Late in the summer, we gathered a group of precocious tweens in the San Diego area, and we started to workshop ideas. These meetings became a way for us to bolster these small humans to question things happening around them, encouraging them to shape their own opinions about the world. Not going to lie–this world we live in is challenging. When faced with many societal crises, we wanted to find the balm to make things feel better–the balm being the future generation. Surely, they must have some of the answers we were all looking for? We wanted some hope, and we found it.
A year later, Generation Torpedo is here. Working with these teen contributors has been humbling and so ridiculously fun. They have never failed to impress us with their ideas. They are articulate, pure, and so much smarter than anyone else we know. This makes us all rest easy that the world will be ok–that we will all be ok–because this generation will lead our way out of this darkness.
The theme of this debut issue is “Circles”, spotlighting the things that are on the forefront of their minds: the pandemic, now that we’re rounding the corner of yet another school year of uncertainty; the interlocking rings of the Olympic Summer Games in Tokyo, Japan; the wheel of fortune, where you win some and you lose some; the virtual togetherness found through video games and laptop screens amid social isolation; art, as observed as solitary individuals, but with the power to transform the globe; the encompassing community of being kind. Around and around, we go!
Generation Torpedo captures that magical age where everything is a possibility, where one can ponder about the world and then, just as quickly, spend hours playing tag football. Too old to be a child; too young to just play–honestly, they have the best of both worlds right now. It is our hope that this publication grows along with them; but if they happen to outgrow us, the baton can be passed onto the next generation, and so on and so forth. The future is really, truly, bright.
Without further ado,
Olivia and Mary