What do you think?
Rate this book
Rookie Yearbook #1
Rookie Yearbook One
The first print publication edited by Tavi Gevinson, the editor in chief of Rookie, the website for teenage girls
Tavi Gevinson started her personal blog, Style Rookie, in 2008, when she was eleven years old. It was a place where, from the confines of her bedroom in the suburbs, she could write about personal style and chronicle the development of her own. Within two years, the blog was averaging fifty thousand hits per day. Soon fashion designers were flying her around the world to attend and write about fashion shows, and to be a guest of honor at their parties.
Soon Tavi’s interests grew beyond fashion, into culture and art and, especially, feminism. In September 2011, when she was fifteen, she launched Rookie, a website for girls like her: teenagers who are interested in fashion and beauty but also in dissecting the culture around them through a uniquely teen-girl lens. Rookie broke one million page views within its first six days. Rookie Yearbook One collects articles, interviews, photo editorials, and illustrations from the highly praised and hugely popular online magazine.
In its first year, Rookie has established a large inclusive international community of avid readers. In addition to its fifty-plus regular writers, photographers, and illustrators (many of whom are teenage girls themselves), Rookie’s contributors and interviewees have included prominent makers of popular culture such as Lena Dunham, Miranda July, Joss Whedon, Jon Hamm, Zooey Deschanel, David Sedaris, Elle Fanning, Amy Poehler, Paul Rudd, John Waters, Chloe Sevigny, Liz Phair, Dan Savage, JD Samson, Ira Glass, Aubrey Plaza, Daniel Clowes, Carrie Brownstein, Paul Feig, Bethany Cosentino, Kimya Dawson, Fred Armisen, and Winnie Holzman.
As a young teenager, Gevinson couldn’t find what she was looking for in a teen magazine; Rookie is the one she created herself to fill that void. Her coolheaded intellect shines in Rookie, arguably the most intelligent magazine ever made for a teen-girl audience. Gevinson writes with a humble but keen authority on such serious topics as body image, self-esteem, and first encounters with street harassment. She’s equally deft at doling out useful advice, such as how to do a two-minute beehive, or how to deliver an effective bitchface. Rookie’s passionate staffers and faithful readers have helped make Rookie the strong community that it is.
To date, Gevinson has written for Harper’s Bazaar, Jezebel, Lula, and Pop, and is a contributing editor for Garage magazine. She has been profiled in The New York Times and The New Yorker, and has been on the cover of Pop, L’Officiel, Zeit Magazin, and Bust. As a speaker, she has made numerous presentations at venues such as IdeaCity, TEDxTeen, L2 Forum, and the Economist World in 2012 Festival. Last year Lady Gaga called her “the future of journalism.”
Tavi Gevinson started her personal blog, Style Rookie, in 2008, when she was eleven years old. It was a place where, from the confines of her bedroom in the suburbs, she could write about personal style and chronicle the development of her own. Within two years, the blog was averaging fifty thousand hits per day. Soon fashion designers were flying her around the world to attend and write about fashion shows, and to be a guest of honor at their parties.
Soon Tavi’s interests grew beyond fashion, into culture and art and, especially, feminism. In September 2011, when she was fifteen, she launched Rookie, a website for girls like her: teenagers who are interested in fashion and beauty but also in dissecting the culture around them through a uniquely teen-girl lens. Rookie broke one million page views within its first six days. Rookie Yearbook One collects articles, interviews, photo editorials, and illustrations from the highly praised and hugely popular online magazine.
In its first year, Rookie has established a large inclusive international community of avid readers. In addition to its fifty-plus regular writers, photographers, and illustrators (many of whom are teenage girls themselves), Rookie’s contributors and interviewees have included prominent makers of popular culture such as Lena Dunham, Miranda July, Joss Whedon, Jon Hamm, Zooey Deschanel, David Sedaris, Elle Fanning, Amy Poehler, Paul Rudd, John Waters, Chloe Sevigny, Liz Phair, Dan Savage, JD Samson, Ira Glass, Aubrey Plaza, Daniel Clowes, Carrie Brownstein, Paul Feig, Bethany Cosentino, Kimya Dawson, Fred Armisen, and Winnie Holzman.
