How Teen Vogue is covering the coronavirus

A defining moment for Gen Z, without a social safety net

Apr 10, 2020

Reminder Teen Vogue is online only :) Image via Flickr

Hi, I hope you’re hanging in there. I’ve been talking to students for a story I’m working on, and I’ve been thinking about how absolutely strange it would be if I were my 16-year-old self at this exact moment. Would I be paying close attention to the news? Would I still be locking myself in my bedroom, blasting music out of rebellion against my parents? Would I have a space to actually contend with a state where it feels like everything is at stake, and no decision is small?

I’m so impressed with how Teen Vogue has been covering the wider impact of this crisis with op-eds and analysis, first-person stories, and deep reporting, while also producing work from a space in believing that its readers can be catalysts for change. I interviewed senior politics editor Allegra Kirkland about the outlet’s work, and I hope you find even a shred of solace in how Gen Z and Millennials are processing and following this story. <3, Natalie

Q&A with Teen Vogue’s Allegra Kirkland

Photo credit Victor Jeffreys II

It’s surreal that the coronavirus pandemic could be a defining event for Gen Z — similar to 9/11 and the Great Recession — yet we’re only living with its many uncertainties right now. Teen Vogue has reported on how the pandemic has shut down schools, contributed to mental health challenges, and also left young people sick, to the point that many have needed hospitalization. Considering all of that, how are you approaching this story differently than other outlets for an audience of young readers?

Our focus at Teen Vogue is always reflecting what the world looks like for young people, and letting them speak for themselves. So as this crisis has unfolded, we’ve been hearing directly from readers about what they’re experiencing — the graduations that have been canceled, the internships they’ve lost, how they’re having to file for unemployment, and, generally, the profound stress they’re under. We try to make sure that every story we cover has that youth lens or is useful for our Gen Z and Millennial audience, so we’ve also been publishing resources for how people can help each other out and explainers on things like the distinction between coronavirus and COVID-19. We also surveyed our Teen Vote 2020 Committee, this amazing 12-person group of high school and college students who’ve been our sounding board throughout this year, about what this crisis has looked like in their respective states and how it’s changed their perspective on the election cycle. We’re going to be launching a new ongoing series about what this new economic reality looks like for young people in the U.S. I just think we’re uniquely positioned to be able to get into the weeds of what young people care about and are thinking about right now.

The outbreak has also further exposed some of the ugliest parts of America, from its class divisions that influence who can survive or even get tested for this virus, to a broken health care system and a dangerous lack of paid leave. How do you balance covering those macro problems for teens, and how do you consider your readers as catalysts who might ensure we come out of this with a stronger safety net?

I think inequality is something our readers understand deeply. Polling over the last few years has shown how young people are increasingly distrustful of capitalism and see it as the root of so much that’s wrong in this country — climate disaster, a healthcare system that abandons those who can’t afford to pay, the cruelties of our immigration and criminal justice system, and so on. This speaks to young people’s overwhelming support for Bernie Sanders’ campaign. They aren’t afraid of bold change because that seems like the only possible path forward when you look at the world we’re living in. So we’ve seen a great response to a lot of the big picture op-eds my colleague Lucy Diavolo writes, and this recent one from Kandist Mallet on the coronavirus pandemic laying the failures of capitalism bare. In our Running! series, we talk to candidates for office who are making these inequities central to their campaign platforms, like Morgan Harper in Ohio and Ihssane Leckey in Massachusetts. And we try to show how these macro problems impact people on a micro, individual level, to really make these stories come alive. We want our coverage to take our readers seriously as smart, sophisticated people, and also be accessible to as broad an audience as possible.

As for young people being catalysts, I believe that completely. I know it may sound corny but I’m just so wildly inspired by the teen and early-career journalists we work with, and the young people we speak to for our stories every day. I’m a bit older — a Millennial born in 1990 — and feel like a lot of people I knew growing up were more detached and apathetic and just didn't really think another world was possible. But the accelerating climate emergency, Trump’s election, Parkland, #MeToo, Congress basically ceasing to function and all of the other crises of the past decade have reminded us that’s just not true. Massive change can happen, and fast, and young people are working so hard to move things in a positive direction. When we’re talking about things like 10 million people filing for unemployment in two weeks, including current or recent college graduates who are already saddled with student loans, I think the only possible answer is going to be strengthening the safety net — and people like our readers are going to be the ones fighting for that.

The presidential primary seems like a blip in the news cycle this year now that we’ve concluded the everlasting month of March. How are you prioritizing coverage of the 2020 election with the news cycle right now?

Seriously! The days of poring over each primary result and reading debate Twitter feel so long ago. So that sort of constant coverage has kind of taken a backseat to our coronavirus coverage for the time being. We’re still covering major developments, of course, like Sanders dropping out of the race. We also want to know where young voters’ heads are at now that Joe Biden is the presumptive nominee, so we ran this piece on how teens are trying to talk to older loved ones to try to prevent Trump from winning a second term, and are running another on young people who are supporting Biden and why. In general, I think a lot of our 2020 coverage going forward is going to focus on how young people are organizing; on downballot candidates who are doing exciting things (I’m also a local politics nerd who thinks the media focuses way too much on the White House); and on voter suppression. What is it going to look like to hold a presidential election during a pandemic, and who will be kept from voting? What happened in Wisconsin this week, for example, is just appalling. I think this crisis could be a really unfortunate opportunity for bad actors to get away with suppressing votes, especially of students and other transient or vulnerable populations, so we want to make sure we’re on top of that. I think the 2020 election will become a coronavirus story, even more so than it already has.

Teen Vogue from 2010 (the year I was 16 😉) via eBay

Last, did any teen or women’s media shape your early years? And what outlets or writers in the gendered media space are you admiring right now?

So many! I loved magazines as a kid and think it set me up for a life of being hopelessly into this stuff. I was the youngest of two brothers so reading was one of my only girly outlets. I used to steal my mom’s InStyles and Luckys; I read Seventeen and Elle and Teen Vogue and Teen People and New York Magazine and all of that. It’s fascinating to see how these publications have evolved with the times, as the world has kind of spun off its axis. I remember reading E. Jean Carroll’s Elle advice column in my childhood bedroom, and was just floored when her book excerpt accusing Trump of sexual assault was published in New York mag last summer.

As for right now, Jezebel remains great; Joan Summers’ recent essay on having to leave the Bay Area behind because of the pandemic was really affecting. The Cut is amazing, of course. My friend and former Talking Points Memo colleague Katie Thompson was doing great stuff with the news and features at Bustle Digital Group. And this is actually men’s media, but I love Mel Magazine, and I think Gabriella Paiella is hilarious and her GQ interviews are always worth a read.

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