13 ms·

The Unnerving Existence of Teen Boss

153 points by Doches 9y ago

EtDybNuvCu 9y ago
I've apparently read my last complimentary article for the month. Slate also has an article about this, so if it's a hoax, it's a very convincing hoax: https://slate.com/technology/2018/02/a-close-reading-of-teen-boss-a-magazine-for-gen-z-entrepreneurs-and-a-horrifying-artifact-of-our-times.html https://slate.com/technology/2018/02/a-close-reading-of-teen...
- pietroglyph 9y ago
  It's easy for multiple media sources to get duped, but this seems almost too unbelievable to be a hoax.
  - dictum 9y ago
    The world of niche publications is quite wild. I once saw a magazine dedicated to a single hairstyle. (It was already at its 3rd edition and I later learned of new editions)
yelloweyes 9y ago
how much of a sociopath do you have to be to be a part of this magazine
- OrganicMSG 9y ago
  1.7 Patrick Batemans, with the interview to be decided on whoever found the most creative way of displaying their extra 0.7 of a Bateman.
ravenstine 9y ago
Assuming it's not a hoax, is this really any worse than existing girl magazines? When I was a teen, I got peeks at my sister's magazines and they were primarily about makeup and boys(to graduate you to magazines with misguided sex "secrets"). At least Girl Boss teaches you to make money, supposedly. Would we feel differently if it was called "Boy Bo$$"?
- creaghpatr 9y ago
  >to graduate you to magazines with misguided sex "secrets" Who's graduating? https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/teen-vogue-s-guide-anal-sex-spawns-backlash-n784411 https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/teen-vogue-s-guide-a...
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- adamsea 9y ago
  I think they called that "The Apprentice" ;)
- ryandrake 9y ago
  > Would we feel differently if it was called "Boy Bo$$"? Good point! If this were geared towards boys and had articles like “How to turn your Minecraft playing into $$$ by streaming” and “Getting started in sales: baseball cards edition” would there even be a discussion? Would the New Yorker be so indignant?
busterarm 9y ago
Gro$$
kristianc 9y ago
What really is unnerving about this? Ambition, craving financial success, and gasp-horror 'entrepreneurship' may be beneath the kind of people who end up writing staff columns for the New Yorker, but there's nothing inherently wrong with it. Dare I say it, “I have to remind myself that I can’t overdo it, so I’ll do my posts, and then turn off my phone for the night and just be isolated.” might be good advice for the author, who from her Twitter seems to be a fully paid-up member of 'lol trying to adult' Twitter.
- SaltyMaia 9y ago
  Came to the comments because I thought it was funny finding this on hackernews, where much of the community subscribes to this nonsense ideology. Not surprised to see this comment on top
  - dictum 9y ago
    There's no shortage of nonsense ideologies for teenagers to choose.
    - SaltyMaia 9y ago
      That's definitely true, and I think this may be one of the least bad. But when it becomes that the actual "perceived leaders" of the world subscribe to it, the ideology is no longer silly on the macro scale and we all end up trying to scam each other for money in ways that arent _inherently_ wrong, just _practically_ destroying the world.
- smacktoward 9y ago
  It's unnerving because: 1) It reinforces the idea that for young women, the only way to achieve business success is to be performatively "girly" -- being unceasingly cheerful and social, presenting a breathless aw-shucks ("so amazing!") demeanor, working on things like fashion lines and skin care products or on image-first careers like "Instagram influencer." Society accepts that ambitious young men will present to the world in lots of different ways, but when it comes to ambitious young women we try to hammer them all into the same shape. 2) It puts pressure on its readers, who are in an age bracket we generally associate with childhood, to trade the traditional privileges of childhood -- shielding from the pitiless demands of the market, space to experiment with different facets of their personality, time to dedicate to education and self-development -- for the precarious, rat-race lifestyle that adults live every day. Kids who are saying "there is no such thing as a regular 9 to 5. We work 24/7!" are kids who have internalized the idea that work is all there is, that their lives don't have room for anything else. That would be a sad thing for a fully grown adult to believe, much less a thirteen-year-old.
jknoepfler 9y ago
