Internet Mourns Teen Vogue's Closure and Staff Layoffs.

13 hours ago7 min read1 comments

The announcement on November 3 that Condé Nast is folding Teen Vogue into its parent Vogue. com, presented under the corporate euphemism of a 'broader push to expand the Vogue ecosystem,' is more than a simple business restructuring; it is a silencing.The internet’s immediate, visceral mourning for a publication that 'took young people seriously,' as writer Rainesford Stauffer articulated, underscores a profound loss in a media landscape increasingly hostile to marginalized voices and substantive youth-oriented journalism. This move, which resulted in the layoffs of several staffers—reportedly including a majority of the publication's BIPOC and trans employees, such as Politics Editor Lex McMenamin and Style Editor Aiyana Ishmael—effectively guts the magazine's award-winning political and social justice core.The union Condé United rightly condemned the decision as 'clearly designed to blunt the award-winning magazine’s insightful journalism,' pointing out that Teen Vogue now has no writers explicitly covering politics, a devastating blow following its 2018 Sidney Award for social justice coverage and the 2025 Roosevelt Institute Freedom of Speech Medal. The Roosevelt Institute itself framed the absorption as 'evidence that corporate concentration eliminates innovative ideas and silences voices with less power,' a stark assessment of the corporate logic that prioritizes 'scale and audience reach' over unique, necessary editorial mission.For years, Teen Vogue served as a crucial counter-narrative, a platform where young people, particularly young women and LGBTQ+ individuals, could engage with the front lines of political struggle—from organizing under the Trump administration to fighting for gender-affirming care and documenting the war on Gaza. Its coverage consistently centered the voices of those most affected, a radical departure from mainstream media's tendency to talk about transgender youth, for instance, without quoting a single trans person.The loss of this platform, as former politics director Allegra Kirkland lamented, occurs during an 'oppressive, authoritarian presidential administration,' stripping away a vital resource for critical thinking and self-advocacy. The fundraiser organized by McMenamin for laid-off colleagues and the desperate push to preserve the publication's archives are testaments to what is being lost: not just jobs, but a generation's trusted guide through an increasingly complex and threatening world. This is not merely a business decision; it is a political act with deeply human consequences, erasing a space where teens were not condescended to as 'woke scolds' or 'TikTok addicts' but were treated as the intelligent, engaged citizens they are.

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#magazine closure

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