(LifeSiteNews) — Pro-abortion and pro-LGBT Teen Vogue magazine will be shifting its focus and folding into Vogue, an announcement received with acclaim by conservative commentators and pro-life activists.
The publication is cutting six staff members, as reported by National Public Radio. “The title will remain a distinct editorial property, with its own identity and mission; sitting under the Vogue umbrella will provide a more unified reader experience across titles,” the company announced.
The new focus will be on “career development, cultural leadership and other issues that matter most to young people,” according to publisher Condé Nast.
That is welcome news to Autumn (Lindsey) Higashi, who went viral in 2017 after she made a video criticizing Teen Vogue for telling teenagers gifts to buy their friends who had an abortion.
Higashi, now married with two kids, said the demise of Teen Vogue is “a bit of evidence that they were just in the wrong place with where they were trying to go politically and socially.”
“I think that a lot of times mainstream media forgets that people are not as pro-abortion as they are and I think that the reaction to a lot of their highly political stuff is proof of that,” Higashi told LifeSiteNews in a phone interview Monday. She previously worked for Students for Life of America and continues to speak to pregnancy resource centers, youth groups, and other pro-life organizations while living in Washington.
She criticized Teen Vogue for its “super aggressive pro-abortion articles.”
“I think the reality is that the average American and the average person is far less aggressive in these areas than they think,” Higashi said, referring to pro-abortion and pro-transgender stories.
The 25-year-0ld pro-life Gen Z activist said the publication is “an unnecessary voice in our culture and I don’t think it represents a majority in the way that they think it does.”
Higashi said she hopes the fate of Teen Vogue shows other publications that Christians are going to speak out and there will be negative consequences for aggressive pro-abortion ideology.
“I hope that that discourages other big publications, other news outlets from pushing this kind of agenda and expecting Christians not to speak up about it,” she said.
Teen Vogue went rogue in 2016, commentator says
While the magazine generally focused on celebrity news and fashion tips, it veered into left-wing politics after President Donald Trump’s first election in 2016, according to Haley Strack, a commentator for National Review.
“Some of the publication’s first political articles were ‘Donald Trump Is Gaslighting America’; ‘How Transgender Teens Are Fighting Against Bathroom Laws’; ‘We Had Zendaya Interview Michelle Obama, And It’s ALL the #BlackGirlMagic We Need RN’; and ‘I’m Trans and I Wrote a Letter to My Body Parts for Valentine’s Day,’” Strack wrote recently.
She noted the publication won several awards from pro-abortion groups.
Strack further detailed the far-left lurch of the publication:
When Teen Vogue became political, its staff lauded the magazine as Gen Z’s minority-voice mouthpiece. The publication highlighted diversity, social justice, and trans-youth activism, through features like Politics Editor Lex McMenamin’s recent “LadyLand 2025 Brought NYC’s Queer and Trans Youth Together for a Fascist-Free Weekend.” Also through articles about why young queer people are cult fans of Rocky Horror; what the “Stitch and Bitch” knitting club can teach you about the revolution; how the followers of plus-size influencers feel when the influencers losing weight; why Nyallah, a 21-year-old she/they vocalist, writes nonbinary breakup songs; and how to find an accessible chest binder as a disabled trans person.
“The publication became hyper-politicized, apparently to match the times,” Strack said. “No one asked it to.”
Other publications have begun shedding their identity-focused reporting in the wake of a backlash against DEI. NBC News recently announced that it planned to lay off its racial and sexual identity-focused reporting teams.
Media critic Andrew Stiles said the cuts and others at CNN are due to declining trust in the journalism industry.
“Liberal journalists — pardon the redundancy — have only themselves to blame. Some network executives may have finally realized something has to change,” Stiles wrote for the Washington Free Beacon. “Filling the airwaves with partisan hacks who openly disdain half the country might not be a viable business strategy. It remains to be seen whether the industry is capable of salvaging its reputation, but the layoffs are a good start.”
