Image by Olly Moss

Anyone who has a heart loves Tavi Gevinson. Actually, even robots probably heart Tavi because she’s old-soul smart, brave and honest (which isn’t easy to pull off when you’re 15, 27, 46 or 105). So when she announced she was starting an online magazine for wallpapery teens, I got super psyched. Even though I was planning a teen magazine of my own, I submitted my ideas to her and my teenage hero Jane Pratt, thinking “hey, if they dig ‘em, I’ll just work with them and get paid too!”

I was stricken with submitter’s remorse as soon as I hit the send button; because deep down, I knew I should be executing these ideas myself. (I mean, I’ve only been wanting to launch a teen mag since I was, well, Tavi’s age.)  Luckily, Tavi and Jane rejected my shiz and I continued on building my site and stockpiling it with content for release later this year.

I’ve been pretty happy about the work I’ve been doing on my soon-to-be site until now that Tavi has released RookieMag into the world. Suddenly, I’m panic stricken. What if Tavi has similar features on her site or tweaks of my submitted concepts, making mine not-so unique?  I know this is silly, since I trust her integrity and that she wouldn’t use my work without using me too. And thankfully, her vision is different enough than mine.

There’s plenty of room on the web and in the world for RookieMag, my site, Hello Giggles, Heart of Gold Girls and lots of other teen-friendly sites that are popping up. I’m excited to add RookieMag to my daily reading diet and already love Tavi’s post on Getting Over Girl Hate. (PSA: Read it now if you haven’t already!)

What’s more, my little freakout serves as another lesson in trusting my gut. Whether it’s knowing the value in our IP, knowing when to get away from a downer of a person, or simply knowing when were full, we’ve got to trust what our minds and bodies are telling us; they’re always right. How’s that for some old-soul smarts?