Young Divas Profiled on Fox 4 News
Phoenix
Family’s Young Divas staff was recently the subject of a news story
on Kansas City’s Fox 4 News. Fox 4's regular series, Reaching for Excellence,
spotlights young people in the Kansas City region who are role models for
other young adults in the Kansas City area. Calling the magazine a voice
for urban teens, the story focused on how the magazine and its staff were
making a difference in our community
Funded through a grant from The Women’s Foundation of Greater Kansas City, Young Divas magazine is the brainchild of four teens from Phoenix Family’s on-site community center at Stonegate Meadows, an east Kansas City low-income apartment community. During a discussion on race and popular magazines, they said they felt teen magazines did not address the concerns and interests of young, urban teen girls. "Now we have a magazine specifically for us," Editor Emily Wilkins said.
Currently, the magazine is produced quarterly. For each article, the teens are responsible for the researching, writing the articles, taking the photos, and doing the artwork and layout. Topics range from pop culture to more serious issues, such as domestic violence and sexually-transmitted diseases. Each issue is a reflection of what the teens and other young urban women are going through and their lives.
"There is a need for young minority women who are living in the inner city from a poverty area to have a voice," says Heather Gonzales of Phoenix Family Housing, "to show that there are young people in this community who can lead the news with their minds and lead the news with their thoughts and their insight of what they want to do to change their community."
Having produced two issues and hard at work on the third, Wilkins says the best thing about Young Divas is not just for one group, but for "...everyone living in the urban city that lives life on a budget."