A @kimkelly.bsky.social banger ICYMI

In 1963, an insurance company wanted to bring cheer to their company (because they were laying off a tenth of their staff in a merger to a larger company) so they commissioned an artist to create the smiley face. Essentially, it was a symbol of corporate humiliation and neoliberalism.

Men used to go to war, now they also bet on it. @evystadium.bsky.social speaks to the men making millions of dollars on Polymarket and Kalshi, and experts who say that the gamification of catastrophe and human suffering will make people even number to it.

The dark history of the smiley face? In 1963, Worcester Mutual Fire Insurance hired an artist to create it to bring cheer because they had just cut a tenth of their staff and relocated the rest a ritzier company. In effect, the smiley face became a plain old corporate humiliation ritual.

Reading Playboy for the articles is back

And our latest: A former Christian fundamentalist looks at the manosphere. "In both the manosphere and fundamentalist christianity, as much as women are vilified for having, let alone desiring consensual sexual intercourse, women are also expected to be willing vessels for their husbands 24/7."

Carnivore diets, Liver Kings, protein bars. What if our food didn't define our masculinity? “You see these carnivore influencers eating raw liver and sticks of butter on camera just for the shock value. It’s more of a weird identity thing than actual health at this point.”

For a story: I'm looking for parents whose kids have fell for a conspiracy theory. Did a YouTuber convince your kid the earth was flat? Were they skeptical about the Artemis mission? I want to talk about what that was like, and how you helped them through.

After being laid off from Teen Vogue in November, I've been thinking about the state of youth media. We need quality, reliable media tailored to teens to help them navigate the world. But how can a brand do that effectively in the algorithm age? Maybe the answer is to go analog. cuqui.club

Did you know that the same law that’s threatening abortion access across the country almost took down Playboy? Read about the Comstock Act, its history with the Playboy, and its sinister future here—then catch me in the print mag later this month. www.playboy.com/read/politic...

Friday marks a year since RFK Jr. was sworn in as HHS Secretary, blasting his Make America Healthy Again agenda from niche to national policy. How's his goal going? I got three doctors to grade his performance so far. Spoiler: he's far from a straight A student. www.playboy.com/read/lifesty...

On what would be the 53rd anniversary of Roe v. Wade, Playboy resurfaced reader letters from our archives about what life was like before legal abortion—a reality many Americans are reliving today. Intro to the letters by @jillfilipovic.bsky.social www.playboy.com/read/politic...

If you're a parent to a teenager, I need your help! I'm working with News Creator Corps on a survey about parents, teens, and misinformation. The goal is to create engaging resources that parents and teens can use, but to best do that, NCC needs your input: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Well I don't like that one bit

How do we live like this?

This story is wild, but it's also a great look at journalistic ethics & the decision making process around what we report & how. Trust in journalism is at a low, partly because many don't know what the journalistic process is. Here's a look behind that curtain www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Learned to be more like the smartest people you’ll ever meet (fact checkers!) for News Creator Corps newscreatorcorps.org/2025/12/late...

Social media has a misinformation problem that’s making teens (and everyone, really) unable to spot the truth. Here’s my latest about how some creators are working to fix that. newscreatorcorps.org/2025/11/crea...

Introducing Information Wasteland, a package about misinfo on the internet –– from AI iterations of digital blackface to a growing "alt-right pipeline" among wellness influencers –– edited by former features director @brittneymac15.bsky.social: www.teenvogue.com/information-...

I got a pitch today about how to talk about getting laid off, so it feels like a good time to say that I was laid off from Teen Vogue after almost nine years as they fold the magazine into Vogue. I did the work of a lifetime there and I’m so proud. As President Bartlet would say, “what’s next?”

I was laid off from Teen Vogue yesterday, along with 70% of my incredible team. @teenvogue.com Thank you to everyone who has reached out. I am so grateful. For nearly 4yrs as Culture Editor, I was dedicated to humanizing and empowering young people. We move.❤️‍🩹🚀 Cash App: $kmcnab Venmo: @/kaitmcnab

So many couples on Love Is Blind season 9 are looking for "traditional" marriages and gender roles. The show has officially entered its trad wife era www.teenvogue.com/story/love-i...

"Efforts to cure autism are built on the false idea that there is something inherently wrong with us." Read the full #OpEd asserting that RFK Jr.'s autism “cure” is less about Tylenol than it is "fixing" autistic people who do not want or need fixing. ⬇️

"When someone promises a cure for something that is not a disease, like autism, that cure becomes a weapon to pathologize the very thing it claims to remedy." Emma Cieslik on the danger and pain of RFK Jr.'s autism "cure." www.teenvogue.com/story/rfk-jr...

HAPPENING NOW: @tessholliday.bsky.social is our first #TeenVogueSummit keynote speaker in in conversation with @brittneymac15.bsky.social: "Do what you want to do, be what you want to be. Follow that voice in you.... Following my gut is ultimately how I got to where I am now." 👏

Have you seen a woman on TikTok claiming to know the "strict beauty rules" producers secretly enforce on Love Island? The secrets are pretty plainly fake, but spoiler alert: so is the woman. This AI scam is designed to sell wellness products. www.teenvogue.com/story/ai-lov...

