girlworks the magazine for smart girls

There aren't too many magazines for teens, especially girls,  that I can honestly say I'm thrilled about. At the library where I work, we have J-14, Teen Vogue, Seventeen and twist. Many of the students read Cosmopolitan whose primary focus is on sex.
Recently we began receiving girlworks, a magazine for tween and young teen girls published out of Georgetown, Ontario. I can't say enough great things about this magazine. It is a high quality publication, colourful, with a great layout, and incredible, well written articles. girlworks bills itself as a magazine that covers "the serious, the fun, the hip, the bent - the real" - and it certainly does all that and more!

girlworks is published bi-monthly with each edition divided into ten sections. While there are the usual features on health & beauty, and fashion & style, there are also unique sections such as "girls in the world" which profile girls with special talents or who are famous and careergirl which focuses on a specific career.
For example, the Mar-Apr 2011 edition provides information on the career of optometry which is the specialty concerned with providing primary vision care. This is a career option that many young women might not necessarily consider. Each careergirl section contains an interview with a woman working in the specific career featured.

One of my favourite sections is FANART  where readers can submit pictures they have created for publication. It is this aspect of girlworks that really appeals to me because readers get to generate some of the magazine's content, including poetry and book reviews.

The technogirl section deals with technology issues that might be impacting young women today. Recent editions of the magazine featured  articles on the recent craze of hauling, back to school computing and technology and fashion.

There's really something for everyone is this magazine. The health and beauty tips are informative and the fashion finds which are generally reasonably priced and trendy are presented in a simple attractive way in the fashion and style section.

One final bonus: almost no ads.
I still feel I just haven't done this magazine justice!
If you'd like a subscription check out girlworks.ca