The Magazine That Didn't Go To Paris

Lauren Conrad may have been "the girl who didn't go to Paris", but the closure of Teen Vogue goes further than just another publication closure.

Lisa Love and Lauren Conrad (right) as seen on season 2, episode 01 of The Hills. (MTV UK)

She will always be known as ‘the girl who didn’t go to Paris’. And it will always be known as the magazine that gave rise to the girl formally known as an intern on the hit MTV realty series from the 2000s, The Hills. Of course, I’m talking about none other than Lauren Conrad and her former “employer”, Teen Vogue.

This isn’t just another knee-jerking reaction to yet another millennial icon’s demise, but the announcement of the closure of Teen Vogue might as well be. It was announced this past week that, after 22 years in operations, Teen Vogue would cease operations as Vogue magazine’s widely popular publication that brought political, societal, cultural and fashion themes to a younger audience. In a move Teen Vogue’s owner and parent company, Condé Nast, describes as “a transition that’s part of a broader push to expand the Vogue ecosystem”, announced the closure as more of a transitionunder the banner of its flagship namesake, Vogue.com. But there’s more to the story than just transitions and closures during a time of media take-downs and consolations, delivering yet another catastrophic blow to media and journalism.

Just days after announcing the closure of Teen Vogue on November 3^rd, 2025, twenty Condé United union (the union representing Condé Nast staff) editorial staffers confronted Stan Duncan, Head of HR for Condé Nast, seeking transparency surrounding the decision to fold Teen Vogue. This led to a tense interaction with Duncan declining to engage in discussions with those staffers, and led to the prompt termination of 4 of those employees: Jasper Low, a senior fact checker for The New Yorker; Jake Lahut, a senior politics reporter for WIRED; Alma Avalle, digital staffer for Bon Appetit; and Ben Dewey, video staffer with Condé Nast Entertainment.

Condé Nast on their part claimed the rationale for those terminations were due to “extreme misconduct” and subsequently followed up their actions by filing a federal complaint with the National Labor Relations Board against the union’s parent union, the NewGuild of New York, for violating its contract. The union, on the other hand, responded back in a statement stating the company [Condé Nast] was violating the contract’s just-cause protections and its “federally protected rights as union members’ job to hold power to account and ask difficult questions”.

You be the judge: The video included as part of The Wrap’s coverage on this story was taken by one of the staffers who participated in the confrontation. The clip depicts the staffers approaching Duncan’s office and asking to meet with him regarding their concerns around the recent closure of Teen Vogue, with Duncan refusing to engage other than to usher those staffers back to work. Interestingly enough, the footage does not depict any threatening behaviour throughout its two minute duration, with Condé Nast stating the video "captures only a portion of the incident” with “several additional minutes…missing.” No word yet on whether the staffer who recorded this footage was part of the Condé Nast’s terminations.

The Wrap’s reporting on the Teen Vogue closure - includes leaked video of Condé Nast staffers and Head of HR. (The Wrap)

But before we jump into the meat and cheese of what’s really behind those layoffs and terminations, let’s dive into some background on who Condé Nast and Teen Vogue were prior to this development.

So, who exactly is Condé Nast? Condé Nast is one of the largest American mass media companies you’re only just hearing about now. Founded in 1909 by – you guessed it – Condé Montrose Nast, who was a publisher that also bought Vogue magazine that very same year. Operating in 32 markets, serving 37 brands in 26 languages, Condé Nast has more than 1 billion consumers throughout their print, digital, video and social media platforms. Some of the brands under the Condé Nast umbrella include Allure magazine, WIRED, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and until recently Teen Vogue.

Emerging onto the magazine publication scene and entering our collective pop culture in 2003, Teen Vogue spent the first part of its lifespan as a teen-centred publication that prominently featured the current ‘it’ teen stars of its time, top fashion trends as well as dating and lifestyle tips. It wasn’t until the mid-2010s when Teen Vogue pivoted their model to include more political stories that corresponded with and during Donald Trump’s first administration with their seminal op-ed article entitled, “Donald Trump is Gaslighting America”.

Politics header on Teen Vogue’s website. (Teen Vogue)

In the subsequent years following their seminal article, Teen Vogue featured articles covering other topics of serious journalism to include BLM (Black Lives Matter), Gaza, and the Climate Crisis, alongside their trendy original teen-centric programming. This arguably brought what was once only reserved as mainstream adult themes to a younger -- mostly teen -- consumer base. A place where a teen could get fashion and makeup tips alongside articles informing them about the significance of George Floyd and BLM, climate change, and the increased religious ideological integration into politics and regulations…just to name a few.Alice Wong, a disability rights activist and author, laments the closure of Teen Vogue left her heartbroken as “Teen Vogue was one of the few places that published disabled journalists regularly.” It goes to show, the closing of Teen Vogue goes further than just shuttering another magazine.

The transition of Teen Vogue to Vogue.com not only resulted in the closure of a magazine, but it also resulted in the top editor, Versha Sharma, stepping down, as well as the layoff of Teen Vogue’s political editor and 5 other editorial staffers, mostly who identified as women of colour or as transgendered.

The closing of Teen Vogue not only raises concerns about Vogue’s ability to continue its political reporting, it also suggests the perspectives and voices of young women – including those of trans women and non-binary people – still remain a threat to these institutions. And what are these institutions?

According to the liberal American think-tank, the Roosevelt Institute, the closure of Teen Vogue illustrates the mass media consolation to an American presidential administration. In a statement released by the Roosevelt Institute, they confer with other reporting by identifying this as “…evidence that corporate concentration eliminates innovative ideas and silences voices with less power.” Further adding: “Teen Vogue has consistently been one of the only media outlets centering the perspectives of young people and has done so with bravery and honesty”.

In response to the media attention this closure has brought, a spokesperson for Condé Nast stated the decision to close Teen Vogue will help to increase its reach, as “Teen Vogue has faced ongoing challenges around scale and audience reach for some time.”

Careers page of Condé Nast’s website. (Condé Nast)

So now we know the fate of Teen Vogue, only time will tell what the true impact of its departure and the imprint it made on its audience and culture as a whole.

As of November 12^th, 2025, Condé Nast has 44 jobs posted to the careers page on their site, with 3 of those jobs posted as soon as November 11^th, 2025. None of those jobs were associated with those who were laid off or terminated, but the future will tell if any of those will be added to the list. Despite the grim outlook of Teen Vogue, its journalistic reporting and its imprint in popular culture, the Roosevelt Institute summed this up aptly by saying, “In a moment where our country is experiencing generational shifts in thinking, we are all worse off without their reporting.”

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