that, Gevinson has a large following that want her blog to remain in existence, so they will be happy to provide financial support. And in doing so, they not only feel more involved with the website, but also in this case, are in given something in return. It is a bit ambiguous as to what the revenue generated from the book sale goes to, but I would not be surprised if some if not most goes to the development of the blog. Therefore, RookieMag utilizes two of the main revenue streams – small donations (technically) and commercial advertising. In this circumstance, commercial advertising is the dominant revenue stream, but I’m sure they make a decent amount of profit from the sale of Rookie Yearbook One.

Since fashion blogs are a dime a dozen, they have to provide something that others don’t to remain in fruition. It is clear that when comparing Garance Doré and Jak & Jil to RookieMag, RookieMag definitely goes above and beyond, but the real question is what drives devoted readers of Vogue or Harper’s Bazaar to change gears and start reading RookieMag? There isn’t one specific answer, but one potential explanation might be that RookieMag not only publishes new content more often than the Vogue’s and Bazaar’s of fashion media, but the voice of RookieMag seems to be more familiar. In terms of the familiar aspect, Tavi Gevinson is a teenage girl with teenage problems that are not dissimilar from the majority of other teenage girls’ problems, so maybe she has found a niche that hasn’t been tackled yet. I understand that there are forums, where teenage girls can talk about their problems, but RookieMag also gives funny solutions like themed Friday playlists. Gevinson is not embarrassed to be honest in her writings and in doing so, young girls start to feel normal again knowing that even accomplished bloggers struggle sometimes. “It’s a place where teenagers can channel their own adolescence through hers,” (The New York Times, Michael Schulman). While I agree that teenagers can come to this website and be proud to be adolescents, this is something that attracts lots of older nostalgic people as well.

The online magazine just passed its two-year anniversary, so it is still relatively young, but the success of the magazine really depends on Tavi. She is 16-years-old and going to be graduating high school soon, so she may want to take a break from RookieMag and explore other forms of journalism. Also, she is getting older, so her interests are moving away from fashion and more toward politics, so even though RookieMag has some political undertones, she may want to leave RookieMag indefinitely and start fresh again. I remember reading that she plans to take a year off after high school, but it is still yet to be determined if she will be a full-time RookieMag editor or something new.

Fifteen years ago, the idea of a sixteen-year-old achieving what Tavi Gevinson has with RookieMag would be unheard of. It’s somewhat shocking to editors of heavyweight fashion magazines that a young girl with no prior training has been able to reach this kind of level of success. I’m not that surprised that she was able to put together a blog because there are websites like Word Press that practically do everything for you. I’m more impressed by her ability to assemble such an in-depth team of young talent encompassing everything from writers to visual artists to filmmakers. That can be rather difficult when you live in a small town like Oak Park, Illinois and the only proof you have that indicates you are worth working with is a Tumblr. Personally, judging by Gevinson’s individual talent and ability to assemble such talented teams, I think it might be productive for her to move on from RookieMag.com after high school because she’ll be able to experiment with new topics that wouldn’t belong on RookieMag. And her staff is so vast that if she were to go on some sort of sabbatical, there would be several people capable of running the venture during her absence. While she belongs in independent media, she does deserve to experience corporate media, somewhere down the road.