Amy Poehler’s Smart Girls
Actress Amy Poehler started the web series, Smart Girls, which features her and her friends producer Meredith Walker and musician Amy Miles interviewing young girls with a wide variety of interests. The Smart Girls motto, “Change the world by being yourself”, sets the tone for this smart show and accompanying website/online network. Direct from Smart Girls: “we believe that the cultivation of the authentic self is very important. We also believe that guidance is helpful as we try to find our way to ourselves. We hope to be of help in the exploration and discovery process.
This is where you might learn about something you would like to experience. You might learn about a woman you’d like to emulate. You might learn a new perspective or an unfamiliar custom or a new way to talk to yourself about something. It is our hope that you will learn more about your truest self.” Check out one of our recent favorite episodes with violinist/composer/dancer and Smart Girl Lindsey Stirling.
Rookie Magazine
Mix tapes. Pen pals. Polaroids. ‘zines. There are some things from our young adulthood that we miss terribly and hate that today’s YAs don’t get to experience. However, ‘zine are making a comeback … on the internet. We attribute a lot of this surge to 16 year old Tavi Gevinson, who, at age 12 started a blog called Style Rookie, which (by the time she was 15) launched into Rookie Magazine, an online ‘zine focused primarily for teenage girls.
Rookie covers everything from fashion and pop culture to teen and social issues. Each month is focused around a different theme (April 2013 is “The Age of Innocence”), with a variety of contributors that range from teens to 20 and 30-somethings and even celebrities. The site updates three times a day: after school, dinner time and during the evening “crunch time” during the last minute homework/paper writing hours of the night.
We at JoFrost.com love Rookie because it features smart advice from girls and women of all ages with a feminist slant, sass, and lots of puns. On the serious side, Rookie also serves up dating advice, helps instill confidence in young women with personal essays and first-hand accounts, and reminds us why Joni Mitchell, The Beach Boys, and Courtney Love still rock (and should be discovered by) a whole new generation of double x-ers.
