Alpha Kitty, eh?

Hi. So in researching other sites that already exist I found a few. One called "In the Mix," a TV show on PBS that focuses on topics and dialogues brought to the foreground by youth. If you have seen "In the Mix," please let me know what you think of it. Do you think the show speaks from a teen's point of view or an adults point of view? Here's another question for anyone to answer, what do you use to express yourself? Video, internet blogs, myspace, journal, phone, tape recorder...And why?

On another note, I saw this article online (see "Say Hello To Alpha Kitty" below.) The article is about a woman advertising herself before having a company. No one knows what she does! She has 43,000 friends on MySpace and she left her job at Seventeen Magazine to become her own version of queen of the teenage girls. Yet, she has not shown us what her company or website will actually do. She is trying to win fans only bassed on her personality. To me this sounds like a cheap Paris Hilton strategy of being famous because everyone sees her in magazines or at parties. Yet, I am interested in seeing if she will make it big and who her audience will be...teenager girls or business people. Check her out, google "Atoosa Rubenstein," and please tell me what you think. Is she smart and cool or a self-centered businesswoman failing to impress teens? Would you ever market yourself like this, do you think its a good idea?


READ ARTICLE BELOW:

"Say Hello To Alpha Kitty"

In certain mediacentric precincts of Manhattan and Los Angeles, a striking and charismatic young woman named Atoosa Rubenstein moves from handshake to handshake, from meeting with advisers to pitching potential financial backers. In this, Rubenstein resembles a Presidential candidate testing the waters in Iowa. But her campaign is to build the next big multimedia brand around a person. This person happens to be named Atoosa Rubenstein.

She is about to find out if her status within an insular sphere—as a star magazine editor with fashion cred—and more than 43,000 friends on MySpace.com (NWS ) can propel her to something much grander. For this ill-defined opportunity, centering initially on the unbuilt Web site atoosa.com, Rubenstein last year dumped her job as editor-in-chief of Seventeen. "I saw what was coming," she said, referring to the ongoing Web-driven destruction of the teen magazine. "What I want to do is gather my tribe"—yes, Rubenstein actually says things like this—"the ones reading Seventeen, and the ones who were, and grew out of it." This tribe is 13 to 30, female, thoroughly digital, and, in Rubenstein's view, lacking an "alpha kitty" addressing their concerns and sensibility. What she brings is her big-sister, geek-gone-glam persona. She honed this act editing Seventeen and teen title CosmoGIRL, and now shows it in full plumage in her MySpace blog entries, which are a riot of excessive capitalization and estrogenic display. The ultimate shape of Atoosa Inc. is inchoate, but Rubenstein is certain of one thing. "The next Oprah will not be born on TV," she says. "I left to launch my brand."

SHE ALREADY HAS, OF COURSE. Rubenstein's got the high-wattage personality and presence that gets noticed, and she possesses ambition that's impossible to miss. It is not just anyone who gets named editor-in-chief of a major magazine at 26, which is how old Rubenstein was in 1998 when she started CosmoGIRL. "You thought, she had to do it,'" says Hearst Magazines President Cathleen Black, recalling the first meeting in which Rubenstein described that magazine. "It was seeping out of her pores."

These days Rubenstein's parent company is her own Big Momma Productions, which explains the enormous ring that emblazons "big momma" across three fingers, (a gift from her husband, she explains). In a meeting, she says about her audience, without apparent irony: "They are unborn to me, but they're mine." Still, her sense of ownership and her furiously fashionista exterior is often punctured by glimpses of the homespun and deeply idiosyncratic. At a meeting with potential investors she skips PowerPoint in favor of construction paper decorated, grade school project-style, with a crazy-quilt of colored pencil notations. Her first offering may be what she terms her "art project," Psychic Kitty, a series of psychedelicized videos on her MySpace page. They will star her cat Thurston spouting, in Rubenstein's electronically processed voice, brief inspirational tidbits. Rubenstein calls Psychic Kitty "the cat in the family," and she's mum on a debut date: "You know how it is with cats."

