Ann Shoket was named editor-in-chief of Seventeen magazine in January 2007. Under her helm, the fashion and beauty icon publication for teen girls continues to represent an important rite of passage, helping more than 13 million readers grow up to be confident, self-assured young women.

Within a year of heading the magazine, Shoket implemented a multitude of fun, interactive editorial programs that inspire confidence among Seventeen readers. One of the most buzz-worthy programs is the “Seventeen Body Peace Project,” a year-long initiative to help girls stop obsessing about what their body looks like, start appreciating it for what it can do, and, and ultimately make peace with their bodies. Seventeen also partnered with MySpace, the largest social networking site, to launch the ground-breaking Web reality program “Freshman 15,” which gives millions of teens an inside scoop on the often overwhelming emotional and lifestyle changes taking place at college.

Seventeen has also experienced enormous success both on the newsstand and online under Shoket. Her first issue in April 2007 had a 17 percent increase on the newsstand compared to the April 2006 issue. For the year, Seventeen became the No. 1-selling teen magazine on newsstands for 2007, the first time this has happened for Seventeen since Hearst Magazines acquired it in 2003. Additionally, after a relaunch of Seventeen.com in April of 2007, the website has had more than 1.3 million unique visitors per month.

Prior to Seventeen, Shoket was executive editor of CosmoGIRL! magazine since October 2003, and originally joined as senior editor at its launch in 1999.

While there, Shoket created a “CosmoGIRL! Born to Lead” patch program with The Girl Scouts and oversaw CosmoGIRL!’s leadership program Project 2024 that aimed to put readers in the White House by the year 2024. In 2000, she was tapped as Web editorial director to re-define Cosmogirl.com. A year later, MIN Magazine named the Web site the year’s “Best Web Play.” Under her watch, traffic tripled and online subscription sales increased 30 percent.

Before CosmoGIRL!, Shoket was senior editor with the Parade family of publications, where she launched the style section for Parade’s teen news magazine, React. At the beginning of the dot-com boom, she created the independent Web magazine Tag, which gave voice to an online community of artists and writers. She began her career as a reporter with renowned journalist Steve Brill at The American Lawyer. She has a B.A., cum laude, from New York University and a certificate in Media Management from The New School.

Shoket sits on the media advisory board of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy and resides in New York City.

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