As a young teenager, Gevinson couldn’t find what she was looking for in a teen magazine; Rookie is the one she created herself to fill that void. Her coolheaded intellect shines in Rookie, arguably the most intelligent magazine ever made for a teen-girl audience. Gevinson writes with a humble but keen authority on such serious topics as body image, self-esteem, and first encounters with street harassment. She’s equally deft at doling out useful advice, such as how to do a two-minute beehive, or how to deliver an effective bitchface. Rookie’s passionate staffers and faithful readers have helped make Rookie the strong community that it is.
To date, Gevinson has written for Harper’s Bazaar, Jezebel, Lula, and Pop, and is a contributing editor for Garage magazine. She has been profiled in The New York Times and The New Yorker, and has been on the cover of Pop, L’Officiel, Zeit Magazin, and Bust. As a speaker, she has made numerous presentations at venues such as IdeaCity, TEDxTeen, L2 Forum, and the Economist World in 2012 Festival. Last year Lady Gaga called her “the future of journalism.”
352 pages, Paperback
First published September 4, 2012
61 people are currently reading
2762 people want to read
About the author
Tavi Gevinson
19 books415 followersTavi Gevinson is an American writer, magazine editor, actress and singer. Raised in Oak Park, Illinois, Gevinson came to public attention at the age of twelve because of her fashion blog Style Rookie. By the age of fifteen, she had shifted her focus to pop culture and feminist discussion. Gevinson is the founder and editor-in-chief of the online Rookie Magazine, aimed primarily at teenage girls. In both 2011 and 2012, she appeared on the Forbes 30 Under 30 in Media list.
Source: Wikipedia
Source: Wikipedia
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 121 reviews
February 24, 2023
Things that Rookie did for MY LIFE:
*Made my time at the toilet much more fun.
*Turned me into a solid feminist with solid arguments. (I used to be just a quiet voice for equality. It sounds counterproductive, as if Rookie made of me one of those "ew boys suck" fourth graders, but what I really mean is that I now know things about women's situation that I wasn't previously aware about, such as our increased vulnerability to sexual harassment, the way many times people judge women more violently and how to embrace self confidence not only for ourselves, but for others too.)
*My Goodreads "To Read" list and "Movies To Watch" list has grown twice in size.
*I currently do not apprecciate a sundae if in a bowl.
*I don't have time for my homework anymore. Sorry, got more important things to do. Like DIYs.
*A lot of other very life changing things that I can't remember right now.
I must add that I read this (the best teenage girl oriented magazine in the world) super rushed because I had to lend it to this one friend, and that other friend, and, come to think about it, wouldn't that one other friend love it? Anyways, I have to start getting more and more people hooked on Rookie. It's my way of changing the world, I guess.
EDITED TO ADD: Because Rookies are awesome, and we want to share that awesomeness through our passion for books, I created a Goodreads group that concentrates on reading stuff that was recommended on our favorite online magazine. Check it out:
http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/8...
*Made my time at the toilet much more fun.
*Turned me into a solid feminist with solid arguments. (I used to be just a quiet voice for equality. It sounds counterproductive, as if Rookie made of me one of those "ew boys suck" fourth graders, but what I really mean is that I now know things about women's situation that I wasn't previously aware about, such as our increased vulnerability to sexual harassment, the way many times people judge women more violently and how to embrace self confidence not only for ourselves, but for others too.)
*My Goodreads "To Read" list and "Movies To Watch" list has grown twice in size.
*I currently do not apprecciate a sundae if in a bowl.
*I don't have time for my homework anymore. Sorry, got more important things to do. Like DIYs.
*A lot of other very life changing things that I can't remember right now.
I must add that I read this (the best teenage girl oriented magazine in the world) super rushed because I had to lend it to this one friend, and that other friend, and, come to think about it, wouldn't that one other friend love it? Anyways, I have to start getting more and more people hooked on Rookie. It's my way of changing the world, I guess.
EDITED TO ADD: Because Rookies are awesome, and we want to share that awesomeness through our passion for books, I created a Goodreads group that concentrates on reading stuff that was recommended on our favorite online magazine. Check it out:
http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/8...
