Young Voices Magazine: History
Our magazine of teen writing and visual art
History
Young Voices is Toronto Public Library's magazine of creative writing and visual art, created and selected by Toronto teens, published annually for over fifty years.
Young Voices was originally a project of the former North York Public Library, with the first issue produced in 1965, created to showcase teen creative writing art.
Following the amalgamation of seven library systems into Toronto Public Library in 1998, Young Voices Magazine continued, with library staff selecting art and writing submitted by teens across the new City of Toronto.
In 2004, a group of teens who had published their work in the magazine joined the first Editorial Youth Advisory Group (EYAG.) The volunteer group met regularly with staff to make recommendations to keep Young Voices relevant to teens. They worked in small teams with professional writers and artists to select the work that is published in the magazine. From that time until the present, all the writing and art in Young Voices has been selected by teens.
For many years during this period, teen writers and artists gathered together at the annual Young Voices Writers’ Conference, and the EYAG often creating Instant Anthologies of the conference attendees’ work.
Teen volunteers continue to support the magazine, although with a new name as of 2022, the Young Voices Teen Council.