Teen Boss, a newsstand
glossy with a focus on entrepreneurship for girls between the ages of eight and 15, was created by
Bauer Media Group teen group director Brittany Galla in 2016. Galla came up with the idea for the magazine based on focus groups she had attended, where
Generation Z girls had discussed their ideas for businesses and inventions, their selling of homemade slime and jewelry, and their passion for the
ABC television series
Shark Tank. Its first issue was released in September 2017 and it was released quarterly. It was sold exclusively in newsstands for
$5.99 in stores such as
Barnes & Noble and
Walmart. It lacked a website or advertising in its pages and its only online presence was its Instagram and Facebook accounts. Its sections, which had a bright and "pink-heavy" aesthetic, included business cards, profiles of and interviews with teenage business owners and social media influencers, inspiration boards, how-tos, fashion tips, quizzes, and a recurring advice column by
Shark Tank cast member
Barbara Corcoran. Its first issue was a partnership with social media touring company
DigiTour that featured social media personalities Nathan Triska, Tyler Brown, Simon Britton, and Kristen Hancher and DigiTour CEO Meridith Valiando Rojas on its cover. Its following issues also featured
YouTubers on their covers, including
Brooklyn and Bailey McKnight on its December 2017 cover and
JoJo Siwa on its March 2018 cover.
Teen Boss was heavily criticized on social media and in the media, with critics decrying what they believed to be the magazine's adultification of children, its promotion of capitalism and materialism to young readers, and its focus on social media figures as entrepreneurs. For
Slate, Heather Schwedel called it a "horrifying artifact of our time" and wrote that it advertised capitalism as being empowering, adding, "Should we really be teaching the young girls at whom the magazine is aimed that making money is the highest goal?...
Teen Boss says yes, because when you get rich, you also become strong and confident, probably because you have a lot of money, and the more of it that accrues in your bank account, the more empowered you grow, and that's all that counts." ==References==