Teen People

Welcome to season two of Teen People, the podcast where I interview people who were in Teen People magazine. The podcast was inspired by my teenage collection of Teen Peoples, which I rediscovered a few years ago. Teen People magazine featured their readers throughout every issue, and published their full names, ages and locations—which makes them really Google-able today. As I flipped through the...

Kelly McWilliams was a teenager when she published her first novel. These days, Kelly's working on her third novel, while promoting Agnes at the End of the World; a dystopian YA book published in 2020. Agnes at the End of the World received starred reviews in School Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, and Publisher’s Weekly. It was also featured, funnily enough, in People magazine’s “20 Best Books to...

Welcome to Teen People; the podcast where I dig into my collection of Teen People magazines, and interview some of the real people who were featured in Teen People! I'm Anna Soper. This episode is a chat with Lindsay Soll Kirkman. As a teenager, Lindsay was invited to apply to Teen People’s News Team by the magazine’s cofounder, Lori Majewski. Lindsay later worked for the magazine in New York. Lin...

Welcome to another episode of Teen People; the podcast that catches up with real people from Teen People magazine! In 2005, Ellie Wen appeared on Teen People’s annual list of 20 Teens Who Will Change the World. As a young teen, Ellie created an award-winning digital library called Repeat After Us. She and her friends recorded and transcribed poems, quotes, speeches, and books; including works by K...

This episode features a conversation with Lucas Peerman, News Director of the Las Cruces Sun-News in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Lucas was 18 when he joined Teen People magazine's News Team; a diverse corps of young journalists who contributed some of their first bylines to Teen People. He spoke with me from his home in Las Cruces, just two days before the U.S. election in November 2020. He told me ab...

Welcome to Teen People, the podcast that catches up with folks from Teen People magazine. This is the second of a two-part interview featuring Zena Burns. Zena got a job at Teen People in 1999, and stayed there until the magazine came to an end in 2006. She was heartbroken when the magazine folded, as she’d not only landed her dream job before the age of 25, she made lifelong friends there. Our fu...

Welcome to episode 10 of Teen People; the podcast that catches up with folks from Teen People magazine. This episode is a first for me, as I’m talking with a Teen People staff member! Zena Burns was Entertainment Director at Teen People magazine and Managing Editor at Teen People dot com. Teen People’s earliest digital outreach relied on an AOL-exclusive website, and a celebrity chats feature that...

Welcome to another episode of Teen People! My name is Anna Soper, and I’m a writer, artist and librarian from Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Today I’m talking with Lisa Wong Macabasco, who was part of Teen People magazine's News Team. Lisa graduated from UC Berkeley and Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. Today, she works for www.vogue.com, where she has reported on the Oscars, Fashio...

Hi, my name is Anna Soper, and this is Teen People. This podcast features in-depth conversations with people who appeared in Teen People magazine as young adults. So far, they’ve shared stories of building their careers, having kids (or not!) and finding their way through this challenging time. My next guest is Diana Maciel. She worked at Teen People in the late ‘90s and early 2000s, and has since...

Robin Knudsen was 16 when she scouted my earlier guest, Preston Drum, for a Teen People photoshoot in Charlotte, North Carolina. She and Preston were friends in school, but by the time she scouted Preston for her story, he had changed schools, and it seemed like he didn’t recognize her. It didn’t help that her mum made her change from her usual, funky clothes into a more “professional” look for th...

Hi, I’m Anna Soper, and this is Teen People, the podcast that shares the stories of folks who appeared in Teen People magazine as young adults. My next guest was in the November 2000 issue of Teen People, in a story featuring young voices in American politics. At the age of 18, Derrick Seaver told Teen People, “I see the job of being a citizen as the most important job in our democratic system.” H...

Welcome to another episode of Teen People, the podcast that shares the stories of the real people who appeared in Teen People magazine! My next guest is Preston Drum, an artist, musician and arts educator in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Preston is originally from Charlotte, North Carolina. When he was 15, Preston appeared in Teen People, in a fashion spread featuring street style from Charlotte. Alongs...

Today, I talk with Dr. Joe Normandin, who was in Teen People's October 1999 issue. Joe and his then-partner were featured in an article called 'Happy Together', which profiled young lesbian and gay couples in the United States. This was just twelve months after the murder of Matthew Shepard, a young, openly-gay man in Wyoming. Teen People not only noted this sad anniversary in their October 1999 i...

Welcome to episode three of Teen People. My name is Anna Soper, and I am a British-Canadian artist, writer, and librarian in Canada. Today I give you Atiya Jones: funny, outgoing, fashionista. Girl-about-town—until Covid hit—in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Atiya was but a girl in Brooklyn when she worked for Teen People as a Trendspotter—part of a focus group made up of Teen People’s own readers. She...

Ashley Canino was thirteen when she appeared in Teen People. Modelling a pair of very low-rise corduroys, Ashley was part of a fashion editorial called 'Fashion for Every Body'. From "busty" to "boyish", each model was dressed solely according to their measurements. It's an editorial decision that troubles Ashley, who says, "It's part of the reason why magazines like this don't exist anymore." We...

Welcome to Teen People! This unofficial podcast reveals the stories of those who appeared in Teen People magazine as young adults. My first guest is Caron Levis, who interned at Teen People in the late 1990s. Today, Caron teaches at NYU and the New School's Creative Writing MFA program. She is the author of several books, including the award-winning picture book Ida, Always. In this episode, Caron...