Wunderkind Tavi Gevinson and the future of journalism
In 2008, an 11-year-old schoolgirl from Chicago named Tavi Gevinson started the blog The Style Rookie and, dressed as a grandmother, began her journey to the unofficial title of the main teenager of the planet. By her own admission, at some point she stopped inspiring the idea of dressing in such a way that someone would like it, and the first place was the desire to be interesting first of all to herself. To the puzzled questions of classmates ("Are you wearing a curtain?") Or teachers ("Miss, do you know that you have naked women painted on your collar?") There was a universal answer: "So what?"
Her blog, which grew out of written paper notebooks and a desire to be heard, quickly found a recognizable format: extravagant Gevinson outfits, her indiscreet remarks about the fashion industry and at the same time trying to master feminist rhetoric that so well responded to her new ideas about herself and life.
Very soon, she was invited to fashion weeks in Paris and New York, and newspaper level, for example, The New York Times lined up with her tape recorder. All this happened in the interval between the 12th and 14th years of her life, and it’s not that without oncoming traffic: "These people could not accept the fact that someone so younger than them really understands fashion. They called mine, that is, childish, the presence at events is unacceptable. And this is despite the fact that youth is the fetish for fashion, ”she said in an interview with the BBC. In addition to age and appearance, Gevinson was also distinguished by the fact that she was practically not interested in model shows, instead she was looking for unusually dressed journalists in a crowd. And at one of those moments, obviously, became the one we know her today. Even as a blogger, having managed to become a role model for many peers, Gevinson decided to go further and created the undoubtedly most important publication for today, to put it formally, such as she.
According to Gevinson, the main reasons for the appearance of Rookie are possibility and necessity. In the 90s, American girls had Sassy magazine, on whose pages guides on the ICP were combined with the odes of the Ramones group and whose tone and themes were a humane alternative to the Seventeen. When Sassy was closed, the niche occupied by it was automatically emptied, and the idea itself continued to exist where it came from - in self-made zines. It is easy to find some logic in a situation where a girl, largely brought up on the DIY abbreviation, breaks into the eyepiece of a large press, and at some point she gets into the hands of the filing of the most well-forgotten Sassy. The further process turns out to be catalyzed by feminist discourse, which is experiencing its best times, by general nostalgia for the 90th and the incredible popularity of the very girl who is about to be bored with being an icon of style. The fact that thousands of people instantly responded to the announcement of the launch of Tavi Gevinson and the proposal to send their texts and photos, and there is nothing surprising in this. You should be surprised how far it has gone, and then - if you forget that this is not the merit of one person.
Impressed by Sassy and enlisting the temporary support of one of its creators, Jane Pratt, Tavi decided on the concept of the publication - “a magazine made by young girls for young girls” - and began to assemble a team. The first and, perhaps, the main acquisition was the journalist Anahid Alani, who quit the job for Rookie in the New York Times - she took the position of editorial director and, according to her interview, almost stopped sleeping. For more than three years, Rookie has been working on a fixed schedule: three materials every weekday and one each at the weekend, and once a year a printed publication with the best of them.
The relatively small production volumes, besides the fact that it is easier to keep the quality bar and generally cheaper, are also explained by the target audience schedule: teenagers for the most part have better things to do and spending time reading magazines is really really a waste of time. Almost all the texts that appear on the site follow two rules: to report something non-trivial about the author and strive to benefit the reader. Most often, a simple strategy is used for this - finding a problem in your past or present and talking about it honestly. As a result, everything is discussed - from the struggle with the complexes during oral sex to the greatness of the songs of Johnny Mitchell.
Lady Gaga once called Tavi Gevinson “the future of journalism,” which, on the one hand, is a controversial statement, but on the other, why not. The point is not that the journalism of the future should bear in mind the adolescent girl (although this too), but rather to think of herself as a conversation with a living person. Of course, Rookie’s approach to journalism is not universal and is largely due to the strength and romance of the myth around youth - the central theme of the journal’s universe. And, roughly speaking, for any other medium, it would be necessary to invent your own Rookie, not a fact that resembles the original according to the logic of the choice of themes or style.
Tavi herself, like everything she created, is largely determined by her artistic taste, which at the very beginning of her journey became her trademark. She doesn’t hide her love for old music, grandma’s dresses and Sex in a big city, and she’s associating with the so-called current agenda is nothing but situational addictions and sensations — while her taste and the success of her endeavors are testimony to that one way or another is on the verge of "cool" and "strange". James Franco, who played in her favorite TV series "Freaks & Geeks", asked her only one question when she met: freak her or geek. Of course, she chose both. But the main achievement of Tavi as a public person should be considered not even a well-formed taste, but how she learned to use it to translate her own convictions that lie in the area of simple, seemingly human morality.
Tavi Gevinson's never-ending lesson is, among other things, a lesson of kindness, sensitivity and openness without harm to anyone's personal space. It is worth noting that in preparation for this lesson she had to go through clinical depression and somehow sacrifice a part of her own youth. Whether these sacrifices worked on the fact that the purity of her ideas and, in general, her reputation during all this time were not questioned by just about anyone, is not such an important question - the fact still remains a fact. Judging at least by comments to the materials of Rookie, she managed to become Oprah Winfrey for that part of the population for which the original Oprah Winfrey is simply not designed: teenagers, hipsters, millennials — quite a lot of definitions now suit them. Interestingly, she managed to separate her mission of the new Oprah from her own personality and almost completely transfer it to the already completely valuable brand Rookie - thus freeing herself from the need to always be the patron saint of teenagers.
It is also interesting that Gevinson seems to be consciously working to have an occupation he likes at any age. She has already starred in the film "Pretty Words" with James Gandolfini, voiced the main character in the animated short film "Cadaver" and even visited "The Simpsons". Now she plays her first theatrical role at all - and right away on Broadway, in the new production of the play "This Is Our Youth", where besides her are occupied by Michael Cera and Kiran Culkin. And yes, do not forget that she is still the chief editor of Rookie. And she is only eighteen.
"Tell me about your parents. I want to know who you need to be to have such a child like you," this question was raised in one of her last year's interviews. Her mother is a fabric artist, her father is an English teacher before retirement. "Maybe the fact is that they always encouraged my desire to make something?"
