Thank you for your interest in pitching Teen Vogue! We regularly rely on freelancers to help us produce content that is meaningful and impactful to our readers, and want to make sure you have the tools to submit your best ideas to us. Please review these helpful tips before submitting a pitch to the appropriate section.
About Us
At Teen Vogue, we pride ourselves on publishing reported pieces and essays that are inclusive and disruptive. With smart, authentic takes on culture, identity, and politics, we tell the stories that normally go untold, defining the zeitgeist for a new generation that demands style and substance. As our Editor-in-Chief Versha Sharma says, we aim to be a “guide and resource for young people who want to change the world for the better, all the while reminding them to have fun and find joy doing it.”
Many of our readers range in age from pre-teens the to late twenties, but we attract readers beyond this group, too, thanks to our accessible and timely content about trending stories and issues. We help readers understand upcoming elections, rank their favorite new K-pop releases, stay informed on sexual and reproductive health news, and shop for commerce that is both fresh, as well as socially and environmentally conscious.
What We’re Looking For
Teen Vogue is accepting both reported and op-ed pitches across our four sections – Culture, Identity, Style, and Politics. Here is a breakdown of the types of stories we’re looking for, as well as previous examples and contact information for our editors.
Formatting Your Pitch
Here are some general tips for submitting an effective pitch.
- Grab our attention by formatting your subject line as a headline. Ex. Pitch: Young People are Uniting to Fight Atlanta’s ‘Cop City’
Note: If your pitch is timely, add the word “Timely” to the beginning of your subject line so we know to take a look sooner than later. Keep in mind, we receive a ton of pitches and it’s impossible for us to respond to them all if they’re not a good fit. - A successful pitch will include a few clear sentences on the story you hope to tell, a general idea of the sources you’ll include and the access you have to them, and information on why your pitch is unique — how is this angle different from what’s already out there and relevant to Teen Vogue’s audience?
Tip: Want to make sure you have a strong pitch? Consider writing your nut graph as you’re working through your pitch. - Tell us why you’re the best person to write this story. Your pitch email should include a brief bio (one to two sentences). Be sure to mention why you’re an expert or have a unique personal experience, and add links to similar work that showcases why you’re the best person to write this story.
Culture
Teen Vogue’s Culture section covers TV, music, movies, art, theater, books, internet culture, and more — anything that can be considered pop culture for young people fits here. We consider ourselves as writing for fans (or future fans!) and are most interested in stories that delve beneath the surface of celebrities, actors, artists, and trends.
We love a deep-dive profile of a young musician who has a fast-growing fandom but little mainstream coverage, for example, or an op-ed that exposes the nuances of a controversial scene on TV. We love stories that approach pop culture with a critical eye, but a good-faith one, too. What are people missing in the response to Internet ephemera? Which harmful stereotypes are being perpetuated against a genre or movement, and how can we add to discussions in a more fully-formed way? Whose crucial work is going unseen or uncelebrated?
Pitches should come about a month out from a show’s release date. Outside of the above, we have an ongoing series that is generally open to pitches:
Main Character Energy is a Teen Vogue series that spotlights the scene-stealers in brand-new movies and shows, the ones who level up our favorite scenes. They're the supporting characters, the guest stars, the cameos — the ones who can destroy an enemy with a whip-smart comeback or shift the entire tone of a scene with a quippy one-liner. They're the best friends and the tricksters, the sidekicks, and the MVPs. Without them, those leads wouldn't be able to save the day — and their lives would be pretty boring. Who would Lucas be without Erica, or Edward without Alice? Read our past Main Character Energy features here. Pitches should come about a month out from a show’s release date.
Associate Culture Director: P. Claire Dodson, [email protected]
Culture Editor: Kaitlyn McNab, [email protected]
Identity
Teen Vogue’s Identity section is dedicated to covering the business of being us — from providing top-quality information on physical and mental health to essays reflecting on the role race plays in how we’re treated in different spaces. Topics most often covered in the section include mental health, sexual health, reproductive rights, body image, and LGBTQ and racial identity. We're also interested in timely op-eds reflecting on the role identity plays in current news.
For stories including any sort of health information, all sources should be experts in their field —board-certified doctors, licensed mental health providers, or other credentialed specialists who work directly on the topic you're reporting on.
Features Director & Identity Editor: Brittney McNamara, [email protected]
Style & Beauty
As Teen Vogue’s flagship vertical, the coverage we do in the style and beauty section is at the forefront of youth expression. We highlight trends, changemakers and entrepreneurs, celebrity style, industry news, and op-eds. Specifically, with our beauty coverage, we provide service content through product reviews and investigative reporting of popular brands. We're interested in timely retrospective features unpacking fashion history and beauty staples. As a conscious publication, we also cover how climate change has been accelerated by fast fashion and uplift ethical companies that prioritize workers’ rights and low-carbon emissions.
For stories including any type of trends, all sources should be experts in their field and quantitative data should come from credible sources.
Fashion & Beauty Associate Editor: Donya Momenian, [email protected]
Commerce Editor: Shauna Beni, [email protected]
Politics
The main coverage topics in the politics vertical are social justice, U.S. politics and history, and education. Our stories typically run between 750 words for quicker op-eds to up to 1,800 for more in-depth reported or research-based pieces. We run reported stories on how topics like climate change, the education system, the economy, and immigration are affecting young people; news explainers; lots of op-eds; occasional Q&As; and historical pieces/profiles that are relevant or interesting to a young audience for our Overlooked history series. A youth angle is always preferred but not necessarily required. Our audience also lives all over the United States, so a more national angle to a local story tends to work better.
Politics Director: Allegra Kirkland, [email protected]
Longform Features
Teen Vogue occasionally publishes long-form features on topics that specifically impact our young audience. These may be profiles of important or popular figures, long looks into cultural phenomena, or investigations. We've investigated at length the role egg donation plays on college campuses, the impact of the "troubled teen" industry, abortion access before and after Roe v. Wade, and more.
To pitch a long-form feature or profile, include a paragraph or two about the topic and why it's important for Teen Vogue's readers to know about it, information on sources you plan to include, and what kind of access you have to them. For investigative stories, it's best to include some pre-reporting to confirm that your idea has legs. Because of our limited bandwidth, investigative and other long-form articles may take a while to get published — we fact-check our reporting thoroughly, a process that takes some time.
Features Director & Identity Editor: Brittney McNamara, [email protected]
