‘Be proud of who you are’

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Illiana Christian High School senior Chloe Graham, 17, of Matteson, is the editor-in-chief of uStyleu. | Brett Roseman~Sun-Times Media

Updated: November 21, 2011 8:31AM

When Chloe Graham flipped through magazines, she didn’t see anyone who represented who she was in the pages.

“There’s no one here who really represents me,” Graham, of Matteson, said of her thoughts on the magazines she was reading.

For most teens, that would have been merely an observation. For Graham, though, it was the beginning of her efforts to start her own magazine called uStyleu.

The first edition of uStyleu came out in the summer, and the second issue is due out Thursday.

Graham, a 17-year-old senior at Illiana Christian High School in Lansing, said she wants the magazine to represent real people.

“I decided to start a magazine because I wanted to uplift people,” she said, adding she wants people of all shapes, sizes and colors to be included in the pages.

She also wants to use uStyleu to showcase up-and-coming talent in the fashion industry, including designers and stylists. The target audience is teens and young adults between ages 16 and 24.

As for her own style, Graham said she doesn’t fit into one particular mold.

“I would describe my style as something different, not what society has defined beauty as,” Graham said.

So far, she said the response to the magazine has been “awesome,” and she’s received heart-felt messages from people about how what she is doing has helped them.

For now Graham is aiming to publish the magazine quarterly, but she’s open to publishing more frequently if it takes off and gains popularity.

“I want this to be my career,” she said.

Graham plans to attend college, possibly studying fashion merchandising or entrepreneurship, but she is also interested in journalism, particularly photojournalism.

Her decision to start a magazine isn’t her first foray into the world of journalism and publishing. She has interviewed celebrities including will.i.am, of the Black Eyed Peas, and Chicago Bulls forward Luol Deng during a stint as a reporter for rapper Common’s Common Ground Foundation, and she also worked as a youth reporter for Image of Change, a nonprofit organization based in San Francisco. A reporter from the Chicago Sun-Times serves as her mentor.

Graham said people her age have a reputation for shunning reading, but she thinks the key is to give them something to which they can relate. “We would read if there was something that interested us,” she said.

Although fashion and style are the main showcases in the magazine, she said she also wants to stress the importance of being an individual and being proud of who you are. To get her message across, she has spoken to groups of elementary school students.

“I’m just telling them to go for their dreams and not wait for an opportunity to come to them,” she said. “Just go for it and be proud of who you are.”