23 Oct 2009
How a Yaldah can change a girl’s life
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Future artist, writer and photographer Chaya Cohen won a contest in Yaldah, a national girl’s magazine.
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By ELLEN SCHUR BROWN
Editor, Family Section
Published: Friday, October 23, 2009 1:10 AM EDT
Chaya Mushka Cohen, a 7th-grader at Beatrice Stone Yavne High School for Girls of The Hebrew Academy of Cleveland aspires to a creative career: maybe writing, art or photography. She was photo editor of last year’s school yearbook; after school she takes an art class.
But her best hope of a wider audience for her writings and poetry comes from her favorite magazine, Yaldah.
Yaldah means girl in Hebrew, and like any girl’s magazine, it contains fashion, advice, crafts and recipes. Readers pour over every word and follow its good advice.
Unlike any other magazine, Yaldah’s recipes are all strictly kosher. The fashions from Old Navy and Lands’ End are modest (and affordable). There’s an article about Rosh Hashanah and an imagined interview with the biblical Leah.
The executive editor, 12-year-old Emily Gordis, manages submissions by contributors mainly aged 11-15. Publisher Leah Larson, now 18, founded the quarterly magazine in 2004 (“14-year-old publishes Jewish teen mag,” CJN, May 26, 2005) because she felt the magazines that published her writing, such as American Girl and New Moon, were shallow and lacked Jewish values.
After five years, the 64-page glossy book has become a touchstone for young girls like Chaya with traditional Jewish values who want a magazine that reflects their lives. She has submitted artwork, essays and poetry to the editors and once was featured in a Subscriber Snapshot.
Recently, Chaya won first place in the contest “How Yaldah Impacted My Life” with a PowerPoint video including an original song.
With her own illustrations and narration, she ticks through some of the features she likes best, like the power of positive thinking in Libby’s Notebook, tips on how to keep busy, inexpensive gifts, and how she’s made friends through the Yaldah website with girls who are “just like me.”
Through the site, Chaya has “key pals,” friends from the magazine, from Spain, Canada and California. The articles are a common ground for her and for friends from Camp Gan Israel, a Chabad camp in Michigan. She was able to find other Lubavitch girls, but the magazine attracts girls from all different backgrounds, not just Orthodox, stresses publisher Larson. She says the publication is funded through advertising, subscriptions, and the $100,000 Wells Fargo “Someday Stories” prize.
A common theme in the magazine is “you’re never too young to make a difference,” and another contest winner was inspired to start a charity funded by bake sales and friendship bracelets.
“My girls feel connected to Yaldah,” says Chaya’s mother Natasha. She and her husband, members of Zemach Zedek Congregation, appreciate that the magazine is mostly written by young teens. “When adults do something, the girls feel further apart, but this magazine is their own, and they feel in charge.”
For her prize, Chaya wins the first three books soon to be published by Yaldah Media: The Yaldah Year, a compendium of crafts and activities; Teen Talk, a questions and advice book with a Jewish bent; and the young adult novel One Is Not a Lonely Number.
She and her parents received tremendous recognition in their communities with mentions on Jewish and Chabad websites, and congratulations have poured in.
Because she doesn’t have a TV, Chaya has lots of time for her creative pursuits.
“Sometimes girls are talking about something, and I’m left out,” she says, noting that she is glad to be unfamiliar with Disney’s teen romance movie “High School Musical.” “I know it’s going to influence me negatively.”
Chaya would like to be named to Yaldah’s editorial board. Perhaps for her next chapter, Chaya will be the Yavne correspondent for the Cleveland Jewish News. Sources say there’s a production coming up.
To see Chaya’s video, www.yaldahmagazine.com.
ebrown@cjn.org
Chaya’s details
Parents: Natasha and Hershel Cohen; siblings Ruta, 14, Malka, 11, Pesie, 7, and Shoimie, 4
Fav. music: Chanale
Fav. website: Checking my e-mail
Fav. food: Watermelon
Fav. Jewish holiday: Succot
ELLEN SCHUR BROWN
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