I honestly don't see what's wrong or surprising about this. I personally find the content nauseous, but if a hypothetical thirteen year old daughter were curious about it I'd be happy to read through an issue and talk about it. It sounds like a good conversation starter for the different axes of human ambition and human value. Teaching from the extremes isn't my favorite idea, but so be it. I force myself to listen to crazy angry conservative and christian radio on and off for the same reason. If we can't embrace aspects of human personality that we find loathesome, I don't think we can love others, or ourselves. Interestingly I feel like this article comes from a similar place as anger radio (which is, ironically, overwhelmingly money-motivated and exploitative). I guess what I'm trying to say is that I don't see the value in otherizing media like this. It exists, it's part of our culture, and in one way or another, it's a part of us. Embrace it, engage with it, teach from it, but don't revile it.
- 9889095r3jh 9y ago
  I had a different reaction. It felt very wrong. I don't like how our culture worships money. It's bad enough that more college students see 'being very well off financially' as a more important goal than helping others (compared to other generations) [1]. If children are getting these messages at an even younger age, that's disturbing. After all, children are more impressionable. I want the next generation of children to know there are more important things than money. I believe children will be happier their whole lives if they're raised with those values. [1]https://www.thestreet.com/story/12791561/1/millennials-just-want-be-rich-study-finds.html https://www.thestreet.com/story/12791561/1/millennials-just-... Saying "It exists, it's a part of our culture" is such a defeatist response. Culture is formed by all of us. You don't have to just let it happen. You can push back, and work to change culture for the better. That's why I like your last bit - we can engage with it and teach from it. I'd expand that to include: we can disapprove of it.
  - gowld 9y ago
    When college was a finishing school for the elites, students had different goals from today when college is he entrypoint to the dog-eat-dog commercial world. Not surprising, and not an endorsement of the baby boomer culture that sold out the next generation for their own profit. Those money-grubbing millenials are paying the Social Security entitlements to Baby Boomers
michaelbuckbee 9y ago
HN folks without kids of a certain age may not realize just how deeply children today are into Youtube personalities/channels, Twitch streamers, etc. That being said, I think it's generally a positive thing. Teen Boss isn't replacing kids reading the WSJ, it's replacing tweens swooning over boy band photos in Tiger Beat. YT/Streaming isn't without its weirdness, but it's significantly more participatory and encouraging of people creating and making things as an alternative to purely consuming media. I'd rather my daughter want to make YouTube videos and open an Etsy shop with her designs than mindlessly watch Hannah Montana (which I feel like is the equivalent from a decade ago). As a peek into this world, check out Rosanna Pansino (Nerdy Nummies YT channel) and how successful she is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6i2cebTn0nc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6i2cebTn0nc There are worse role models for kids.
- cat199 9y ago
  > There are worse role models for kids. until you see the instagram/snap feeds of these 'kids' once they become 18+.. the unnerving thing about this isn't what's on the surface - it's the preemptive/subliminal training towards 'monetizing their image' which is basically training to become defacto prostitutes in adulthood..
  - mikeash 9y ago
    As opposed to us 80s kids, who were just taught to monetize our time and health.
  - ryanmarsh 9y ago
    I’m so happy my middle daughter idolizes an artist who streams herself drawing and gaming as opposed to Selena Gomez who her elder sister compared herself too. Children have more choices for idols today and that’s good. Many children are thinking entrepreneurially and I’m happy they have role models. I don’t care if the magazine looks like Tiger Beat. I’m a small business owner and I want my kids to grow up understanding the hustle mindset as opposed to the employee mindset.
- spaceflunky 9y ago
MechEStudent 9y ago
Teens have been a monetized commodity since the birth of MTV. This isn't a surprise. After 40 years, this qualifies as a 'murican cultural value.
- wavefunction 9y ago
  Earlier than that, if you count efforts like American Bandstand and other examples: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Bandstand https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Bandstand
matte_black 9y ago