Lil Nas X faces felony charges of "battery" against an officer from an arrest during a mental health crisis in late August. I wrote about my family member's experience with police being sent during mental health episodes—still common for wellness checks—and how it ruined their life. @teenvogue.com

Fellow bisexuals, let’s not do this www.teenvogue.com/story/betty-...

Piper Rockelle's childhood was the subject of a recent documentary, "Bad Influence: The Dark Side of Kidfluencing." She talked to Teen Vogue about turning 18 and it's a reflection of what a monetized childhood in front of cameras can do. www.teenvogue.com/story/piper-...

today a UN body announced famine is in Gaza. this oped from New Disabled South connects US funding of Israel's starvation campaign to Trump's BBB cutting SNAP as fundamentally American. "The U.S. allegedly has no money to feed its children or the world’s children, but has plenty of money for war."

📣 Happening next month: The 2025 Four Freedoms Awards will honor leaders advancing democracy, dignity, and justice. This year’s laureates embody FDR’s bold vision of freedom—from the power of journalism to the fight against hunger. Learn more: rooseveltinstitute.org/press-releas...

We are honored to receive the @rooseveltinstitute.org's 2025 Four Freedoms Award for Freedom of Speech and Expression, and to be among a stellar class of laureates including @wck.org, @cvt.org, and more. Details: tnvge.co/ZMIUg7v

In the process of editing a story about gender and was reminded of this story written by @tialevingswriter.bsky.social. Resharing her genius with you: www.teenvogue.com/story/how-tr...

If you're loving our politics coverage and want more (thank you!), sign up for our Teen Vogue Take newsletter and get the latest news right to your inbox ⤵️

I wish as many people wanted to actually click on Teen Vogue stories as like a post about our work being good and important, because this post is almost at 20k likes and that would be pretty good traffic!

"Constant surveillance doesn’t make us safer, but it does erode our ability to connect with people, especially after planting the seed that any of us could become the next viral moment." @leximcmenamin.com connects the Tea app controversy and surveillance culture. www.teenvogue.com/story/the-te...

Supplements are ubiquitous, and the marketing around them can be authoritative, chummy, and even confessional — personal promises that you can take control of your health. But there’s a catch: Manufacturers don’t have to prove that their pill, tincture, powder or tea is safe or effective. Read more:

Did you know that your vitamins and supplements aren't regulated by the FDA? They might not even contain what you think they do: www.teenvogue.com/story/supple...

A third of teens are using AI chatbots for social interaction, but "9% say it’s easier to talk to AI chat bots than other people." www.teenvogue.com/story/teens-...

Gen Z, experts, and estranged creators alike agree that going “no contact” does not mean “no community.” This is where they're finding it instead, and why they became estranged in the first place. “I felt like I had two options and it was to end my life or rip it up into a million pieces.”

“What we’re noticing in more dominant trends are these basic things we understand: Housing sucks, it’s hard to find, it’s not affordable, we can't live alone” Read more: www.teenvogue.com/story/intent...

For these young people, living in intentional community is a political choice. “The American dream is just dying. No one my age takes that seriously. We see the world around us crumbling and there's no certain future." So, they're building "radical alternatives" www.teenvogue.com/story/intent...

For the series, I spent a day at Sirius Community, an intentional community. I talked to three young people who live at Sirius about what it really means to be in community, and how they're bringing Gen Z cottagecore dreams to life through radical thinking www.teenvogue.com/story/intent...

When things get bad, community is more important than ever. Because of *everything* @teenvogue.com dedicated a whole series to the many ways young people are finding and building community — a little glimmer of hope in the dark. Check it out! www.teenvogue.com/group-project

SCOTUS ruled that anti-trans laws targeting youth are constitutional, so here's what trans teens & their parents need to know about accessing gender-affirming care after Skrmetti. Most important? "Nothing can erase who you are, who we are” @dallasducar.bsky.social www.teenvogue.com/story/skrmet...

In light of SCOTUS's ruling in Skrmetti, @brittneymac15.bsky.social asked doctors what trans youth and their families need to know about navigating this. @teenvogue.com experts advise continuing to talk to affirming healthcare providers if you have them and exploring options for care out-of-state.

I'm glad we're talking about this but the answer is simple. Journalism isn't about polling opinions on whether it's raining. It's about going outside and finding out for ourselves. We owe it to our audience to point out truth and lies, and offer context around both. www.cjr.org/analysis/jou...

"To truly beat SkinnyTok ... we'd need to grapple with the racism and anti-Blackness baked into anti-fatness, and how promoting thinness has ties to white supremacy. We'd need to radically change our thinking, our social structures, our collective stereotypes." www.teenvogue.com/story/tiktok...

"Until we reckon with our cultural obsession with thinness and our wholesale buy-in to diet culture, #SkinnyTok will simply shift and transform, taking on a new slender shape online." Read more from our Features Director @brittneymac15.bsky.social ⤵️

TikTok banned #Skinnytok, but it's going to take a lot more than that to save us from the multi-headed hydra that is diet culture. My take here: www.teenvogue.com/story/tiktok...