Laura de Carufel tells Canada’s National Post that she and fellow Hardly founder Jennifer Lee miss the publications of their youth:
You closed the magazine feeling inspired instead of depressed and fat. So we realized how important those magazines had been to us – I still remember whole photo shoots from Sassy and I still have a poem memorized from Seventeen – and we decided that we wanted to use whatever experience and skills we had as magazine editors and writers to try and create something similar for the current generation of teens.
She adds, “We want Hardly to introduce teenagers to people that they might not hear about otherwise; we want to showcase people with real talent – like the musicians, artists, writers, designers who inspired us years ago.” It’s difficult to tell if Hardly will succeed at this, since its website is still under construction. It’s possible that the old model — of content being created by adults for teens — is being replaced by exceptionally savvy teens doing their own thing. Of course, teens have also been doing their own thing for a very long time. Onetime Seventeen contributor Sylvia Plath could attest to this, were she alive. Which is one reason why it’s kind of weird that the only musician, artist, writer or designer whose name appears on Hardly’s placeholder website is, of all people, Ted Hughes.
‘Hardly’ Magazine: Second Coming Of ‘Sassy’? [National Post]
Hardly [Official Site]
