Danielle Kwateng was announced as Teen Vogue’s new executive editor Wednesday. The announcement came in the form of a tweet from the publication’s account, which itself was noteworthy, as the account hasn’t posted anything since turmoil bubbled up after the March announcement that Alexi McCammond would be the new editor in chief.
McCammond has since exited — before her job even really began — and so, too, has previous executive editor Samhita Mukhopadhyay.
As a result of that upheaval, Kwateng, formerly Teen Vogue’s entertainment and culture director, released a note to readers Wednesday, addressing what happened while looking forward at what she hopes to accomplish in her new role. A representative for Condé Nast, which publishes Teen Vogue, did not immediately return a request for additional comment.
“We at Teen Vogue have read your comments and emails and we have seen the pain and frustration caused by resurfaced social media posts,” she wrote, referring to McCammond’s past racist and homophobic tweets, which went viral in the days after her appointment to the outlet’s top editorial position. “While our staff continued doing the groundbreaking and progressive work we’re known for, we stopped posting it on social media as we turned inward and had a lot of tough discussions about who we are and what comes next. We’re not perfect, but we do know our place in the media landscape and recognize that our readers make up the DNA of our work.”
Crediting the “diverse and brilliant staff of editors and writers” at Teen Vogue, Kwateng added that she is “excited” for the publication’s future and assured readers the staff is “invested” in doing right by them.
Mukhopadhyay became executive editor of the magazine in 2018 and did not share what is next for her when she announced her departure last month. Her announcement came one day after McCammond announced ahead of her first day on the job she would not be moving forward with the position. McCammond’s departure came after furor — internally and externally — over her past racist and homophobic tweets.