Teen Vogue Is Gone, But Its Impact Won’t Be Forgotten

Teen Vogue is dead. Not technically—it's being "folded into Vogue.com" in what Condé Nast is calling "a broader push to expand the Vogue ecosystem." But when a publication loses its editor-in-chief, its politics editor, most of its staff, and its independent identity, that's not expansion. That's elimination with a corporate spin.

Vogue announced on November 3 that Teen Vogue would become part of Vogue.com. The article promised Teen Vogue would "remain a distinct editorial property, with its own identity and mission." Then Condé Nast immediately laid off six staffers, including the politics editor.

Teen Vogue now has zero writers or editors explicitly covering politics. For a publication that won awards for political and social justice coverage, that's not preserving its mission. That's gutting it.

What Made Teen Vogue Different

Teen Vogue launched in 2003 as a magazine for teenage girls. Over time, it became something unusual: a major publication that actually took young people seriously.

The magazine covered fashion and celebrities, but also ran substantive political reporting. Stories about workers' rights, trans healthcare, organizing under authoritarian governments, gun violence in schools, and book bans.

Teen Vogue took young people seriously," writer Rainesford Stauffer posted on Threads. "It's impossible to overstate how important, how rare, and how profoundly needed that is.

The publication won the April Sidney Award for social justice coverage in 2018 and the Roosevelt Institute's Freedom of Speech Medal in 2025. A noteworthy accomplishment for a magazine corporate ownership is now dismantling.

The Layoffs Tell the Story

Condé United, the union representing workers across Condé Nast's brands, called the move "clearly designed to blunt the award-winning magazine's insightful journalism at a time when it is needed the most."

Aiyana Ishmael, Teen Vogue's former style editor, shared on Bluesky that she'd been laid off. "At [the Teen Vogue Summit], I was asked how it felt to be 1 of 2 Black women left and what that meant for representation," she wrote. "Now, there are no Black women at Teen Vogue, and that is incredibly painful to think about."

Lex McMenamin, the most recent politics editor, also got cut. "After today, there will be no politics staffers at Teen Vogue," they wrote November 3.

A Condé Nast spokesperson told Fast Company that "Teen Vogue has faced ongoing challenges around scale and audience reach for some time." The solution, apparently, was firing the staff and eliminating the politics desk entirely.

Why This Matters

Mainstream media rarely treats young people as credible sources or thoughtful political actors. Stories about youth often don't quote actual young people. Coverage condescends to teenagers or dismisses them as naive.

Teen Vogue let young people speak for themselves.

Allegra Kirkland, who served as Teen Vogue's politics director for six years until June, told Fast Company that the publication gave young people—especially young women and LGBTQ+ people—a platform to advocate for issues that mattered to them.

"The mainstream media too often disregards young people's opinions, or condescends to them in their coverage," Kirkland said. "They're smeared as woke scolds, checked-out TikTok addicts, or kids who are too naive to have fully formed opinions about politics."

The Timing Is Suspicious

Teen Vogue covered topics that made powerful people uncomfortable. Workers organizing. Critiques of authoritarianism. Social justice issues. All aimed at young readers learning to think critically for themselves.

Then, during a moment when conservative messaging dominates media, Condé Nast eliminated Teen Vogue's politics coverage and laid off many of its diverse staff members.

"Condé Nast killed a beloved publication that meant so much to generations of young writers and readers, especially those from marginalized backgrounds," Kirkland said. "They did so during an oppressive, authoritarian presidential administration that is trampling on the rights of those young people and on the First Amendment."

What Gets Lost

Another X user pointed out the obvious gap: "There's going to be nothing left for youth/teens to reach for when they are curious about news and issues, whether it's about fashion or politics or pop culture."

Teen Vogue was one of the only major publications specifically trying to serve teenage readers with substantive political content. Now it's being absorbed into Vogue, which targets a completely different demographic.

Former staffers are pushing Condé Nast to preserve Teen Vogue's archives so those resources remain accessible. McMenamin organized a GoFundMe to help laid-off employees cover expenses.

Corporate consolidation keeps eliminating publications that serve specific audiences. Teen Vogue carved out something unique—a place where young people could find political coverage that treated them as legitimate readers rather than kids who needed dumbed-down content. Now, its silencing marks a profound loss for youth journalism and democratic discourse.