About Today’s Teen, and a Note From Our Founder

Today’s Teen Online is the voice of a generation. It’s a forum provided for all teens to communicate their thoughts and ideas, concerns and hopes across the globe.

Having the opportunity to enrich oneself through publishing an article or a column, a photograph, a piece of art, a short story or even a poem will have a lifelong impact. We will be providing teens with responses to questions they want to ask, were afraid to ask, or maybe didn’t even think to ask. Adolescence is a pivotal time in life and as we shape our views and ideas we react to the stimulus of information around us. Simply being asked to contribute our opinions gives us a stronger sense of self, encourages us to dig deeper into what interests us and directs our interests into the mindset of what we will be doing for the rest of our lives.

For more information contact ilana@todaysteenonline.com.

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Editor-in-Chief & President of About Time Media LLC

Ilana Jacqueline

President of About Time Media, Ilana Jacqueline, first began working for Today’s Teen in 2005 when it launched its first issue under the guidance of Gwen Cohan. She wrote everything from book reviews to feature articles during her years as a Today’s Teen writer. At age twenty she took over Today’s Teen to launch its new online format. She also operates the website www.materniteens.com which supplies necessary information to pregnant teens. She’s 20-years-old and lives in Boca Raton, Florida with her miniature poodle who just so happens to be the boss of everyone.

Twitter – Myspace – LinkedIn – Email

Awards:

Best Sandwich Maker In Household, Most Read Blogger on www.ilanawrites.com, Most Efficent Laundry Maid, Most Color-Coordinated Closet, Most Bottles of Gatorade Consumed in a 12-hour-period, Best Procrastinater When It Comes To Editing Her Novel, Forty-Two Time Winner of the I’ll Keep The Thermostat Where I Want It Award.

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A Note From Our Founder

Gwen Cohan

When I created the monthly newspaper, Today’s Teen, the voice of a generation in May of 2005, it was with the sole purpose of creating an environment for teens to have the opportunity to hone their creative talents and to have a place to publish their work, to learn about the responsibility of meeting deadlines and the importance of teamwork, to bolster their self-confidence and self-esteem, and, to build community ties by establishing relationships with teens in other schools and eventually around the world. I truly wanted teens to be able to let their voices be heard and to write about the subjects that were important to them, whether it was politics, religion, music, fashion, school – anything!

Long story short – the newspaper had an incredible run, and in four short years it grew from an idea on a kitchen table to a nationally recognized, award-winning publication with a readership of over 100,000 throughout Palm Beach County, Florida. Our online presence was growing as well, however, times change, and, unfortunately, the paper became one of the many victims of the failing economy. With much regret and a heavy heart, I had to close shop on Today’s Teen, and the last issue was published in January 2008.

As the weeks and months went by I settled into my new position as Director of Marketing and Public Relations at Florida Eye Microsurgical Institute (www.fleyedocs.com). And while I love my position, this practice and what I do here, I still missed my paper and seeing it online. Luckily for me, so did a lot of other people, and I was always getting emails and calls asking when it was coming back.

Enter Ilana Jacqueline, one of the founding teen board members of the paper and one of the best writers the paper ever had!! One day I cornered Ilana and asked her if she would consider taking over the responsibility of Today’s Teen – but instead of publishing an expensive newspaper – just focus on re-establishing and building todaysteenonline.com into one of the largest teen magazine sites in existence!! After thinking about it for about oh – a half a second – she screamed YES!!! And the rest, as they say, is history…

In such a short time Ilana has accomplished an incredible amount, and I know I have put Today’s Teen into the most capable hands around. I’m still here as a consultant and founder, if you will, and Today’s Teen will always be a part of me, but what you see online is the hard work of Ilana and her dedicated team of talented, like-minded teens – all with the same vision and goals as my own – to let the teen voice be seen and heard!!

I hope you’ll consider supporting their efforts just as many of you supported me in mine when I first started Today’s Teen.  These teens love having a place of their own to be heard, to see their work in print, to be published, to build their portfolios… Any help, as always, is appreciated.

And of course, in the meantime, if anyone needs a good ophthalmologist…

Write On!

Gwen

gwencohan.com

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