Write for Your Teen
Thank you for your interest in Your Teen Media. We look forward to hearing more about your story idea, but before you get in touch, please take a moment to review our editorial guidelines.
Your Teen is a publication for parents of teenagers—middle school, high school, and up to the first year or two of college—and for professionals working with teenagers. Our mission is to be a trusted source—and a fun, informative read!—for readers who are seeking information about teenagers.
Writing for Your Teen Media
If you have an idea for an article:
Please send a pitch of your idea to the Your Teen editors. Your pitch should be no more than three or four paragraphs. It should include: a short overview of your idea, why it matters to our audience, and a sense of the experts/parents/teenagers (if applicable) you will interview for your story. We recommend you take the time to review our website before you pitch us. Please also tell us about your writing experience and provide links to 2-3 writing samples.
If you have an idea for an essay or blog:
Great! Our readers love personal stories about the ups, downs and in-betweens of raising teenagers. However, we cannot commit to publication of an essay or blog without reading the entire piece first. Please submit your essay or blog to the Your Teen editors. We sometimes make exceptions for experienced essayists/bloggers. If that’s you, please send a couple paragraphs about your idea and 2-3 samples of your work. Work must be original and not previously published.
If you are an expert:
Also great! We have many experts writing for Your Teen. Please submit a one to two paragraph description of the expert advice piece you’d like to write to the Your Teen editors. In addition, please tell us about your professional background.
Other Stuff You Need to Know
We appreciate your patience. You may not hear from us right away. We get a lot of email. If we are interested in your idea, we will be in touch. If you don’t hear from us, it’s because we don’t believe your idea is a good fit for Your Teen at this time. Feel free to pitch us a new idea.
Our writer’s agreement: If we publish your work, we’ll send you an official contract, but you can preview some of our key terms here.
No simultaneous submissions: We ask that you give us 14 days for evergreen topics and 5 days for timely topics before you submit your pitch or article elsewhere. If you are submitting a full draft for consideration, it should be unpublished work that has not appeared previously in print or online (including personal blogs, Medium, etc.).
Background and mission: Your Teen Media is a media site for parents of teenagers—from middle school, high school and the first year or so of college—and for professionals working with teenagers. Our mission is to be the trusted editorial source for readers seeking information about raising teenagers. We strive to present well-reported and engaging articles that provide readers with an understanding of a topic, plus strategies from experts for handling the topic in their own homes.
When selecting experts, please be sure that the person is an expert in the area in which they are offering expertise. Calling oneself a parenting expert, say, does not necessarily make it so. If you have doubts about expertise, please check in with your editor.
Tone and editorial style: We are looking for an engaging, upbeat, and journalistic writing style. It’s often a good idea to open your piece with an anecdote, and humor is appreciated when appropriate.
Your Teen is meant to be readable for busy parents. Helpful subheadings are recommended as appropriate, and we avoid overwrought language and excessive use of passive voice.
Our tone is inclusive. In other words, we never wag our fingers at readers; rather, we recognize that parenting teenagers can be challenging and our role is to help readers make informed choices about parenting their teenagers.
Lastly, readers should have a sense of what to do next after reading our articles. Our goal is not to make parents worry, but to help with solutions and strategies.
We look forward to hearing from you!
Sincerely,
The Editors
