In the last year, Teen Vogue has been producing very thought-provoking pieces centered around social justice. The sudden turn in content once spearheaded by Elaine Welteroth caught the attention of several people and resulted in many viral articles by Teen Vogue. Teen Vogue subsequently became leaders in the resistance. Unfortunately, this success wasn’t enough to sustain the magazine. In December, Teen Vogue shuttered their print magazines and went fully digital. However, with the removal of their print department, they announced their first-ever Teen Vogue Summit.
Due to the success of the first summit, Teen Vogue recently announced their second summit after their wildly successful one last fall. The upcoming summit seems promising, but there’s only one downside: the tickets start at $299. Teen Vogue has rebranded itself as a social justice magazine, so it seems a bit disingenuous that their summit tickets start at $299, something that probably is not accessible to their readers, mostly composed of teenagers.
On their website, they state that the summit is an opportunity to prepare you with the tools and confidence to speak up and create change
“Turn Up is a call to action. Our mission is to prepare you with the tools, confidence, inspiration, and connections to help you use your voice and passion to speak up and create change on whatever issues matter to you–whatever issues you #turnup for.”
@TeenVogue you are doing such a disservice to so many individuals such as myself who would love to see so many inspiring people speak at the Teen Vogue summit by selling tickets at prices that so many of us can not afford pic.twitter.com/4jumvP0nXt
— annie o’sullivan (@AnnieOSUL) April 28, 2018
Ok @TeenVogue I’m confused. How can a revolutionary, inclusionary, diverse summit cost $500 to attend? What “diversity” and “revolution” can be achieved through classism? pic.twitter.com/qypdk3FQmW
— SASHA? (@STlLLSASHA) April 23, 2018
Apparently, it will cost you $299 to learn how to create change. This is another example of brands exploiting the social justice movement and using it as a money grab. These price points alienate many people of color, LGBT+ people, and disabled people who are not wealthy. If Teen Vogue really wanted to be inclusive, they would have made the prices accessible to people in different socio-economic classes. This is classism. Luckily, Teen Vogue had a fee waiver form that if selected, covers all your expenses. Despite this, I do not believe this is doing enough considering they will only select a few people. The information they will provide to teens on becoming apart of the ‘revolution’ should not come at such a massive cost, it should be accessible to those who would like to make a difference but do not have the funds, the line up of speakers are great as well and I feel like it would be beneficial to many people.
To become a part of the revolution, you need about $500 now. So basically, you have to be wealthy.
