>> Last November, Tavi Gevinson announced that she was working with Jane Pratt on a magazine for teenage girls; now, it sounds like that is no longer the case. Gevinson had described her forthcoming online magazine, Rookie, in March as an offshoot of Pratt's website, xojane.com, which launched in May: “I had been talking about this magazine that I wanted to start, and [she] told me that she was starting this website and that the magazine could be kind of a branch under the JanePratt.com umbrella for teenaged people — girls.”
Now, Gevinson says that she has decided not to launch Rookie with Say Media, the company behind the launch of xojane.com. “I would love for [Pratt] to be involved, but right now it’s something that has to be worked out between her and Say,” Gevinson told WWD last night. "It wasn’t like Us versus the Man,” Gevinson adds of her decision. “It was just that I want to have full control, and it’s important to me that we’re independent, not so that we can be indie and ‘down with the man,’ but because I find a lot of comfort knowing that it’s all in my control." (Last week, Gevinson said of the project: “I own everything.”) Gevinson also noted that there hasn’t been a falling out with Pratt (She has written one post for xojane.com, “What's In My Bag: The Locker Edition,” which was posted on June 20); Pratt, meanwhile, declined to comment on the matter.
A September web launch is planned for Rookie, which will be monthly — each month will be like a different issue of a magazine, Gevinson explained. There will be no print edition at launch, but eventually there will be two print editions per year.
Aside from Rookie, Gevinson is working on a book with Rizzoli based on her Style Rookie blog, and she was in New York last week to meet with publishers about a second book proposal — for Diary, a zine-style book about “the state of being a teenager,” that she is collaborating on with author Marisa Meltzer.
