Nationally renowned speaker, author and creator of Brio magazine Susie Shellenberger has launched a new magazine for girls called Susie.
Shellenberger served as Brio’s editor for 19 years before publisher Focus on the Family discontinued its teen ministry and ceased publication last month. Focus also ceased publication of their guy’s magazine, Breakaway.
Shellenberger quickly made the decision to publish her own magazine after receiving many encouraging letters from Brio fans who also suggested the new publication be named after its editor.
Susie will debut its premier print issue this May and Shellenberger is determined to make it more appealing and relevant than current and past magazines ministering to Christian teen girls. With a main focus to help readers grow spiritually, the publication will additionally cover girl-significant topics including fashion, modesty, family, self-injury, eating disorders, relationships and more.

It’ll be interesting to see what direction Shellenberger goes with her new magazine. Brio has always been a great mag for teens, but Focus on the Family always had very strict, conservative guidelines for articles and photos. (I once did a story for the guy’s mag that quoted an artist talking about the movie “Dumb and Dumber.” I had to axe the quote because of the magazine’s strict “no promotion of PG-13 movies” policy. The magazine also had to airbrush out one of the band member’s lip ring for the cover photo.) Here’s hoping she can tackle more edgy subjects with the same biblical perspective she had with Brio. I know a lot of people miss the teen magazine.
A website supporting Susie with additional magazine information and feature content will be available mid March. Until then, you can keep up with the magazine and Shellenberger on her blog.
RELATED POST
Focus on the Family ceases publication of teen magazines Brio, Brio and Beyond, and Breakway
Get the Gospel Soundcheck headlines delivered daily to your email inbox. Just sign up for the RSS feed by going to the “Subscribe” box on the right hand side of this blog and entering your email address.