I Used to LOVE Teen Vogue For it's Black Voices

Earlier this month, former Teen Vogue editor Aiyana Ishmael shared something on LinkedIn that stopped me in my tracks. After the Teen Vogue website was merged into Vogue, there are now zero Black editors or writers on staff. None.

And honestly… it hit me. Because for so many of us who grew up loving magazines, Teen Vogue was one of the first places we saw young Black women shaping culture, telling our stories, and opening doors.

I remember studying those pages under editors like Elaine Welteroth, Lindsay Peoples Wagner, and Versha Sharma—women who transformed that brand into a platform for truth, identity, and representation. Writers like Aiyana and Kaitlyn McNab gave us stories about Black designers, colorism, self-expression… things that actually reflected our lives.

And now? With these latest dismissals, Teen Vogue doesn’t have a single Black voice in the room. Not one.

Meanwhile, places like EssenceGU, 21Ninety, PopSugar, and Refinery29 Unbothered are still fighting to uplift young Black creators—and thank God for them—but this moment is a reminder of how fragile progress really is.

Teen Vogue used to be loud about inclusion. Today, the silence is even louder.