38 | The Writer • January 2020LITERARY SPOTLIGHT
BY MELISSA HART INSIDE LITERARY MAGAZINEST
he Sweet Valley High Books
Made Middle School Easier
for Me.”
“My Daughter’s a New
Driver and I’m Learning How to Let
Go.”
“Bonding with My Kids at
AnimeCon.”
These are all titles of essays you’ll
find at Your Teen for Parents, a print
and online magazine for parents of
middle and high school students. Man-
aging editor Sharon Holbrook looks for
optimistic, inclusive pieces that engage
readers with excellent reporting, as
well as compelling personal essays
about parenting or about the experi-
ence of being a pre-teen or teen from
adolescent writers themselves.Tone, editorial content
Essays for Your Teen should offer
insight into a particular topic, along
with a sense of what authors have
learned from the experiences they’re
relating. “We accept essays that are a
bit more lyrical, employing the use of
metaphors, as well as essays that are a
bit lighter and simply observational,”
Holbrook says.
The magazine also includes various
sections devoted to reported pieces
that incorporate information from
experts. Two sections ask a parent and
teen to write side by side about a topic
with an expert who weighs in on what
other parents might do when faced
with a similar situation.
“This might be a lighthearted dis-
cussion about how to get out of the
house in the morning,” Holbrook
says. The discussion may also beYour Teen for Parents
This modern parenting magazine welcomes compelling stories
from adults and teens alike.“
much more serious, as in the online
piece “My Teen’s Bipolar Disorder
Problems Nearly Destroyed Our Fam-
ily” which pairs an essay from an
author who developed bipolar disor-
der as a teen with an essay from her
mother telling readers what it was like
trying to help her daughter through
that time.
One Your Teen department, titled
“Snapshot,” is a vignette or story writ-
ten by a parent, about life parenting
teenagers. “It can be light, poignant, or
serious, from any number of different
angles,” Holbrook says. It can also be
written by teens themselves.
In the September/October 2019
issue, 17-year-old Lilly Dickman wrote
an essay titled “What a Time to BeAlive,” about her experience of grow-
ing up in the midst of gun violence in
schools, compared to the relative calm
of her parents’ and grandparents’ ado-
lescence. It begins:“The fire alarm went off during
my psychology class on the
fourth floor. I saw the flash of
terror on Mrs. S.’s face – she
masked it in seconds, but I
caught it, and my heart dropped
into my stomach. My peers went
suddenly rigid, nobody standing
to line up at the door, all eyes on
Mrs. S. in hopes of direction.”“The essay demonstrates what it
feels like to be a teen in high school,”“As adults we get into ruts and sometimes forget simple
things like human kindness. Our kids, who get a bad rap
sometimes, can teach us so much.”