The way some people see this magazine is the way I see some of the "adult" Entrepreneur/Startup Lifestyle stuff that's out there.
taw55 9y ago
Good to see astroturfing alive and well in the comment section. This place is heading for disaster.
- sctb 9y ago
  If you feel as though HN users are actually Teen Boss shills biding their time with insightful commentary about microarchitecture and Norwegian food ferry culture until just this ripe moment, please email us instead of posting, like the guidelines ask. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
excitom 9y ago
Entertaining article. My favorite line: Describing the cover model's smile as a "rictus of high-octane enthusiasm".
SkyMarshal 9y ago
"Reading the magazine feels like watching a wall of YouTube videos inside a Claire’s jewelry store while a tween-age life-style coach screams at you to double your net worth." Lol. "Money is to Teen Boss what sex is to Cosmopolitan—the essential, irreplaceable, attention-getting hook. (On the cover of each edition, the dollar signs in “Teen Bo$$!” occupy the same prime real estate, in the upper-left corner, that the word “sex” does on most Cosmo covers.)" Well encouraging young women to make money and work for financial independence is better than encouraging them to become sex objects, as many other mags targeting them do.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
DanHulton 9y ago
I remember being around that age and being obsessed with entrepreneurship. It was in the short stories I read, it was discussed in class, I even joined a Young Entrepreneurs after-school club, where students -- aided by local businesspeople -- would create a company, decide on products, then produce and sell them. And while I'm a guy, I remember that club being balanced roughly 50-50, boys and girls, and in point of fact, most of the leadership positions (we elected Presidents and VPs, in mock-corporate fashion) were girls. I think all that's changed is the focus of how and where money is earned, and maybe not all that much? The article mentions that some of the ideas recommended are "snow shoveling" and "setting up a laser tag course", which aren't the wild, forced-estrogen-display, YouTube-infested hellscape that some other commenters seem to be upset about.
- cabaalis 9y ago
  I remember telling my elementary school class when we were discussing what we wanted to be when we grew up that I wanted to be like Roberta Williams. Which was strange from their vantage point because I was a boy, and because nobody had a clue who she was. But my statement was driven entirely by my desire to make and sell video games.
TangoTrotFox 9y ago
I think this magazine is quite bizarre, but on the other hand I think entrepreneurship starts young. My first 'business' was selling coke at my school. The coke machine cost $0.50 and I saw at Sam's Club you could get some massive box dozens of offbrand cola for ~$10. Keep them in a cooler, sell them at breaks for $0.25 - that was a ton of money for a middle school kid. Always wondered why more people don't take advantage of little market openings like this. Maybe a silly magazine can inspire people to think outside the box a bit more.
kraig911 9y ago
I think many in this forum are at it to make money. So I sincerely doubt they'd have a problem with it. To me it's an emblem or icon if you will of what's going on in today's world. Value purely is existentially equated to money. To me that's bad. However is it as bad as everything else? No. Is it better than most everything else. Yes very much yes. Sucks to say because it makes me see the ugly realization of the actual capitalistic world we live in.
overthemoon 9y ago
"One of the most troubling features of life under twenty-first-century American capitalism, I find, is the way that it can limit your sense of human potential; in the process of choosing from among overpriced health-insurance packages, I sometimes forget that it is possible for a government to refuse to allow its citizens to go bankrupt while they’re attempting to stay alive. One issue of Teen Boss features a quiz called “Which CELEB-PRENEUR Are You Most Like?” The options are life-style blogger, creator of a name-brand fashion line, owner of a YouTube channel, and founder of a personal-makeup brand. Another quiz helps girls figure out their “life motto,” letting them choose from “Be Your Own Biggest Cheerleader,” “Nothing Is Impossible,” and “Always Do What You’re Afraid to Do.”" I really like Jia Tolentino's writing. The magazine sucks because it valorizes materialism. There's not much more to it than that. Greed is repackaged as positivity and girl power, but it's still a void. The passage I quoted is right--our idea of success is slowly narrowing to this kind of 21st century internet-mediated entrepreneurship. We should dream bigger than kids screaming about video games on youtube. It reminds me of the often repeated phrase used to respond to people criticizing a popular kids' book: "Well, at least they're reading." The version that would defend this kind of content says "at least they're making something!" The act of creation by itself isn't noble, neither is the act of reading alone. "Would you rather they just watch TV??" No. It's a false choice. Aim higher.
