logo

Amplifying the Voices of Young People

Youth Outlook

YO! Youth Outlook is an award-winning literary journal of youth living in the Bay Area. Featuring in-depth reporting pieces and first-person essays, comic strips, and poetry pages, YO! is the communication outlet for youth who feel their voice and visions need to be seen and heard. YO! is a bridge to the world of youth expression.

YO! Chronicles the world through the eyes and voices of young people. From reporting pieces on Palestinian American youth in the Bay Area to interviews with gospel hip hop bands; from photo essays by homeless youth to journal entries from temp workers in Silicon Valley, YO! offers a unique window into California’s youth subcultures.

YO! has a national distribution of 25,000 magazines printed monthly (10 times a year through the school season), a local access monthly TV show — YO!TV, numerous partnerships with local and national radio broadcasts, and an annual expo of youth communicators – from graffiti artists to filmmakers to incarcerated youth. YO! stories also run nationally and internationally over the News Service wire.

Invading the Favela

Turning my lens on the Brazilian ghetto

For only $20, I can take a tour of the Brazilian ghetto and see what it is like to be a local. The first question that came to my head was: Who the hell do they think they are? More »

A Road Less Traveled

Finding Community in Zambia

My experiences in Africa could have paralleled many before mine. More »

A Tour of My Excelsior

The Excelsior is what it should be. It’s a neighborhood of working-class people with families who struggle every day. I am proud to be an Excelsiorian. More »

Putting on the Gloves

The Return of Boxing to Kezar Pavilion

The smell of sweat fills my senses and my blood begins to rush. The crowd cheers frantically as blows to the head cause one of the fighters to stumble. More »

YO! Thoughts #25

Young and independent in the Filmore

We hit up the Filmore to see how independent young people are. We asked them if they got jobs and if they be living with their momma. More »

CSI: Wallenberg High

Check out Court TV’s Forensics in the Classroom program at Raoul J. Wallenberg Traditional High School. The Students there try to figure out the mystery of who trashed the cafeteria. More »

SF Gang Free Conference

YO! TV went to the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium where a Gang Free Conference was held to get people from the community to find solutions to violence. We asked folks what are three solutions they can think of to stop gang violence. More »