December 5, 2013
So many feelings about this one, guys. I'm a 33 year-old woman, and I feel like the stuff I learned from this book has helped me for when I turn 34 in a few weeks. That being said, I wish I'd had access to this when I was 13 going-on-14 back in 1993/4, a time period which Rookie openly fetishizes (which doesn't make me feel a bit OLD at ALL…and a bit flattered as well). Girls these days have got it so good. And so bad. One half of me is super-jealous for all the access to music and culture that I had to spend months digging in libraries and sending away for via the post to procure; and one half of me is so deeply grateful that I am not a teenage girl growing up in this world right now. Things have always been horribly unfair for girls, but the way things are now, I don't envy the young…I mostly feel really awful and sorry for them at having to grow up in a world that has doubled in fuckedupedness from when I was going through it all.
While I adore Rookie and fucking fully respect Tavi Gevinson in what she is doing, I can't say that certain elements do not make me feel a tad frustrated. Don't get me wrong: this is not at her or her franchise, but at how the media constantly refers to her as THE ONE ICON OF HOPE FOR YOUNG FEMINISTS. I am sure that Tavi herself would be less-than-ready to proclaim herself thusly, just as Kathleen Hanna very vocally rejected the notion of her being THE VOICE OF RIOT GRRRL. While it is wonderful to have both these fan-fucking-tastic women in our midst, we must never forget the fact that both are lovely-to-look-at and white. They both recognize this, and try as hard as possible to discourage this myopic notion of white, able-bodied, insertprivledgehere definition. Etc. Etc. I just want the media to get beyond Tavi and dig around for other girls from different backgrounds who are also doing fantastic things. I think she'd agree with me. This might not be a fitting thing to put in my feelings on this book itself, but I'm speaking from a more global frustration I feel when the subject of Tavi and Rookie come up.
That being said, Rookie offers itself as a platform for young women to be heard and that, above every criticism, is a noble pursuit. I hope that Rookie continues to strive to be an inclusive beacon in a world of exclusiveness and can serve as a gateway for other girls to get their voices heard. What Rookie is doing is precious and meaningful, and goddammit necessary. Media, just please don't use this opportunity to co-opt Tavi as an icon due to her good looks and fashion sense. I constantly struggle with the question of how she would be approached if she was, say, a chubby black girl from a less-fortunate background. I know, I know, it's not her fault. It's the media. But I can't help but voice this concern. Intersectionality is a constant reality and when talking about Rookie and the Tavi franchise, the critical part of my brain can't help but bring this up. I hope that doesn't make me a bad person. If it does, oh well. I still respect her enormously.
And this website and book is a lighthouse in what can be a really dark, mean, and scary world. This is a testament to feminism and the sheer importance of grrrl power now (note: ZERO irony when I say that). While we feminist men and women have our many differences, the most vital thing we as humans who believe in the intrinsic principle of equality and are not afraid to call ourselves feminists is is to offer pure, unadulterated support and solidarity with our younger brothers and sisters. Lets lift up those on the margins and let their voices be heard. This is what Rookie has done and continues to do.
While I adore Rookie and fucking fully respect Tavi Gevinson in what she is doing, I can't say that certain elements do not make me feel a tad frustrated. Don't get me wrong: this is not at her or her franchise, but at how the media constantly refers to her as THE ONE ICON OF HOPE FOR YOUNG FEMINISTS. I am sure that Tavi herself would be less-than-ready to proclaim herself thusly, just as Kathleen Hanna very vocally rejected the notion of her being THE VOICE OF RIOT GRRRL. While it is wonderful to have both these fan-fucking-tastic women in our midst, we must never forget the fact that both are lovely-to-look-at and white. They both recognize this, and try as hard as possible to discourage this myopic notion of white, able-bodied, insertprivledgehere definition. Etc. Etc. I just want the media to get beyond Tavi and dig around for other girls from different backgrounds who are also doing fantastic things. I think she'd agree with me. This might not be a fitting thing to put in my feelings on this book itself, but I'm speaking from a more global frustration I feel when the subject of Tavi and Rookie come up.