- flipthatthough 9y ago
  the idea that citizens belong to the government is the most unamerican formulation of the actual relationship i can imagine. i’m a little grossed out having read that
- dpweb 9y ago
  The western world is in crisis psychologically. This kind of thing didn’t cause it, but it ain’t helping. But materialism is valorized by CNBC and startup bro culture as well. The sad thing about this kind of capitalism though is in money via brand building (id argue) no real value is created. It’s just a knife fight for eyeballs.
  - pitt1980 9y ago
s_m 9y ago
We live in a brutal economic climate. Who can blame these kids for setting their sights on fame and fortune?
rllin 9y ago
It's increasingly looking like the biggest shift in our lifetimes is not sudden mass automation of the labor industry but the shift from a service industry to a content creation industry. If you're not a content creator/owner, you're a content consumer. Content is the new rent seeking.
JDiculous 9y ago
Well if this isn't late stage capitalism, then I don't know what is. In a couple hundred years, I could see this magazine cover being hung up on display in a "museum of capitalism". As other commenters have pointed out, it's certainly better than celebrity gossip, and probably not any worse than the other crap they would be exposed to. Entrepreneurship is a fantastic thing to promote, and being a social media star is certainly more fun and lucrative than being a 9-5 office drone with health insurance. But there's something insidious about priming teenagers into this materialistic mindset, that the way to "make it" is to gain a large social media following competing in a shallow clickbait-ridden space, where only the top 1% or so can ever make it anyways (not everybody can be a social media star, just like not everybody can make a living as a musician. Our attention span is limited). I don't have a problem with this magazine. This magazine is simply a sad reflection of our hypercapitalist reality.
- rayiner 9y ago
  Strongly disagree. It’s a reflection of our hypercompetitive society. It’s not shallow; it’s realistic. Look around: everyone is embracing consumerist capitalism (China, India, etc.) The societies that appear to have some reservations about it (Western Europe) are irrelevant—they won’t exist in their modern form a century from now.
  - whatshisface 9y ago
    Consumerism doesn't make you any more effective as a nation, in fact it makes you quite a bit less efficient. Driving in circles with cars you can't afford wastes money and resources (and all of the manpower that went in to you being able to do that) just as fast as it wastes your soul. A culture designed to maximize productivity and minimize inefficiencies would probably look a lot like Soviet-era state sponsored art: valorizing labor and industry.
    - rayiner 9y ago
      Except Russia is collapsing faster than anywhere else.
wyclif 9y ago
My 7 year-old boy already wants to start his own business, and routinely runs his ideas by me. He's also a Minecraft fan, and his favourite YouTube channel is PopularMMOs. When he started watching it a lot and referring to "Pat & Jen", I decided to find out what that is all about. I was surprised to discover after a little googling that they're a married couple who pull down $11m/yr from YT. And yes, as a parent I am unnerved by this article. While I don't want to discourage his budding entrepreneurship and do want to encourage his initiative, I want him to apply it in a way that is realistic for a kid his age, and I also want to protect him from the inanity (and worse) of stuff like TeenBoss and various get-rich-quick schemes and snake oil sales. I want him to learn the value of hard work, practise, being punctual, and skills that will help him excel in whatever it is he decides to do as an adult. At this point, that means studying, doing well academically, and possibly starting a cottage business his parents can help him with (fortunately, he's a First Honors student).
speedplane 9y ago
Families used to teach children the value of a dollar by getting them to setup a lemonade stand or mowing a neighbor's lawn. Now they can command far higher pay by managing that neighbor's social media account. Go get em.

