I cannot believe it has been three years since I found Rookie Yearbook One in The Strand Bookstore of New York City and decided to dedicate my time to fan-girling and bitch-facing.
Rookie is an online magazine that focuses on the importance of fashion, feminism, pop culture obsessions and Fiona Apple lyrics. It is the brain-child of fashion icon and professional fangirl herself Tavi Gevinson, who started the magazine when she was fifteen because she felt she couldn’t find a magazine that respected and acknowledged the awesomeness and potential of teenage girls. Every year she puts out a print yearbook just like high schools do, but “what is at the heart of the work you see in all four Yearbooks is not a celebration of the glory of high school but an earnest look at what it means to be a person,” as she said in the Editor’s letter in Yearbook Four. The publication of Rookie Yearbook Four marks the “graduation” of a beloved online magazine for teen girls into something abstractly more adult.
On Sunday, October 25th Tavi Gevinson came to the Brattle Theatre in Cambridge on her Rookie Yearbook Four tour. She read from three of her recent editor’s letters and talked about the culmination of her experiences doing and learning from Rookie. She then answered questions from the audience and closed with a book signing.
Gevinson’s writing is honest, intellectual and chock-full of references to Beyonce. Her presentation at Brattle Theater was no different. She pulled quotes from the likes of Eleanor Roosevelt to Taylor Swift lyrics to address topics such as body image and healthy relationships. It was made clear that Rookie magazine is far from over, but this fourth Yearbook does mean a transition of sorts. Gevinson spoke about the self-consciousness that comes with the expectations of being an adult. Funnily enough, she said during the Q&A, “The only thing that made me recoil was when it [Rookie] was written about in adult publications and I was like these aren’t the eyes we want!”
So perhaps Rookie isn’t moving in an “adult” direction at all, but just a new direction. Gevinson read from an editor’s letter she wrote in August addressing her new haircut, modeled after the one Mia Farrow got which supposedly led Frank Sinatra to divorce her: “I cut my hair because I would rather become a new person than remain the ghost of a past one,” Gevinson wrote. It seems the same holds true for Rookie. With this senior Yearbook having come and gone and Gevinson having graduated high school herself, a change just might be brewing.
Some changes have already been made, such as a recent revamping of the website. Gevinson explained during the Q&A that she had originally set up the website to post three times a day in accordance with her own high school schedule. But now that she is in college and has a much bigger Rookie team behind her, they wanted to redesign to have more freedom and allow more types of posts.
Another issue of change was brought up when one audience member asked whether or not Gevinson planned on changing her focus to be more inclusive of non-binary teens. Gevinon responded that Rookie has been trying to use more inclusive language and that when Rookie was started, Gevinson was only trying to address what she felt was missing. At the time, it seemed to her that girls were underestimated in most teen magazines. But Rookie is at an opportune time for change, and as gender identity is something being so prevalently redefined today she “hope[s] enough readers feel encouraged to make their own space and don’t feel expected to identify as one or the other.”
One thing that remains a priority to the Rookie editor-in-chief is staying true to who she is. She understands the “monster” image that is associated with celebrity. She talked a lot about being honest and holding herself accountable to write about what she genuinely feels and not letting fame give her this idea that she is perfect. At one point during the Q&A, an audience member raised her hand to say the fact that Gevinson exists is terrifying. Once the laughter quieted down, she asked how can any of us feel accomplished next to her level of success? Gevinson said that even she feels inferior a lot of the time and just tries to address insecurity in her writing for Rookie. “That narrative is deconstructed so thoroughly; it was never that one day you’ll be fixed because people will applaud you… [Even] when I have moments where I feel not adequate, I know history weeds out the phonies. Sometimes I do feel like a fraud because I’ve been so lucky.” This is the beauty of Rookie magazine. It doesn’t deem indifference or better-than attitudes as cool, but instead glorifies the school of thought of feeling everything out and being really human.
After she read her editor’s letters and answered some questions, I waited in line almost an hour for the book signing. I was so nervous the only question I ended up asking was her favorite milkshake flavor. At first I was really embarrassed about this, considering Tavi is my ultimate role model and I actually said to her, “I spend a lot of time thinking about milkshakes”. But would I really be a true Rookie fan girl if I had been calm and collected enough to ask her something normal? Is “being an adult” and acting professional really what Rookie is praising anyway?
Her answer was chocolate, by the way.
