The once-venerated Teen Vogue politics desk — the digital soapbox for a generation of woke youth writers — is no more. In a sweeping restructuring move by Condé Nast, the brand has officially been folded into Vogue.com, leaving a trail of layoffs, social media mourning, and political outcry in its wake.
For many of the publication’s progressive staffers, the timing couldn’t have felt worse. Just one day before the New York City mayoral election, Condé Nast pulled the plug on Teen Vogue’s political vertical — and with it, the remaining members of a team that spent the last few years churning out editorials on everything from climate justice to identity politics and, more often than not, sharp denunciations of the political right.
STATEMENT: (1 of 2) We strongly condemn @CondeNast‘s consolidation plans for Teen Vogue, a move that is clearly designed to blunt the award-winning magazine’s insightful journalism at a time when it is needed the most. … pic.twitter.com/4th3573t5s
— condeunion (@condeunion) November 3, 2025
Editor-in-chief Versha Sharma and politics editor Lex McMenamin were both laid off. The latter announced there were now “no political staffers” left at the publication. That statement alone seemed to confirm what many already suspected: Teen Vogue’s experiment as a progressive youth-political engine is over.
The union representing the magazine’s employees didn’t hold back, calling the restructuring a “blunt force move” against award-winning journalism “at a time when it is needed the most.” The NewsGuild of New York vowed to seek answers from Condé Nast leadership, claiming this decision not only betrayed the staff — but the audience they claim to serve.
But while former staffers and social media allies lamented the death of Teen Vogue’s political voice, others saw it as the inevitable end to a brand that lost its original identity years ago.
We now know that the Teen Vogue fold is more than an absorption & clearly a full shift from the pub’s DNA. Laying off the entire politics team a day before the NYC election is heinous + a knife in the back to a brand that has solidified its importance for youth. Devastating.
— Emily Bloch (@emdrums) November 3, 2025
Once a pop-culture and fashion-forward magazine for teenage girls, Teen Vogue pivoted in the Trump era toward social justice politics, far-left commentary, and highly activist content. It made headlines not for fashion spreads, but for op-eds defending Antifa, offering teenage readers guides on Marxism, and endorsing a range of radical causes under the guise of youth empowerment.
In other words: Teen Vogue became less about Vogue and more about Vox.
And it turns out, that may not have been sustainable — even for Condé Nast.
The decision to fold Teen Vogue into Vogue.com comes as part of a broader restructuring at Condé Nast, which recently announced layoffs across multiple titles amid mounting financial pressures. But this particular move struck a nerve, not just for its symbolism, but because of who it affected: a highly visible crop of left-leaning, mostly Gen Z writers and editors who saw Teen Vogue not just as a job, but as a platform for activism.
Former staffer Emily Bloch called the layoffs “heinous,” arguing it was a “knife in the back” to a brand that had become known for its political edge. She and others criticized the timing — so close to a major election — as a calculated move to silence a specific viewpoint.
JUST IN: Teen Vogue, one of the most toxic leftist publications and purveyors of depravity in the country just laid off 75% of its workforce, including its entire politics team. It will cease to exist and folded into the main Vogue publication.
Many they/thems out of a job.
I… pic.twitter.com/4vl81BnWwa— Bad Hombre (@joma_gc) November 3, 2025
Meanwhile, former style editor Aiyana Ishmael pointed out another reality: after this week’s layoffs, Teen Vogue no longer has any Black women on staff. She called it “incredibly painful.”
Whether one sees this as corporate downsizing, political silencing, or overdue course correction, the outcome is the same: the activist engine that Teen Vogue became over the last eight years has been powered down. The writers who once cheered for revolutions will now have to find new platforms. And for better or worse, Teen Vogue may finally return to what its title always suggested — being a magazine about teens.
