2023: Another year in the books with its own cursed series of events. Politicians targeting LGBTQ+ youth, a lack of clarity on student debt cancelation, racist double standards applied selectively — there was a lot to weigh in on, especially for Teen Vogue writers.
Here's our roundup of our most-read opinion pieces and essays of 2023. Thanks for trying to make sense of this mess of a year alongside us, and for being part of our community. Good thing next year can't be any worse, right? (Ha. Ha ha. Ha. Cry.)
1. Lake Lanier: The History of a Black Town, Enduring Racism, and Mysterious Deaths
Columnist Jameelah Nasheed explains the haunting story of Georgia's Lake Lanier, a state landmark where hundreds have died over the years, including multiple people this past summer. The man-made lake, located in a wealthy county, was built over a once-thriving Black community — that was eventually violently pushed out by rich white residents of the county. “Lake Lanier is a chilling reminder of anti-Black violence that is still claiming Black lives today,” wrote Nasheed.
2. Henry Kissinger Was a War Criminal Responsible for Millions of Deaths
Finally, rejoiced the internet: former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger died this year at 100. News & politics editor Lex McMenamin dug into why the internet (and even much of mainstream media) were prepared to dance on his grave: “Henry Kissinger was one of the US empire's proudest, most prolifically murderous foot soldiers,” from Vietnam to Latin America to Bangladesh and elsewhere.
3. LSU’s Angel Reese and Other Black Women Are Held to Unfair Standards in Public
Contributors and attorneys Olayemi Olurin and Leah Goodridge criticized how standards of “professionalism” unfairly target Black women, citing the treatment of public figures like Angela Bassett, Angel Reese, and Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. “While navigating anti-Blackness in the workplace, we’ve both been told — as many Black professionals have been — to ‘play the game,’" Olurin and Goodridge wrote. "But the game, which is rigged with limited boxes, stereotypes, and implicit biases beyond our control, is designed for us to lose.”
4. The Conservative Supreme Court’s Decisions Restrict Young Americans’ Rights and Freedoms
2023 was a big year for undermining the legitimacy of the Supreme Court (thanks, ProPublica!), in part due to their decision to undermine affirmative action. This June opinion essay explores how from education access to LBGTQ+ rights, to clean air and water protections, to the democratic process itself, the conservative Supreme Court plans to keep targeting our rights — and argues that, without expanding the court, we're going to see more of it.
“The current Republican Court majority is deserving of a great many pejoratives. Stupid is not one of them. They see where America is headed and they don’t like it," wrote Tristin Brown and Chelsey Davidson. "The rulings they are issuing now will lock in their own unpopular, regressive agenda for all who follow — for decades to come.”
5. Student Loan Forgiveness and Payment Pause: What’s Happening and What Will Biden Do?
The Debt Collective's Frederick Bell Jr. wrote for Teen Vogue in June about Biden's remaining options on student debt. Though institutions like the conservative-run Supreme Court are standing in its way, groups like the Debt Collective and other advocates argue that full cancelation is already within Biden's abilities. In short: “Biden has options and inaction cannot be one of them.”
6. Teens Are Being Sent to Louisiana's Angola Prison and Held on Its Former Death Row
Yasmin Cader. a Deputy Legal Director at the ACLU and the Director of the Trone Center for Justice and Equality, described for Teen Vogue the conditions for children taken to the notorious Louisiana State Penitentiary, known as Angola. The ACLU represents multiple children transferred to Angola in a lawsuit against the state of Louisiana. “Angola prison is notorious for modern-day human rights abuses and it serves as a monument to this country’s legacy of slavery,” wrote Cader. “Placing children in prison settings is not only immoral, it is unconstitutional.”
7. Target Pride Boycott By Conservatives and the Problem With Rainbow Capitalism
This Pride Month op-ed criticized Target for catering to homophobic and transphobic harassment in removing its Pride merchandise, and the larger problem of “rainbow capitalism.” Bex Heimbrock defines the term: “Corporations stand to profit from the purchasing power of the pink dollar, so they release targeted campaigns and merchandise to signal their support of the queer community. The catch? They rarely put their money where their mouth is.” Rather than focusing our energy on “fixing” capitalist institutions, it's worth remembering that Pride commemorates a riot.
8. Archive of Our Own Survived a Cyberattack, But Will It Survive Congress?
Archive of Our Own, affectionately known by users as AO3, is a popular fanfiction site that was briefly harassed offline this July by cyberattackers “apparently prompted, in part, by hatred for queer people,” wrote Sarah Philips of Fight for the Future. In this op-ed, Philips compares the outage to the Kids Online Safety Act, or KOSA, which they call a “censorship bill in disguise” seeking to give conservatives control over what content is appropriate for young people online. “Simply put, queer and trans kids are happier and healthier when they have access to supportive online groups, like the fandom communities I found through fan fiction published on AO3,” wrote Philips, arguing that KOSA jeopardizes those safe online spaces.
9. Ron DeSantis: Florida Governor's 2024 Run Would Spread Anti-LGBTQ+ Policies to Rest of U.S.
Teen Vogue spent a lot of 2023 warning voters about Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and his plans for America if he somehow won the Republican primary (which looks less and less likely by the day). In January, Professor Robin Maril dug into what a “nationalized version of Florida” might look like, warning, “We are closer to a Floridian future than most Americans realize… Today’s DeSantis-style, anti-LGBTQ+ propaganda has been decades in the making.”
10. What Is AFRICOM? How the U.S. Military is Militarizing and Destabilizing Africa
As part of Teen Vogue's Africa's New Wave package, Samar Al-Bulushi covered AFRICOM, or the Africa Command, the US defense department's regional combatant command for Africa, established in 2007. “Whether it’s the seemingly endless (undeclared) war against the militant group Al-Shabaab in Somalia or the wave of coups (in many cases led by US-trained officers), AFRICOM has contributed to the very instability it claims to address,” wrote Al-Bulushi.
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