From abolitionists and activists, to actors, to Congressmembers, here are some of Teen Vogue’s favorite and most popular interviews of 2023. We hope you enjoy them as much as we do.
1. 'Yellowjackets' Actor Liv Hewson on Being Nonbinary, Top Surgery, Emmys
Actor Liv Hewson of “Yellowjackets” spoke to Teen Vogue news & politics editor Lex McMenamin about their shared nonbinary identity in a wide-ranging Pride Month conversation, covering gender euphoria and what cis people don't get about being trans (AKA… most things). Showing off their top surgery in the photo shoot, Hewson blasted transphobes and TERFs who are targeting gender-affirming care for trans people:
2. Over 1,800 Jewish Writers, Artists, and Professors Sign Open Letter Saying Criticism of Israel Isn't Inherently Antisemitic
Contributor Marisa Kabas spoke to Jewish writers and creatives Leah Abrams, Tavi Gevinson, and Rebecca Zweig about a letter they coordinated in the wake of the Hamas attack on Israel and Israel's military response, still ongoing as of this writing. The letter, signed initially by nearly 2,000 other Jewish artists and published in n+1, takes care to disentangle antisemitism from criticism of Israel. “I thought it got at two things that are very urgent in a clear and moving way," artist and writer Mattie Lubchansky told Teen Vogue. "One, that anti-Zionism is not antisemitism, and in fact has a place in Jewish life; and two, that our identities should not be weaponized to perpetuate the ghastly things Israel does in our name.”
3. Florida Theater Students Believe ‘Indecent’ Production Shut Down Over Anti-LGBTQ Law
A Jacksonville-area performing arts high school canceled a performance of a production of a queer Jewish love story earlier this year; students explained to contributor Emily Bloch that they believe the move was censorship driven by Florida's anti-LGBTQ policies. 17-year-old Madeleine Scotti told Bloch the cast discussed being “Don't Say Gay-ed.” (The public school district denied that the move was related to that law.) “It’s baffling that a show written about the detrimental effects of censorship is being censored,” Scotti told Bloch. “What about love should be censored? How is this impure?”
4. Stanford President Resigns After Reporting From Freshman Journalist Theo Baker
Over the summer, Stanford University's then-president stepped down after reporting broken by the campus paper, the Stanford Daily, discovered a track record of possible academic misconduct on his part. Education columnist Mary Retta spoke to Stanford freshman journalist Theo Baker, who published multiple investigations on the subject, about the scoop. “I think student journalists across the country are making really tough decisions to report on communities that they also belong to,” Baker told Retta. “And yet their decisions are made out of love because if you truly love a community, you're going to push it harder than anyone else to be transparent.”
5. Florida Congressman Maxwell Frost on the Power of Gen Z, Family, and Organizing
Our January 2023 cover story focused on U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fl.), elected in Nov. 2022 as the first Gen Zer in Congress (on which cover he rocked a Communications Workers of America jacket, no less). Writer Rita Omohka joined Frost on the campaign trail and for election night, and in interviews with Frost and his family, showed how the 26-year-old went from Uber driving nights after knocking doors to Congress.
6. Alec Karakatsanis on Copaganda, Punishment, and Policing in the United States
Contributor Patrick Darrington spoke to Alex Karakatsanis, lawyer, author, and founder of the Civil Rights Corps, about how copaganda works in the US. Karakatsanis defines copaganda as “the ways in which, not just the media, but a lot of people who benefit from the vast and profitable punishment bureaucracy from police and police unions to prosecutors to all of the multibillion-dollar corporations that make billions of dollars off of misery. This is the kind of system that we have created in the United States and it's deplorable.”
7. In 'No More Police,' Mariame Kaba and Andrea Ritchie Argue for Abolition
Lex McMenamin spoke to abolitionists and organizers Mariame Kaba and Andrea Ritchie about their 2022 book No More Police. “Rooted in the Black radical tradition and the lived experiences of criminalized people and communities, prison industrial complex (PIC) abolition is a structural analysis of oppression, a political vision of a restructured society, a ‘theory of social life,’ or how we relate to one another, and a practical organizing strategy,” Kaba and Ritchie define in the book's introduction, released last year by the New Press.
8. Sylvia Swayne Is Alabama's First Openly Trans Candidate; She Also Hopes She'll Be the First Elected
After calling her representative over her state of Alabama's threat of a trans healthcare ban, and consequently learning he'd suddenly stepped down, 26-year-old Sylvia Swayne decided to take matters into her own hands, joining the race for a special election. Swayne told Lex McMenamin how she decided to become a first-time politician as a trans woman in the South, and her hopes for the future of Alabama, whether or not the race worked out.
9. Meet the Gen Z Candidates Running for Congress in 2024
In October, contributor Rachel Janfaza spotlighted Isaiah Martin of Texas, Cheyenne Hunt of California, and Joe Vogel of Maryland, three Gen Z Democratic candidates for Congress in 2024 (seeking to join Rep. Frost). “Despite growing up on opposite sides of the country, these candidates, all of whom are Democrats so far, agree that today’s problems are too dire to ignore,” Janfaza wrote.
10. ‘Prophet of Discontent’ Looks at MLK’s Criticism of Capitalism and Militarism
For Martin Luther King Day this year, Patrick Darrington spoke to authors Andrew J. Douglas and Jared A. Loggins about their recently-released book Prophet of Discontent: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Critique of Racial Capitalism, which argues King was a socialist who thought “something is wrong with capitalism." “It is so shameful that an avowed socialist like King has been contorted by the cruelest forces one can imagine,” Loggins told Darrington. “The backdrop of King’s dream was a nightmare that needed to be ended by a mass coalition.”
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