That being said, Rookie offers itself as a platform for young women to be heard and that, above every criticism, is a noble pursuit. I hope that Rookie continues to strive to be an inclusive beacon in a world of exclusiveness and can serve as a gateway for other girls to get their voices heard. What Rookie is doing is precious and meaningful, and goddammit necessary. Media, just please don't use this opportunity to co-opt Tavi as an icon due to her good looks and fashion sense. I constantly struggle with the question of how she would be approached if she was, say, a chubby black girl from a less-fortunate background. I know, I know, it's not her fault. It's the media. But I can't help but voice this concern. Intersectionality is a constant reality and when talking about Rookie and the Tavi franchise, the critical part of my brain can't help but bring this up. I hope that doesn't make me a bad person. If it does, oh well. I still respect her enormously.
And this website and book is a lighthouse in what can be a really dark, mean, and scary world. This is a testament to feminism and the sheer importance of grrrl power now (note: ZERO irony when I say that). While we feminist men and women have our many differences, the most vital thing we as humans who believe in the intrinsic principle of equality and are not afraid to call ourselves feminists is is to offer pure, unadulterated support and solidarity with our younger brothers and sisters. Lets lift up those on the margins and let their voices be heard. This is what Rookie has done and continues to do.
April 20, 2024
i feel like tavi gevinson and i could be friends
December 30, 2012
Oh my, almost as soon as I opened this up and started reading, I got shivery goosebumps. This is exactly what I always wanted to read as a teenager.
September 1, 2012
In the end though, what kept me reading, what I kept not being able to get over, was this uncompromising, very specific expectation of and demand for consideration and respect. Tavi and her ladies understand what it is to be female in this culture - they embrace the girliness (to varying degrees), and they articulate very clearly how girls can enjoy their femininity while maintaining a firm grasp on the nature of true beauty. While they acknowledge that watching fashion can be a really fun hobby (oh it is - I have bought and kept every September issue of Vogue since 1978), they remind girls that each model has spent three hours in a makeup chair and been Photoshopped all the way to Jesus and back.
Full review on Pink Me: http://pinkme.typepad.com/pink-me/201...
Full review on Pink Me: http://pinkme.typepad.com/pink-me/201...
September 5, 2012
Literally the best thing ever. You should all read it, and then buy copies for everybody you know and everybody you've ever met ever. Just saying.
May 26, 2021
i am going to make this my whole personality.
May 25, 2014
Rookie Yearbook One features highlights from Rookie's first school year of existence, September 2011 to May 2012. Though I am definitely older than the intended audience (it's for teenagers; I'm 32) it was still a satisfying read. It's a mixture of advice pieces, personal essays, and other stuff from a mixture of teen and adult writers, on subjects including how to deal with a bad day, how to talk to your crush, racism, female masturbation, the male gaze, and street harassment. There are interviews with Joss Whedon, Daniel Clowes, David Sedaris, and other famous people; there's also a piece of interviews with groups of ordinary people in their late teens/early twenties in Manhattan diners late at night. It's smart and well-written and often funny and the advice pieces don't ever assume heterosexuality; it's upbeat without being saccharine; it's awesomely feminist: there's one great part where a reader of the website asks why being skinny is so fetishized by the mainstream media, and the answer is basically, because certain people/large corporations make a lot of money by making girls/women devote their resources, mental and otherwise, to the idea that they should try to attain this particular ideal of feminine beauty. Yup, that. The book also features art, in the form of collage-y page backgrounds and dividing pages (which I liked lots) and photography (which is mostly in the style of artsy fashion photography, like a teenage W magazine, which I was less interested in).
My favorite pieces were probably all personal essays, like this one by Kevin Townley about being thirteen and discovering Rocky Horror Picture Show, or this one by Jenny Zhang about moving from a diverse neighborhood in Queens to a very white Long Island town in 7th grade, or these first-time-having-sex stories by Lena Dunham, Liz Phair, and others. I also really really love the "People Reviews" (1, 2) at the end of the book: they're funny/great vignettes of daily life, with the people at their center being rated 0-5 stars. Like, 1 star for a judgmental dentist, 5 stars for a girl who buys the last glazed donut at a local coffee place, and then, when it falls on the floor, asks the staff if the floor is clean, then says "don't judge me" and proceeds to eat it. Or 5 stars for a barefoot guy in orange shorts skateboarding down Liverpool Street in the winter in London, giving high fives to guys in suits. I would happily read a whole book of People Reviews—it's like the Metropolitan Diary section of the New York Times, except funnier and less cutesy.
