editors speak

Sarah Verney, Editorial Director of Discovery Girls

I always enjoy having a chance to chat with editors on the phone – especially when we’re not talking about ways my sparkling prose needs fixing! So I was delighted when Sarah Verney, Editorial Director of Discovery Girls, said she wanted to chat a bit about some things she’d like to see for the magazine.

“It’s always hard to find people who can write in the style we need for Discovery Girls,” Sarah said. “The tone needs to be lively and upbeat. It needs to sound young and fresh but not like the writer is trying too hard. Sometimes writers go too far in trying to sound hip and it’s just not authentic.”

Discovery Girls is a magazine for tween girls – those teetering on the edge between being little girls and being teens. This means the magazine’s writers and editors must always be cognizant of that fine line between recognizing the girls' desire to grow up and be like teens and the need to give them time to be young girls.

“Like teens, our readers are very into fashion and looking good,” Sarah said, but added that articles about family need to be aware that tweens are usually not into the whole anti-parental involvement mentality that you can see in teen magazines. “They still respect their parents and listen to them.”

One thing Sarah would love to see is Girl Tech. Can you get girls excited about technology and the future? Can you show how is impacts them? Can you make future jobs in technology sound like fun? If so, Sarah would love to hear from you because no one seems to be writing about that area.

Even more than girl technology or careers, Discovery Girls is interested in looking into the ways girls are connecting. "We’d love to find writers who are savvy about the new ways kids are using the internet. Blogging, social networking sites, new trends online and in IM, cell phones/text messaging, etc., ...I’d even be open to a regular column on the internet/technology, if I could find someone who was both knowledgeable and had that voice that we need, too. Of course, anyone writing on this for kids would also need to be very cognizant of the dangers for kids online, so that whatever we’re sending them off to do is safe...in fact, the whole dark side of the internet (cyber-bullying, kids being targeted by predators) is something we also want to address, although as usual we have to walk that fine line so that we’re not contributing to the destruction of their innocence but we ARE dealing with the realities of the world they live in."

Crafts are no longer something Discovery Girls is considering. “I realized that we needed to have those done locally so the designer could bring the things in and we could look at them, talk about them, and get good pictures.” She added that crafts can be challenging at the tween age because the readers still have limited skills but they want something that looks good and that’s appealing.

“The biggest thing we want to convey in every piece is enthusiasm and joy,” Sarah said. “And that seems to be a hard thing for writers to do – to capture the voice and have it sound natural and real.” Part of the vision of Discovery Girls is to get girls enthusiastic about doing things – trying new sports, considering new opportunities, getting involved in the community.

“We’re also interested in humor,” she added. “Whenever you’ve got something a girl needs to learn, humor is the best way to present it without sounding like a lecture.” Discovery Girls doesn’t lecture readers. One way to approach a topic that you believe young people should consider is through a fun (and funny) quiz. Can you laugh with the reader at all the ways someone can avoid doing chores? Can you come up with a unique and amusing perspective on organization? Laughter can be more than good medicine, it can be a good teacher too.

“Girls have so much stimulus now. So many things vying for their attention,” Sarah said. “If we’re going to get them to stop and read a magazine with all the competition for their time, we’re going to have to do it by being inspiring and exuberant and fun.” Writers need to know their reader age, respect it, and enjoy it. The tween years are a time for enthusiastic discovery of everything that’s possible – before the social pressure to be a jaded and cynical teen. So the writers that will fit with Discovery Girls are the ones who can bring that joy and enthusiasm to the reader and connect with the things the girls most want to know.

This page last updated on 01 March 2007