How To Pitch: Girls' Life

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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 says. "Instead, they were like, 'We'd like to invest in the magazine.'"

Bokram quickly proved the naysayers wrong, and the Baltimore-based tween mag will celebrate its 18th anniversary in August 2012. "We were then, and still are, the only magazine that really focuses on the younger end of the teen market," says Bokram. Now, Girls' Life finds that advertisers want to work with the mag since tweens "are an incredible economic force," Bokram says. What keeps tweens coming back for more? "Girls are always going to get their period, girls are always going to be freaked out by bras, girls are always going to think their parents are embarrassing, and girls are always going to be confused by guys," Bokram says. A print magazine format holds special appeal: "You take a quiz with your best friend, and that's more hands-on. Our readers want pictures of celebrities to make collages on their lockers. Some of that gets lost on the Web."

Since the magazine hits a younger teen market, it's much less sex-focused than its older newsstand sisters. While Bokram knows that not every 12-year-old is created equal -- some are sexually active, yet others are still awaiting their first kiss -- the magazine consciously skews more toward the second contingent. Girls' Life also isn't interested in college life. "When you're worried about being a freshman in high school, that just doesn't matter," Bokram says. "College is somewhere on your radar screen, but you need help with certain things right now -- that's really where we focus." The kind of story that's popular with the Girls' Life reader runs more to advice on coping with being kicked out of the lunch table, or how to deal with getting your period or finding the right bra. And of course, says Bokram, there's one surefire winner: "I don't care how old you are -- trying to figure out if a guy likes you or not: That just doesn't change whether you're 12, 22 or 32."...

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