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How To Pitch: Girls' Life

Send pitches that take on the tribulations of teenagers

Circulation: 2.16 million
Frequency: Bimonthly
Special issues: None

Background: Editor-in-chief and publisher Karen Bokram founded Girls' Life magazine when she was just 25 years old. The 'tween' market had yet to be invented -- and obsessed over -- by the nation's advertisers. Bokram had been working at Seventeen, editing a column that had readers sharing their personal stories, and she'd noticed that many of the submissions came from girls younger than the reader Seventeen typically targeted. When she proposed creating a section in the magazine specifically for these younger teen readers, Bokram's editor-in-chief promptly rejected the idea, saying, "We make magazines for advertisers, not readers." So, Bokram went the startup route, using the insurance settlement from her stolen car as seed money for the magazine and finagling some money out of investors. When Bokram learned a company in Baltimore had dibs on the name Girls' Life, "I went to Baltimore with a check in my pocket, fully intending to buy these guys off," she said. "Instead, they were like, 'We'd like to invest in the magazine.'"

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