Two women sit at a table in front of me, and they’re talking about normal stuff, like school, boys, and music. The only difference is that one of the women is Lizzie Widdicombe, deputy editor of The New Yorker magazine, and the other is Tavi Gevinson. For those who don’t know her, Tavi started out with a blog, “The Style Rookie,” when she was in middle school. While her peers would constantly bully her in school, she found new peers that appreciated her courage through her blog – people like Karl Lagerfeld, John Galliano, and Anna Wintour. At the ripe old age of 15, Tavi started an online magazine for girls called Rookie Mag. In a world of girls’ magazines dominated by popularity tips, diet plans, and over-sexualization, Rookie provides an online safe-haven where teens and sometimes adult professionals can be open and help girls learn about themselves. Tavi is now 17 and a senior in high school. Tavi recently announced in an interview that she has been diagnosed with depression, and when Widdicombe asks her about it, she answers truthfully and with humor, saying, “I’m not trying to be, like, the Lorax of depression,” but notes the importance of not dismissing feelings. In our society, it can be difficult to be a girl – “acting like a girl” is used as an insult, girls are known as being unnecessarily emotional, and our thoughts rejected for being irrational. Just because we’re teens, or girls, doesn’t mean our thoughts are any less important and, as Tavi says, “you can’t just dismiss things like bad high school art and angsty poetry.” Other topics of discussion included driving, boyfriends, and friends – especially Tavi’s new friend, Ella Yelich-O’Connor, the 16-year-old music sensation more commonly known as Lorde. Tavi acknowledged the pressure in pop culture to equate maturity with sexualization, and admires Lorde for using her clever lyrics to gain respect instead. For me, Tavi falls somewhere in between a role model and a person you want to invite over to watch Netflix and eat pizza with. Despite all of her success – including a role in the new movie Enough Said – she still remains humble, giving all the readers who came to meet her warm hugs and repeating her gratitude. When prompted by an image from a recent Rookie reader event, Tavi protests, “We’re not a cult, I swear!” Tavi and other teen trailblazers have, however, helped create a new generation of smart, young, culturally aware girls who aren’t afraid of pursuing their passions.