The Who, What, Where, When, and How of Writing for BGMTeen.
Who can write for BGMTeen?
Black teen girls of Caribbean or African heritage between the ages of 13 and 17 years old (high school).
What can you write about?
Choosing what to write about for BGMTeen is pretty easy. Think about what inspires you. Do you like movies, books, photography, music, sports, dance, art, debates, games, crafts, creating trivia and quizzes, giving advice (advice column), food (recipes), science, history? These are all topics that you can choose from. Your stories can be made up narratives (fiction) or based on factual events. Say you like photography. You can choose to simply showcase your photography with a short narrative or captions to explain what your photography is about. If you love travel and photography, you could create a collage or scrapbook of your trip.
Tip: never include anyone in your photo’s whose permission you have not sought to publish their image.
If you love sports you can write about your games. Also, say you are into basketball, give a small tutorial on the how-to’s of basketball, with some pictures to go with it.
Tip: If you use internet images, always include the URL / website. Never use copyrighted work without crediting the author. Also, never cut and paste work from the internet without rewriting or modifying it.
If you love food, share a recipe and step by step photos of how you created your dish. If your recipe is from the internet, please credit the author. Never cut and paste recipes or information without modifying them. If, however, you followed the steps to create a recipe from the internet, make sure the images you use are your own. In other words, take step by step photos of the dish you are making.
Tip: be sure to remove any clutter around your plates and dishes before taking a photo.
Are you an artist who would like to showcase your work in BGM? Include a short narrative of your work or captions.
If you love to read or watch movies, you can write book reviews of books by Black authors, or movie reviews with Black characters or Black filmmakers.
Feel free to come up with your own stories that are fictional or factual. We publish BGMTeen in May and November (bi-annually). We try to tailor articles to fit a summer theme or a winter theme. Some articles, however, don’t have to fit these categories as they are general for all year-round activities and reading. For example, if you send me an article in March titled, fun winter activities to enjoy with your friends, I’ll have to wait and publish it in the fall /winter issue. Sometimes I ask writers to keep a journal over the summer, and although this is a summer activity, it makes for a good reflection read in the wintertime. This would be different from the previous title and could be called, fun activities I enjoyed with my friends last summer.
If you are unsure about your topic and need the BGM editor to approve it before you start writing, please feel free to send an email to
How do you Write or Create your Work?
Because we are a magazine, we do not want to infringe on copyrighted material you find on the internet like using other people’s images, stories, trivia, puzzles, quizzes, without their permission or crediting them. For this reason, never cut and paste information from websites without rewriting or modifying it, and always include the website / URL where you found your information or images.
All work should be created by the author. Parents or guardians can help but should not write articles for their children. As a teen magazine, we value free thinking and the form of expression exclusive to the teens’ literary world. That’s why there is a teen magazine for Black girls to express their thoughts.
Never use AI like ChatGPT to create your stories or images for you. BGM values the organic thinking of teens.
Finally, always, always, always, do a spell check and edit your work before submitting. It’s always a good idea to ask a friend, a sibling, parent, or guardian to check your work for spelling and mistakes before submitting.
When can you Write?
We accept articles all year round. If your article is accepted, we will make a decision as to what issue it fits best, either the May/spring-summer issue or November/fall-winter issue. If, however, you’d like to submit an article for the May issue, please make sure that your article has been submitted by February 28th. For the November issue, please submit by August 31st.
You can also opt to write for BGMTeen on a regular basis instead of contributing only one article.
For Submissions and inquiries on becoming a regular BGM contributor, please email: blackgirlsmagazine@gmail.com
All submissions should include the authors’ names (or first name only and initial of last name), author’s age, city or town, and country of residence.
I look forward to seeing your amazing work!
Annette,
Editor, BGM.