This Urban Life: The Cool Kid

Meet 16-year-old Caitlin Connery, publisher of the hip beyond its years online magazine, Crooked Teeth.

Image credit: Photo by Marshall Franklin Long

Recommended by the Editor

This Urban Life: Trucking Along

This Urban Life: One-Man Show

By: Megan McCarty |   September 2011   |  From the print edition

Caitlin Connery’s morning routine sounds fairly typical: “I wake up, I get a cup of coffee, sit at my desk and read.” Typical if she were retired, maybe. She’s not.

Caitlin is 16 years old—though she’s quick to mention her upcoming 17th birthday in October—a junior studying media arts at Perpich Center for Arts and the editor-in-chief of the online magazine Crooked Teeth.

We meet for caffeine at the appropriately named Coffee Shop NE. Caitlin sticks out from the other teenagers perusing Facebook behind their MacBook Pros; maybe it’s because she’s easily recognizable from her editor’s note photo. The choppy bangs, nose ring and ombre hair that’s been bleached blonde at the tips give her away.

Caitlin walked just the few blocks here from her family’s house, where she lives with her mother, step-father and rambunctious one-year-old sister, Olivia. (“She’s a rascal,” Caitlin says.) Before moving to Minneapolis, she’d bounced around a few cities—and countries, even. She was born in San Francisco and later lived in southern Manitoba for five years. Turns out the Canadian town with 600 folks wasn’t really her style. Now she’s all about Minneapolis and being able to feature her favorite local artists, designers and musicians, many of them her age, in Crooked Teeth.

With no job—save for occasional babysitting gigs—and no car, Caitlin put her ambition and limited Photoshop skills to task last fall. Looking for an outlet to feature young artists, Caitlin gathered a few of her creative contacts, most of whom she met through photo-sharing site Flickr, to be her fellow editors and writers. Crooked Teeth was born and now publishes four issues a year. And the name? Credit that to Caitlin’s charmingly jagged smile, soon-to-be straightened with braces, as well as her vision of the Minneapolis skyline.

“I feel like, because I’m a teenager, I can’t do a lot of the stuff I want to do,” Caitlin says. Getting into 21-plus concerts and driving to interviews, to start. Devising intricate photo shoots with professional models and photographers on no budget, for another. “I want Crooked Teeth to be raw and more cutting edge.” Then with an excited, “Can I just show you?” she pulls up her laptop and scrolls through her favorite inspirational fashion blogs and magazines. Australia’s Russh Magazine tops her bookmarks. “I don’t have the resources to do this right now, but it’s what I’m aiming for.”

Aim away, Caitlin. Look for the rock ‘n’ roll- themed fourth issue of Crooked Teeth to be released at issuu.com/crookedteeth October 1.