153 points by Doches 9y ago

I've apparently read my last complimentary article for the month. Slate also has an article about this, so if it's a hoax, it's a very convincing hoax: https://slate.com/technology/2018/02/a-close-reading-of-teen-boss-a-magazine-for-gen-z-entrepreneurs-and-a-horrifying-artifact-of-our-times.html https://slate.com/technology/2018/02/a-close-reading-of-teen...

pietroglyph 9y ago
It's easy for multiple media sources to get duped, but this seems almost too unbelievable to be a hoax.
- dictum 9y ago
  The world of niche publications is quite wild. I once saw a magazine dedicated to a single hairstyle. (It was already at its 3rd edition and I later learned of new editions)

yelloweyes 9y ago

how much of a sociopath do you have to be to be a part of this magazine

OrganicMSG 9y ago
1.7 Patrick Batemans, with the interview to be decided on whoever found the most creative way of displaying their extra 0.7 of a Bateman.

ravenstine 9y ago

Assuming it's not a hoax, is this really any worse than existing girl magazines? When I was a teen, I got peeks at my sister's magazines and they were primarily about makeup and boys(to graduate you to magazines with misguided sex "secrets"). At least Girl Boss teaches you to make money, supposedly. Would we feel differently if it was called "Boy Bo$$"?

creaghpatr 9y ago
>to graduate you to magazines with misguided sex "secrets" Who's graduating? https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/teen-vogue-s-guide-anal-sex-spawns-backlash-n784411 https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/teen-vogue-s-guide-a...
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
adamsea 9y ago
I think they called that "The Apprentice" ;)
ryandrake 9y ago
> Would we feel differently if it was called "Boy Bo$$"? Good point! If this were geared towards boys and had articles like “How to turn your Minecraft playing into $$$ by streaming” and “Getting started in sales: baseball cards edition” would there even be a discussion? Would the New Yorker be so indignant?

busterarm 9y ago

Gro$$

kristianc 9y ago

What really is unnerving about this? Ambition, craving financial success, and gasp-horror 'entrepreneurship' may be beneath the kind of people who end up writing staff columns for the New Yorker, but there's nothing inherently wrong with it. Dare I say it, “I have to remind myself that I can’t overdo it, so I’ll do my posts, and then turn off my phone for the night and just be isolated.” might be good advice for the author, who from her Twitter seems to be a fully paid-up member of 'lol trying to adult' Twitter.

SaltyMaia 9y ago
Came to the comments because I thought it was funny finding this on hackernews, where much of the community subscribes to this nonsense ideology. Not surprised to see this comment on top
- dictum 9y ago
  There's no shortage of nonsense ideologies for teenagers to choose.
  - SaltyMaia 9y ago
    That's definitely true, and I think this may be one of the least bad. But when it becomes that the actual "perceived leaders" of the world subscribe to it, the ideology is no longer silly on the macro scale and we all end up trying to scam each other for money in ways that arent _inherently_ wrong, just _practically_ destroying the world.
smacktoward 9y ago
It's unnerving because: 1) It reinforces the idea that for young women, the only way to achieve business success is to be performatively "girly" -- being unceasingly cheerful and social, presenting a breathless aw-shucks ("so amazing!") demeanor, working on things like fashion lines and skin care products or on image-first careers like "Instagram influencer." Society accepts that ambitious young men will present to the world in lots of different ways, but when it comes to ambitious young women we try to hammer them all into the same shape. 2) It puts pressure on its readers, who are in an age bracket we generally associate with childhood, to trade the traditional privileges of childhood -- shielding from the pitiless demands of the market, space to experiment with different facets of their personality, time to dedicate to education and self-development -- for the precarious, rat-race lifestyle that adults live every day. Kids who are saying "there is no such thing as a regular 9 to 5. We work 24/7!" are kids who have internalized the idea that work is all there is, that their lives don't have room for anything else. That would be a sad thing for a fully grown adult to believe, much less a thirteen-year-old.

