Youth Venture

Using avant-garde art to inspire youth to build a lasting movement that creates change in the global community

In a nutshell - JJ Express Magazine is a children's magazine that uses comics to spread awareness about social issues. We have published three issues so far and plan to print more issues to spread our message to more youth around the world...
JJ Express is a 32-page children’s magazine geared towards an audience aged 10-15 years old. It is mainly a collection of comics (with accompanying articles, activities, and stories) that are illustrated by professionals, amateurs, and students. These comics and articles strive to entertain as well as inform.
We hope that JJ Express will evolve into a forum for youth, where young people are encouraged to express their opinions and emotions through all forms of art. We encourage submissions from students and offer them a unique opportunity to be published alongside professionals. For every youth submission we receive (whether accepted for publication or not) is replied with feedback not only on the artwork but on the publication process as well.
Additionally, I started JJ Express as my senior project because of the alarming trends of teenage depression in this country. Up to 2.5% of children and up to 8.3% of adolescents in the U.S. suffer from depression. Suicide amongst teenagers and young adults has increased 3-fold since 1997 to become the third leading cause of death from 10-24 year olds. The rise is not only prevalent in statistics but in my personal experiences as well. Some of my friends cut themselves, suffer from anorexia, and have been diagnosed with clinical depression. It is terrifying to know that people so young could live in such darkness. I hope that JJ Express, which puts serious issues in a lighter and more digestible format, will help ease the pain that these teens feel and to let them know that change is possible.
Our artists come from countries around the world: U.S.A, Canada, China, and Germany, just to name a few. Our artists include professionals who have kindly donated their talents to help us out; amateurs who share their love of drawing with others; and students whose burgeoning skills are awe-inspiring.
We work closely with students and try hard to help them revise their artwork to meet our high standards.
Even artists who have never drawn a comic is welcome to try – we are willing to train them so that it will be a fun learning experience for everyone.
We have forged partnerships with The Art Institutes, the Pratt Institute of Art and Design, the Massachusetts College of Art, Montgomery County Public School teachers, and various other private art studios such as VisArts and CREATEKids!
We want to give artists an opportunity to use their skills for community advancement and to encourage them to try different mediums that they haven’t tried before.