You may, like me, find Psychic Kitty so bent as to be half-brilliant. But what I find conceptually neat isn't relevant; the question is how weird the mainstream is willing to get. Of course, well-conceived media brands that assuage the spiritual thirst of American women have an impressive track record. (Ask Oprah.) "I have a dream," says Rubenstein. "I see a family. I see a tribe. At the end of the day, I know how to connect with this audience." Rubenstein says her brand attributes—again, she really does this—are inspiration and motivation, sisterhood, positivity, and activism. Wreathed around that is a certain Atoosa-ness: an ease with the off-the-wall, an acceptance of the mess and dorkiness of existence. Rapt comments on her blog suggest at least some receptivity for this message. We will soon see if the smoke signals she's sending out, in all her inimitable style, can gather a tribe big enough to make a business.

For Jon Fine's blog on media and advertising, go to www.businessweek.com/innovate/FineOnMedia

Is myspace enough?

NOTE: My mission has changed to discuss education and what is working in communities, and questioning what is not. Below is an outdated mission for the blog.

I just returned from a friend's house and decided to post before watching Jonathan Richman in "Take me to the Plaza." If you like the Velvet Underground, you may want to check him out.

I think part of the potential success for Thunderbolt World is that it fullfills a void online. I want teenagers to WANT to go to the site, find it easy to use and have it fit into their lives. Are there organizations or websites that exist with a mission similar to mine: providing space and support towards connecting teenagers with eachother to discuss relevant issues and communicate their ideas on the state of our world and ways to make positive change? Is myspace, nerdspace, etc. enough for you to express yourselves? Is there a better site than myspace for teens that already exists? Are internet chatrooms still a popular way to express your deepest thoughts when you cannot use the phone? If you or someone you know is aware of other groups with websites similar to the idea behind Thunderbolt World, or ones you think I should look at, please post a comment and let me know. Thanks!

Thunderbolt World

I believe in helping youth succeed in carrying out their own ideas and changing our world for the better. We need to learn from and be inspired by each other, not corporate advertising companies. Teenagers have power and know how to express their power but need a new vehicle for their expression. Through a new website I hope to provide a place for youth entrepreneurship, thought-provoking dialogue and idea exchanging between people all over the world, and relevant knowledge that big business and government might not want you to know, but could make the world a better place.

This blog is especially directed towards the sharp minds of youth, ages 12-18, who have a voice and would like to be heard, and people of all ages who believe in the unique potential of this age group. I am creating a website designed to connect innovative teenagers with each other and the world around them.

The site features mini-videos and podcasts starring youth from around the country with something to say or something they have created. Anyone can be in these videos/podcasts. For example, say you have been handcrafting your own shoulder bags or think you write music better than anyone on MTV; write to me and we will try and showcase your work or ideas to your peers. The mini-videos/podcasts can also be about someone who inspires you, something important to you about your friends, family or community, or a topic you would like to express your opinion on- such as what it means to go college, how drugs have affected your life, what has changed in your life since the war, your favorite website to visit, what do you think about product (red) and using global marketing to help people dying of AIDS, or what you think is the worst fashion statement so far in 2007. The site will expand off of these videos and podcasts and provide supplemental knowledge to help further develop the raw and real-to-life content brought to the foreground by today's youth; bringing in special guests and other relevant resources and facts.

What do you think? If you want to get involved on any level, I encourage people of all ages to write me back or give your feedback on anything. If you like the ideas in my blog, pleaseforward this blog to five of your friendsor family and get them involved. I am blogging to get a feel of whether people would dig on this kind of project. Is this a site you would go to after school/work? What would attract you to a site for youth to connect and share? This blog is for youth, mentors, artists, activists, professional people, educators, and elders to post on. Let's connect in a quality dialogue on what matters, what is needed, in our world. Let's support each other's artwork, music, writing, education, technology, talents and personal triumphs. Let's become a thriving community of ideas and creativity!

Power to the people!