jknoepfler 9y ago

I honestly don't see what's wrong or surprising about this. I personally find the content nauseous, but if a hypothetical thirteen year old daughter were curious about it I'd be happy to read through an issue and talk about it. It sounds like a good conversation starter for the different axes of human ambition and human value. Teaching from the extremes isn't my favorite idea, but so be it. I force myself to listen to crazy angry conservative and christian radio on and off for the same reason. If we can't embrace aspects of human personality that we find loathesome, I don't think we can love others, or ourselves. Interestingly I feel like this article comes from a similar place as anger radio (which is, ironically, overwhelmingly money-motivated and exploitative). I guess what I'm trying to say is that I don't see the value in otherizing media like this. It exists, it's part of our culture, and in one way or another, it's a part of us. Embrace it, engage with it, teach from it, but don't revile it.

9889095r3jh 9y ago
I had a different reaction. It felt very wrong. I don't like how our culture worships money. It's bad enough that more college students see 'being very well off financially' as a more important goal than helping others (compared to other generations) [1]. If children are getting these messages at an even younger age, that's disturbing. After all, children are more impressionable. I want the next generation of children to know there are more important things than money. I believe children will be happier their whole lives if they're raised with those values. [1]https://www.thestreet.com/story/12791561/1/millennials-just-want-be-rich-study-finds.html https://www.thestreet.com/story/12791561/1/millennials-just-... Saying "It exists, it's a part of our culture" is such a defeatist response. Culture is formed by all of us. You don't have to just let it happen. You can push back, and work to change culture for the better. That's why I like your last bit - we can engage with it and teach from it. I'd expand that to include: we can disapprove of it.
- gowld 9y ago
  When college was a finishing school for the elites, students had different goals from today when college is he entrypoint to the dog-eat-dog commercial world. Not surprising, and not an endorsement of the baby boomer culture that sold out the next generation for their own profit. Those money-grubbing millenials are paying the Social Security entitlements to Baby Boomers

michaelbuckbee 9y ago

HN folks without kids of a certain age may not realize just how deeply children today are into Youtube personalities/channels, Twitch streamers, etc. That being said, I think it's generally a positive thing. Teen Boss isn't replacing kids reading the WSJ, it's replacing tweens swooning over boy band photos in Tiger Beat. YT/Streaming isn't without its weirdness, but it's significantly more participatory and encouraging of people creating and making things as an alternative to purely consuming media. I'd rather my daughter want to make YouTube videos and open an Etsy shop with her designs than mindlessly watch Hannah Montana (which I feel like is the equivalent from a decade ago). As a peek into this world, check out Rosanna Pansino (Nerdy Nummies YT channel) and how successful she is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6i2cebTn0nc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6i2cebTn0nc There are worse role models for kids.

cat199 9y ago
> There are worse role models for kids. until you see the instagram/snap feeds of these 'kids' once they become 18+.. the unnerving thing about this isn't what's on the surface - it's the preemptive/subliminal training towards 'monetizing their image' which is basically training to become defacto prostitutes in adulthood..
- mikeash 9y ago
  As opposed to us 80s kids, who were just taught to monetize our time and health.
- ryanmarsh 9y ago
  I’m so happy my middle daughter idolizes an artist who streams herself drawing and gaming as opposed to Selena Gomez who her elder sister compared herself too. Children have more choices for idols today and that’s good. Many children are thinking entrepreneurially and I’m happy they have role models. I don’t care if the magazine looks like Tiger Beat. I’m a small business owner and I want my kids to grow up understanding the hustle mindset as opposed to the employee mindset.
spaceflunky 9y ago

MechEStudent 9y ago

Teens have been a monetized commodity since the birth of MTV. This isn't a surprise. After 40 years, this qualifies as a 'murican cultural value.

wavefunction 9y ago
Earlier than that, if you count efforts like American Bandstand and other examples: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Bandstand https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Bandstand

matte_black 9y ago

The way some people see this magazine is the way I see some of the "adult" Entrepreneur/Startup Lifestyle stuff that's out there.

taw55 9y ago

Good to see astroturfing alive and well in the comment section. This place is heading for disaster.

sctb 9y ago
If you feel as though HN users are actually Teen Boss shills biding their time with insightful commentary about microarchitecture and Norwegian food ferry culture until just this ripe moment, please email us instead of posting, like the guidelines ask. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

excitom 9y ago

Entertaining article. My favorite line: Describing the cover model's smile as a "rictus of high-octane enthusiasm".

