Cherubs dip toes in magazine

Students create and pitch their own 'glossy' ideas

Emily Mulholland

Jessica Jackson, a cherub from Clinton, N.J., has had a love for magazines since she was 11. 

While shopping in a local supermarket, Jackson’s mother bought her a copy of Seventeen magazine.  For Jackson, her previous dream of becoming a doctor disappeared once she flipped through the glossy pages.  She realized that she loved what she saw and wanted to be a part of it. 

Jackson was given a chance to experience this dream during her fourth week as a cherub.

“Since I was a preteen, I wanted to go into fashion magazines,” Jackson said.  “I realize that it takes a lot to put them together and I wanted to learn more about it.”

Jackson, along with 24 other cherubs, chose to take a workshop with Cynthia Wang, associate bureau chief for Los Angeles for People magazine and Evan Smith, editor-in-chief of Texas Monthly that took them into the world of magazine publishing.  The students were given an opportunity to create their own magazine and pitch the idea to Wang, Smith and the other cherubs.

The students were split up into five groups and asked to come up with an original idea.  The groups had to take into account their audience, potential advertisers and competition.

Ali Elkin, a cherub from Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y., was excited to learn about creating a magazine.

“It was really fun to be thrust into a real-life magazine situation and learn about how a magazine works,” Elkin said.

Linda Brozyna, a cherub from Lake Zurich, Ill., enjoyed working in small groups and being able to bounce ideas off her peers.  She said she liked the aspect of working together to create a magazine concept.

“We all got a chance to have our own input in the magazine,” Brozyna said.  “It wasn’t like a one personal idea.  Everyone was contributing their best ideas and making it into one great idea.”

The five magazines the groups pitched were called Q, Deal, Anomaly, Duo and Your Summers.  Each group worked to find their magazine’s target demographic and stand apart from the competition.

Aisha Hasan, a cherub from Woodbridge, N.J. and one of the creators of Duo, a magazine aimed at all aspects of dating, said that the original age group they targeted didn’t work for their magazine.

“We targeted a younger audience at first, which knocked us out of possible advertisers, like alcohol,” Hasan said.  “We had to change our target age because advertising is key for magazines.”

Brozyna said she and her group had trouble creating a magazine that they thought wouldn’t be the same as existing publications.

“I think that the biggest challenge in today’s industry is how to differentiate yourself from the competition,” Brozyna said.

After an initial round of voting, the cherubs chose Deal, a magazine for young professionals and Anomaly, a magazine targeted to sophisticated teenage girls, as their favorite magazines.  Katherine Perry, a cherub from Santa Barbara, Calif. and one of the creators of Anomaly, said that she and her group wished that workshop wasn’t just an exercise.

“We all went back to our rooms wishing that our magazine was there for us to read,” she said.

The final winner of the workshop was Deal.  The magazine’s mission was to provide an avenue for young-professionals to build their own sense of style on a budget.  Sam Pape, a cherub from Washington D.C. and one of the creators of Deal, said he thought the idea appealed to the group because cherubs are young and interested in being stylish on a budget, which encompassed the magazine’s message.

“I think the cherub program has made us more career focused, and we’re thinking of how we can still retain our nice lifestyles when we enter the working world,” he said.

Jackson said she enjoyed the workshop because it showed her how magazines work.  The workshop helped solidify her dream of going into magazine journalism she said.

“The workshop made my dream of going into magazines seem like a reality.”