 "Photo: Jaqueline Walker")
What started as a summer project has quickly become a full-time summer job for four Austin teenagers. Their magazine, Candid, will celebrate its first issue with a premiere party next month.
The magazine was started by four Westwood High School juniors: Lisa Gu, Amber Makhani, Helen Wang and Kae Wang. They wanted to create a magazine specifically for teenagers, written by teenagers. Candid features both educational and entertaining information relevant to college-bound Austin high school students, according to its Web site.
The girls' journey began with one simple question.
"Wouldn't it be cool to start a magazine?" Gu said as she, Makhani and Helen Wang sat in the Westwood library during newspaper class. The girls brainstormed ideas such as the magazine's name before they focused entirely on the project this summer.
The girls chose Candid as the name of the magazine because they wanted it to be fair, just and impartial. Naming their magazine was relatively easy compared to the other issues the girls encountered.
The girls knew from the beginning that "money is going to be a problem," Kae Wang said. "The artistic side of designing layouts and editing photographs is overshadowed by the fact that none of this is possible without financial security."
The first issue of Candid cost $5,000 to print 5,000 copies. The magazine is a full-color, 32-page publication printed by Capital Spectrum, Inc. Publishing. The editors paid for the magazine through donations from friends and family as well as selling advertisements in Candid to local businesses.
"These young ladies are amazing," said Aaron Cleaver, owner and president of Jollyville Java, LLC, a Candid advertiser. "They are probably better than most adults that present ads to me."
Candid magazine is giving the girls a real-world experience of everything it takes to produce a magazine.
"It is the sort of experience that will teach them all the elements of publication," said David Garlock, senior lecturer in the journalism department and advisor for UT's laboratory magazine, Orange.
Candid magazine is a semestral publication, producing issues in the fall and spring each year. The editors have hopes of expanding the staff well beyond its current four members.
"We are overstepping the high boundaries," Makhani said. "The magazine is for all Austin teenagers. We want anyone who is enthusiastic about the magazine."
The only requirement for future staffers is that they sell one ad. If they can't sell the ad, they can pay an amount equal to the smallest ad in the magazine to help with publication costs. Currently, the smallest ad Candid offers is a one-sixteenth page advertisement for $40.
Amarin Enyart, event coordinator for BookKids, is helping Candid magazine with its premiere party, which will be held at 7 p.m. on Aug. 12 at BookPeople.
"I am very excited for them," Enyart said. "A lot of people at that age can be bogged down and lazy as they prepare for college."
Most teens don't want to listen to adults, but by hearing people their own age tell them about preparing for college, maybe they will be willing to listen, Enyart said.
"We had no idea about self-covers, signatures, publishers, printing costs, advertising or anything besides layout, writing, editing before we started," Makhani said. "I am so proud of our accomplishment. It was such a journey. We had our ups and downs, but we still got it done."
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