My favorite pieces were probably all personal essays, like this one by Kevin Townley about being thirteen and discovering Rocky Horror Picture Show, or this one by Jenny Zhang about moving from a diverse neighborhood in Queens to a very white Long Island town in 7th grade, or these first-time-having-sex stories by Lena Dunham, Liz Phair, and others. I also really really love the "People Reviews" (1, 2) at the end of the book: they're funny/great vignettes of daily life, with the people at their center being rated 0-5 stars. Like, 1 star for a judgmental dentist, 5 stars for a girl who buys the last glazed donut at a local coffee place, and then, when it falls on the floor, asks the staff if the floor is clean, then says "don't judge me" and proceeds to eat it. Or 5 stars for a barefoot guy in orange shorts skateboarding down Liverpool Street in the winter in London, giving high fives to guys in suits. I would happily read a whole book of People Reviews—it's like the Metropolitan Diary section of the New York Times, except funnier and less cutesy.
September 30, 2013
This book is HUUUUGE but real talk: I'll probably read it in three days.
Ok, I finished it! Like I said, this book is huge, and if you're a regular reader of Rookie you'll notice that much of the content comes directly from the site, in kind of a best-of of the first year of the website's existence. This is a good thing, as some features were especially nice to revisit (interviews with Daniel Clowes and John Waters), and much of the art and layout has been reimagined in order to be more appropriate for a printed book. A yearbook for a website is kind of a cool idea, creating something tangible and permanent out of something that exists as pixels on a screen. Knowing the extent of the comments section on the site, I imagine that for readers this IS essentially their yearbook for their online community, which is really nice to think about. Teenagers, feeling like weirdos, making friends with other kids through the magic of the internet. It's kind of like "Ask" by The Smiths, right?
If I were a teenager, this is the sort of thing I'd beg for on a trip to Borders, and then come home and read it over & over & be inspired & bookmark important pages & read parts aloud to my friends over the phone. Reading it as an adult, I'm excited for the teens involved, and I wish there were more things like this when I was young. If you are an adult, should you bother? I don't know, if you are an interested person, you like to know what other people think about things... you know? Although several of the articles may not be exactly topical to my life, there is a lot of fun to be had here, and the idea of reading a teenage-driven book/website is very cool to me.
Ok, I finished it! Like I said, this book is huge, and if you're a regular reader of Rookie you'll notice that much of the content comes directly from the site, in kind of a best-of of the first year of the website's existence. This is a good thing, as some features were especially nice to revisit (interviews with Daniel Clowes and John Waters), and much of the art and layout has been reimagined in order to be more appropriate for a printed book. A yearbook for a website is kind of a cool idea, creating something tangible and permanent out of something that exists as pixels on a screen. Knowing the extent of the comments section on the site, I imagine that for readers this IS essentially their yearbook for their online community, which is really nice to think about. Teenagers, feeling like weirdos, making friends with other kids through the magic of the internet. It's kind of like "Ask" by The Smiths, right?
If I were a teenager, this is the sort of thing I'd beg for on a trip to Borders, and then come home and read it over & over & be inspired & bookmark important pages & read parts aloud to my friends over the phone. Reading it as an adult, I'm excited for the teens involved, and I wish there were more things like this when I was young. If you are an adult, should you bother? I don't know, if you are an interested person, you like to know what other people think about things... you know? Although several of the articles may not be exactly topical to my life, there is a lot of fun to be had here, and the idea of reading a teenage-driven book/website is very cool to me.
October 3, 2012
I would give my left boob to have had ROOKIE around when I was a teenager. I'm in my early 20s, but Rookie is still a fantastic guide to navigating your developing years as a girl.
Inside this massive, fun, beautiful tome:
- How to make a paper crown
- How to throw a punch
- Why Joni Mitchell is Literally the Best Thing Ever
- A playlist for falling in love
- A playlist for getting over a crush
- First encounters with street harassment
- How to bargain at a thrift store
- SO. MUCH. MORE.
If you know a teenaged girl, regardless of whether she listens to Beiber or the Misfits, get her this book!
Inside this massive, fun, beautiful tome:
- How to make a paper crown
- How to throw a punch
- Why Joni Mitchell is Literally the Best Thing Ever
- A playlist for falling in love
- A playlist for getting over a crush
- First encounters with street harassment
- How to bargain at a thrift store
- SO. MUCH. MORE.