SkyMarshal 9y ago

"Reading the magazine feels like watching a wall of YouTube videos inside a Claire’s jewelry store while a tween-age life-style coach screams at you to double your net worth." Lol. "Money is to Teen Boss what sex is to Cosmopolitan—the essential, irreplaceable, attention-getting hook. (On the cover of each edition, the dollar signs in “Teen Bo$$!” occupy the same prime real estate, in the upper-left corner, that the word “sex” does on most Cosmo covers.)" Well encouraging young women to make money and work for financial independence is better than encouraging them to become sex objects, as many other mags targeting them do.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

DanHulton 9y ago

I remember being around that age and being obsessed with entrepreneurship. It was in the short stories I read, it was discussed in class, I even joined a Young Entrepreneurs after-school club, where students -- aided by local businesspeople -- would create a company, decide on products, then produce and sell them. And while I'm a guy, I remember that club being balanced roughly 50-50, boys and girls, and in point of fact, most of the leadership positions (we elected Presidents and VPs, in mock-corporate fashion) were girls. I think all that's changed is the focus of how and where money is earned, and maybe not all that much? The article mentions that some of the ideas recommended are "snow shoveling" and "setting up a laser tag course", which aren't the wild, forced-estrogen-display, YouTube-infested hellscape that some other commenters seem to be upset about.

cabaalis 9y ago
I remember telling my elementary school class when we were discussing what we wanted to be when we grew up that I wanted to be like Roberta Williams. Which was strange from their vantage point because I was a boy, and because nobody had a clue who she was. But my statement was driven entirely by my desire to make and sell video games.

TangoTrotFox 9y ago

I think this magazine is quite bizarre, but on the other hand I think entrepreneurship starts young. My first 'business' was selling coke at my school. The coke machine cost $0.50 and I saw at Sam's Club you could get some massive box dozens of offbrand cola for ~$10. Keep them in a cooler, sell them at breaks for $0.25 - that was a ton of money for a middle school kid. Always wondered why more people don't take advantage of little market openings like this. Maybe a silly magazine can inspire people to think outside the box a bit more.

kraig911 9y ago

I think many in this forum are at it to make money. So I sincerely doubt they'd have a problem with it. To me it's an emblem or icon if you will of what's going on in today's world. Value purely is existentially equated to money. To me that's bad. However is it as bad as everything else? No. Is it better than most everything else. Yes very much yes. Sucks to say because it makes me see the ugly realization of the actual capitalistic world we live in.

overthemoon 9y ago

"One of the most troubling features of life under twenty-first-century American capitalism, I find, is the way that it can limit your sense of human potential; in the process of choosing from among overpriced health-insurance packages, I sometimes forget that it is possible for a government to refuse to allow its citizens to go bankrupt while they’re attempting to stay alive. One issue of Teen Boss features a quiz called “Which CELEB-PRENEUR Are You Most Like?” The options are life-style blogger, creator of a name-brand fashion line, owner of a YouTube channel, and founder of a personal-makeup brand. Another quiz helps girls figure out their “life motto,” letting them choose from “Be Your Own Biggest Cheerleader,” “Nothing Is Impossible,” and “Always Do What You’re Afraid to Do.”" I really like Jia Tolentino's writing. The magazine sucks because it valorizes materialism. There's not much more to it than that. Greed is repackaged as positivity and girl power, but it's still a void. The passage I quoted is right--our idea of success is slowly narrowing to this kind of 21st century internet-mediated entrepreneurship. We should dream bigger than kids screaming about video games on youtube. It reminds me of the often repeated phrase used to respond to people criticizing a popular kids' book: "Well, at least they're reading." The version that would defend this kind of content says "at least they're making something!" The act of creation by itself isn't noble, neither is the act of reading alone. "Would you rather they just watch TV??" No. It's a false choice. Aim higher.

