The epithet “youngest editor-in-chief” has followed Elise By Olsen since she launched her youth-culture, youth-fashion, youth-art magazine Recens Paper at the age of 13. A by-kids for-kids operation, over the last five years Recens has become a network of creative youth practicing their art independently. Across seven issues it has featured contributions from over 500 people from around the world, all under 25.
Now aged 18, Elise is giving up her editorship, passing the mantle of Recens onto a newer, younger leader. “I wanted to make space for a new generation of creative youth,” she explains to i-D. “I started to feel that my involvement in Recens was becoming inauthentic, that I was at risk of exploiting youth culture in the way so much of the industry does. What can an adult say about youth culture, when they are no longer themselves a youth?”
So now Recens is setting up an open call for a new editor to lead the magazine. “I want to pass the project on to someone who is potentially younger than I was when I started,” Elise explains. “Someone with strong visions. Everyone who will continue to define their own culture on their own terms is welcome on board.” You can apply at recenspaper.com if you’re interested (and you should def be interested) and Elise has just released a short film via SSENSE that you should also definitely watch.
“My resignation from Recens Paper is a conscious choice. It was completely conceptual, rather than emotional. Handing over the reins to young emerging voices is a gesture of marking the importance of shifting creative forces. I think the idea of me retiring at 17 is a perfect story to encompass the new youth-defined creative landscape where the expiration date on “cool” looms constantly.”
Credits
Photography Maria Pasenau