If you know a teenaged girl, regardless of whether she listens to Beiber or the Misfits, get her this book!
November 27, 2013
This book is so greatttttt. I wish I could give it to my own teen self but I am so happy I can give it to other teen girls and show them that it is okay to love things and okay to be and like yourself (and that there will be times you don't, but it's okay -- you'll get through it).
December 5, 2022
ya im tavi gevinson fr!!!!!! like how can she be so cool and influential just like me! i want to own the whole collection of the yearbooks!! next year's yearbook will be the exact carbon copy of this! not plagiarism!! i swear!!
February 3, 2024
nothing makes me feel like a teenager again like this book ✨✨✨ always have a flip through and read of the articles when i’m feeling nostalgic!
May 29, 2015
Much smarter and hipper than anything else, magazine-wise, for teenage girls. Definitely fills a void. However, it was not my void. I don't believe I have ever been or desired to be this cool, this sort of fashionable and idealistic and ambitious (the kind with a lot of self-aware pink florals in it) and frankly... now that I have recently turned thirty, I wonder if, in fact, I was ever this young.
Rookie is fantastic, don't get me wrong, I just wish there were even more choices and voices out there that have the legitimacy and promotion that is afforded Rookie. So yeah, it's not really all that different from all the other stuff that has legitimacy and promotion when you get down to it. I just have to breathe in and out and say to myself "It is a fashion magazine specifically for young white girls who dream about moving to New York City, accept its limitations, Rookie is okay!" I just have to wait for that magazine for youngish half-Filipinas who want to travel to comfortable places and live close to family and friends. "Joanna, you can write that magazine!" Baby, I live it.
Rookie is fantastic, don't get me wrong, I just wish there were even more choices and voices out there that have the legitimacy and promotion that is afforded Rookie. So yeah, it's not really all that different from all the other stuff that has legitimacy and promotion when you get down to it. I just have to breathe in and out and say to myself "It is a fashion magazine specifically for young white girls who dream about moving to New York City, accept its limitations, Rookie is okay!" I just have to wait for that magazine for youngish half-Filipinas who want to travel to comfortable places and live close to family and friends. "Joanna, you can write that magazine!" Baby, I live it.
December 7, 2018
Why don't we start giving this out instead of the awkward American Girl book everyone my age received when they got their period?
Seriously. This was so thoughtful and funny and honest and UGH WHY DIDN'T HAVE THIS WHEN I WAS 13? AND WHY IS ROOKIE CLOSING? THIS IS A TRAGEDY.
But, yeah. Definitely start giving this out to pre-teens everywhere so they can live up to their full potential of being smart and politically active and sexually responsible. Please?
Also, it was pretty.
Seriously. This was so thoughtful and funny and honest and UGH WHY DIDN'T HAVE THIS WHEN I WAS 13? AND WHY IS ROOKIE CLOSING? THIS IS A TRAGEDY.
But, yeah. Definitely start giving this out to pre-teens everywhere so they can live up to their full potential of being smart and politically active and sexually responsible. Please?
Also, it was pretty.
November 29, 2012
Love love love love love love love love love love love love love love love. I don't care how old you are; read Rookie all day, every day.
July 16, 2013
These girls do a really good job addressing teenage life and all its complexities. Also, the outfits are good and the references are cool. I'm saving it for my fake niece's 13th birthday.
August 22, 2015
Lots of fun and TOTALLY NOT WEIRD for gown men to read (especially when they work with young adults!). Her website is also fantastic.
