Kid tested, feminist approved? ;-)

Aside from the somewhat specious assumption by the site's web designers that it takes bright primary colors and embedded videos to hold an intelligent child's attention, this site seems to have high potential.

While not a fan of pay sites myself, I'm seriously considering signing up for my 13-year-old daughter. An advert-free rag that features real girls with real problems is a nice change of pace from the magazines targeting tweens found in the grocery checkout line, filled with role models like Hannah Montana and shampoo ads.

I'm still paging through the sample issue, but I like it so far. I like that they encourage kids to publish material, though I haven't found any hint at what the compensation may be (I mean, really -- in this golden age of Intellectual Property, why not reward these young people for their efforts?). Some of the articles and letters seem suspiciously articulate for the ages of their submitters (maybe people who submit to such publications are self-selecting from a pool of people with exceptionally literate backgrounds?), but the content itself seems spot-on with issues my daughter might experience.

Overall, not a bad find.

I used to get New Moon, and it was the first place where I was published also--the only place! I had a poem published and one of my letters in the "Dear Luna" section. I believe I was eight or nine. SO GREAT this is still around. I hope that, if I ever have my own daughters, I can still share it with them.

I used to get New Moon, too! I'm glad it still exists.

Thanks so much for this shout-out, Courtney! It was great to see you when you were speaking in Minneapolis a few weeks ago.

In response to Raven's questions:
Girl writers are paid for their pieces that are published in the magazine - that's been our policy from the very beginning.

The colors and everything else about the website were actually decided by girls (the Girls Editorial Board & Launch Board) and adults working together - that's our Share the Power creative process. We believe that girls can and should be fully involved in powerful decisionmaking in creating media (and doing lots of other things, too!).

The articles and letters are written by real girls and also edited by girls working with adults. Like you, we are often blown away by the maturity and clear thinking in the articles and letters we get from girls. That's one of the greatest joys of working at New Moon.

Hope you give it all a try and let us know what you think when you do - we listen to girls and parents, both.

And so glad to hear from others who have fond feelings for New Moon. There's a Facebook group for New Moon if you want to keep up on what's happening.

I think it's great, another site directed to giving young women and girls some positive direction. Also a sad reminder of how few groups for young boys and men there are. The counter to that is that boys have heavily funded sports programs where as girls don't get the same kind of funding or school support, but the size of influence is rather limited, 30 boys a team?