flipthatthough 9y ago
the idea that citizens belong to the government is the most unamerican formulation of the actual relationship i can imagine. i’m a little grossed out having read that
dpweb 9y ago
The western world is in crisis psychologically. This kind of thing didn’t cause it, but it ain’t helping. But materialism is valorized by CNBC and startup bro culture as well. The sad thing about this kind of capitalism though is in money via brand building (id argue) no real value is created. It’s just a knife fight for eyeballs.
- pitt1980 9y ago

s_m 9y ago

We live in a brutal economic climate. Who can blame these kids for setting their sights on fame and fortune?

rllin 9y ago

It's increasingly looking like the biggest shift in our lifetimes is not sudden mass automation of the labor industry but the shift from a service industry to a content creation industry. If you're not a content creator/owner, you're a content consumer. Content is the new rent seeking.

JDiculous 9y ago

Well if this isn't late stage capitalism, then I don't know what is. In a couple hundred years, I could see this magazine cover being hung up on display in a "museum of capitalism". As other commenters have pointed out, it's certainly better than celebrity gossip, and probably not any worse than the other crap they would be exposed to. Entrepreneurship is a fantastic thing to promote, and being a social media star is certainly more fun and lucrative than being a 9-5 office drone with health insurance. But there's something insidious about priming teenagers into this materialistic mindset, that the way to "make it" is to gain a large social media following competing in a shallow clickbait-ridden space, where only the top 1% or so can ever make it anyways (not everybody can be a social media star, just like not everybody can make a living as a musician. Our attention span is limited). I don't have a problem with this magazine. This magazine is simply a sad reflection of our hypercapitalist reality.

rayiner 9y ago
Strongly disagree. It’s a reflection of our hypercompetitive society. It’s not shallow; it’s realistic. Look around: everyone is embracing consumerist capitalism (China, India, etc.) The societies that appear to have some reservations about it (Western Europe) are irrelevant—they won’t exist in their modern form a century from now.
- whatshisface 9y ago
  Consumerism doesn't make you any more effective as a nation, in fact it makes you quite a bit less efficient. Driving in circles with cars you can't afford wastes money and resources (and all of the manpower that went in to you being able to do that) just as fast as it wastes your soul. A culture designed to maximize productivity and minimize inefficiencies would probably look a lot like Soviet-era state sponsored art: valorizing labor and industry.
  - rayiner 9y ago
    Except Russia is collapsing faster than anywhere else.

wyclif 9y ago

My 7 year-old boy already wants to start his own business, and routinely runs his ideas by me. He's also a Minecraft fan, and his favourite YouTube channel is PopularMMOs. When he started watching it a lot and referring to "Pat & Jen", I decided to find out what that is all about. I was surprised to discover after a little googling that they're a married couple who pull down $11m/yr from YT. And yes, as a parent I am unnerved by this article. While I don't want to discourage his budding entrepreneurship and do want to encourage his initiative, I want him to apply it in a way that is realistic for a kid his age, and I also want to protect him from the inanity (and worse) of stuff like TeenBoss and various get-rich-quick schemes and snake oil sales. I want him to learn the value of hard work, practise, being punctual, and skills that will help him excel in whatever it is he decides to do as an adult. At this point, that means studying, doing well academically, and possibly starting a cottage business his parents can help him with (fortunately, he's a First Honors student).

speedplane 9y ago

Families used to teach children the value of a dollar by getting them to setup a lemonade stand or mowing a neighbor's lawn. Now they can command far higher pay by managing that neighbor's social media account. Go get em.