April 13, 2022
I am two for two when it comes to checking them out from the library while they still have the cute stickers or cut outs, etc. in them 💞
October 11, 2018
<3 <3
LOVE this
so
much
it is an extension
of myself now
LOVE this
so
much
it is an extension
of myself now
Read
December 24, 2018why can't i be tavi
July 10, 2025
tricky to rate because this is a collection of rookie mags from 2012, which i got from my oldest sister when i was a baby tween feminist, so there is a lot of nostalgia and also a lot of very of-its-time lingo in this book ! interesting to read in 2025 and see how things have changed. 2012 seemed like quite an optimistic time for girls/women and rereading these felt strangely hopeful, because surely all those girls who first read this in 2012 (like me!!) have now grown up to be smart/insightful/empathetic humans (like me???). also very cute reading articles like 'how to get over friend breakups' and 'how to have ur first kiss'. these books are just beacons of girlhood and its sad that i can't really think of what has taken their place for teen girls nowadays (i'm sure most of the tween girl mags i read throughout the 2010s are now defunct) (maybe substack??). also many of the articles come with playlists, so i found a bunch of new cool not-spotify-AI-generated music!. a feel-good palate cleanser to start the second half of the year :)
April 29, 2019
rookie holds such a special place in my heart. a place in my heart that both aches and bursts whenever i think about it. i was a late 17 year old when i found rookie in a corner of the internet and that first night i spent hours alone in the dark illuminated by the screen, going through page after page through the archives, completely amazed. where had this been all my life? my heart aches when i think about it because i'm regretful that i didn't have this sooner. oh, how my teenage life would have been different. i feel like this book could have saved me from a lot of sorrow. or at least given me a medium through which to channel it correctly. but despite all of that, it has still changed my life. i cherish these so dearly and when i saw the news that rookie was folding, i had to snatch all four of these yearbooks up. i could gush forever about all the art and writing and community this has fostered, but i'll save y'all (and myself) the time. rookie is brave, inclusive, and magical.
January 11, 2018
3.5
rookie is an amazing website that i wish had been started just a bit earlier so that i would have had it as a resource during my teenage years. instead, reading this collection of articles from their first year becomes nostalgic and almost makes me wish i was back in high school exploring my ~carefree~ and artsy feminist side. lil bit of an awkward moment when tavi recommends watching woody allen movies but ignoring articles abt his personal life, but she was a teenager and i certainly hope she’s learned better by now. otherwise, a very sweet collection full of raw feelings on love, growth, and teenage bullshit.
rookie is an amazing website that i wish had been started just a bit earlier so that i would have had it as a resource during my teenage years. instead, reading this collection of articles from their first year becomes nostalgic and almost makes me wish i was back in high school exploring my ~carefree~ and artsy feminist side. lil bit of an awkward moment when tavi recommends watching woody allen movies but ignoring articles abt his personal life, but she was a teenager and i certainly hope she’s learned better by now. otherwise, a very sweet collection full of raw feelings on love, growth, and teenage bullshit.
October 27, 2022
finally finished my rookie yearbook collection after so many years of wishing i could afford them all. found yearbook two at half price books and thankfully thrift books had all the rest for a reasonable price. rookie meant the whole world to me in my teen years. as a lonely weirdo in a small south Texas town rookie helped me feel like i had a place in the world. a sense of belonging, hope, and purpose. looking through all the yearbooks i saw so much of my self still on every page. my sense of style, music, movies, and creativity wouldn’t be what they are now without rookie mag. thank you forever tavi for giving us rookie <3
February 22, 2019
Rookie Yearbook has been with me for about seven years, give or take, when I first saw it at a friend's house and got intrigued. While reading it, it's given me interesting interviews, nice playlists, dreamy pictures and some good advice, even when it gets a bit cheesy. Also, I really like the stickers that came with it. When thinking about Rookie, I just think about lying on my bed on the weekend and reading this to get in a better mood.
August 1, 2017
This was really good! I'm a fan of the website, so it was really great to see the articles in print. It's really colourful and beautiful, and the illustrations are gorgeous. The photo shoots are all really interesting as well. I was lucky enough to get a signed copy by Tavi and I wasn't expecting it when I ordered it so it was really cool.
August 17, 2021
After spending so many years with Sassy magazine, during its publication time and well after during a personal archival project, I was delighted to see this. The feel is still there, updated in its own unique way.
December 23, 2021
An incredible collection of essays,interviews,and various arts & crafts guidelines. Not only is this a great resource for teenage girls but for any teenager or person of any age that seeks to be creative or wants advice about various aspects of life
August 19, 2025
A nostalgic snapshot of a beloved zine in its early days! As a fan of Rookie, I was so excited to see that I could read the zine in a physical form that made every article and photography piece feel even more special. It’s definitely a tad bit dated at some points, but still a great read!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 121 reviews