The eldest members of Gen Z are 29 years old: they had Facebook in elementary school, Instagram in middle school, Snapchat in high school, and TikTok in college. The youngest members were born in 2012, the same year Tinder was invented. Instead of pacifiers, they had iPhone screens. And yet, 71% of Gen Z feel print magazines have a stronger sense of authenticity than digital ones, according to a recent poll.
Enter WYouth (pronounced double youth), W Magazine’s upcoming teenage sister publication rooted in W’s rich archives and thoughtfully reimagined for a new generation. Ava Nirui, the former creative director of Heaven by Marc Jacobs—the brand’s youth-focused line—will helm the project alongside W Editor in Chief Sara Moonves. “The idea for WYouth came from a conversation with Sofia Coppola and Sara Moonves, where we were thinking about the magazines we grew up with when we were teenagers,” says Nirui. “They were so influential and shaped all of the things we were obsessed with. We want to bring back that spirit, but for today—through pop culture experimentation and physical media, inspiring the next generation on style, beauty, and fashion history through the perspective of W Magazine.” Coppola, alongside her teenage daughter Cosima Croquet, have been enlisted as contributing editors.
“I am so grateful to Sofia for introducing me to Ava,” Moonves says. “Ava has such an incredible understanding of culture and fashion, and how they intersect to create something bigger. She not only recognizes emerging trends, but actively shapes them, bringing fresh, thoughtful ideas to an audience hungry for something that was truly designed with them in mind. Collaborating with this team to create something in W’s signature, elevated style, with a hint of nostalgia for a new generation of W readers has been truly a dream.”
The first print issue will debut in September 2026 and will publish biannually. Naturally, WYouth will be half the size of a regular W issue—which means it fits perfectly in a backpack. Follow along on Instagram at @wyouth and on wmagazine.com for more.
