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Inside the Pages of SIX7*8th!
It’s no secret that I love to write. One day, I hope to write for a real newspaper or magazine—maybe even my own novels! That’s why I’m super excited to have the opportunity to chat with members of a REAL magazine staff. SIX7*8th is a magazine created by Angie Rangel just for girls in junior high (like me!). Read on as I talk to her and her staff about how the magazine goes from ideas to what we see on the newsstands! Have questions for the SIX7*8th staff? Enter your question below by February 8, 2008, and we’ll pick the top 15 to be answered! ********** ANGIE RANGEL (publisher and executive editor) SIX7*8th magazine is so cool. How did you come up with the idea and what’s the mission of the mag? SIX7*8th was created last year for girls in junior high school. Our mission is to offer girls a forum as a tool for success in school and relationships. I know I wish I had a magazine just for my age girls when I was in junior high! SIX7*8th is really fun, super trendy, and has a lot of “attitude.” The coolest part is that our focus is on our readers, which means we don’t fill our pages with celebrity gossip. We basically cover anything and everything that concerns the junior high girl and what’s going on in her life- not someone in Hollywood she’s never even met. SIX7*8th covers the latest fashion trends, relationship issues with friends, family, boys and even teachers. We teach you how to do better in school, have fun, look cute and have a healthy outlook on life. Junior high is a pretty tough time, so we show you how to be your best and keep it all in perspective. What is a typical day for you like as executive editor/publisher? I am involved in every aspect of the magazine, so my days are very long, but they are also very fun. The first thing I do every morning is check email. This helps navigate my day. Every day is very different from one day to the next. One day, you might catch me setting up celebrity interviews, the next day reviewing layouts with our graphic designer and article ideas with our writers, or I might be at a photo shoot pitching in wherever I can. There isn’t a day that is like the one before. I am always trying to keep the magazine fresh and stay on top of topics that will interest junior high girls, so I make sure my days follow the needs of our readers. What is your favorite part of being editor-in-chief of SIX7*8th? That’s a tough question because I really love every part of my job. I guess my favorite part would be when I receive a new issue and I get to sit down to read it. I realize every single time how thankful I am to have such a great job to help and have fun with thousands of girls who are experiencing things that I did. ********** CAROL S. ROTHSCHILD (editorial director) How do you know what girls want to read about? How do you decide what ideas go into the magazine? Many girls tell us what they want to read about. We get emails and letters from girls who fill us in on important issues in their lives as well as things they'd like to see covered in SIX7*8th. I have a teenage daughter who has gone through junior high—I've seen her live through many of the things we write about; and I'm lucky because she fills me in on what's happening. But, all of us who write for SIX7*8th also draw from our own experiences in junior high. We get it, because we've been there. And we always want to know what girls think about, dream about, worry about, and want to read about. How does the magazine go from ideas to what we see on newsstands? Each article begins as an idea and gets listed on our assignment sheet. Each issue has a deadline, so the writers know when they have to submit their articles. My first step is to read the article to make sure it says what it should. This is called content editing. Once the content is approved, we move on to copy editing. Copy editing ensures that articles are grammatically correct and that they read well. Once the article is edited, it journeys to the graphic designer where it gets transformed from a word document to a PDF file. The GD (graphic designer) uses his artistry to incorporate artwork and photographs into layouts that best reflect the creativity and message of the article. Once that file is done, the page comes back to me for proofing. After any necessary changes are made, it is approved, and ready to be uploaded to the printer! Once the printer has all the articles, he/she creates splash pages (proofs); we have one last chance to review the pages before they are printed in the magazine. The publisher reviews every single splash page, ensures that any last minute revisions or edits take place, and then gives the thumbs up. The article will be printed as part of the magazine and distributed throughout the country (and Canada)! Do you ever get nervous when you interview famous people? Are some of them mean, or are they all pretty nice to you? I was definitely nervous the first time I interviewed a celebrity. It was Diana DeGarmo (from American Idol), who was starring in Hairspray on Broadway. I wondered what she'd be like, if she would be responsive to my questions, and if the conversation would flow or feel awkward. Within about one minute of the interview, I realized that I was having fun. Diana DeGarmo was so nice and funny—she was honest and easy to talk to. (She even told me that she wanted to throw a shoe at Simon once, but she wasn't raised that way.) After the interview, I knew a lot more about her. Every celebrity that I have interviewed has been really friendly. A lot of people view celebrities as 'larger than life' – as if they are actually the characters they portray; but when you chat with them, it becomes clear that they are real people, with their own friends and families, who are separate from their acting roles. It's interesting to see how they compare to their celebrity personas. ********** Andrea Garcia (beauty/fashion editor) When you write an article about make up or beauty products, do you get to test out a whole bunch before you decide which ones you like? Yes, I do. There are so many products in really cute packaging these days that sometimes I have to remember that it’s about the product and not the package! I find very often that some of the best products are actually the less expensive products from the drugstore and not department or specialty stores. How do you know what the upcoming trends are in beauty and fashion? We work directly with the vendors (the companies who create the products). They usually work at least a season in advance and send us their products so we know what will be “in” before everything is out in stores. ********** Check out SIX7*8th magazine to see these amazing women in action!
you tell us ...
Thanks for asking your fashion/beauty/fun questions! Check out the answers from the staff at SIX7*8th magazine!
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