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On a recent Saturday afternoon, I noticed an unusual silence from my 9-year-old’s room. I was surprised to find she wasn’t taking advantage of her allotted two hours of screen time; instead, she was curled up on her chair reading a magazine. Three decades ago, when I was her age, this wouldn’t have seemed strange. Starting in the late 1800s, the United States had a thriving culture around children’s magazines. Young children would get Jack and Jill, Turtle, or Sesame Street Magazine in the mail; teens would graduate to Sassy, Tiger Beat, or Teen People. But as the internet emergedwith blogs, streaming sites, and online games competing for young people’s attentionmagazines lost their luster. Although there are a few legacy magazines that still publish, like Sports Illustrated Kids, National Geographic Kids, and Highlights, most have gone out of business over the past 15 years. [Photo: Honest History] In a strange twist, however, kids’ magazines are making a comeback thanks to a new flock of startups. My daughter, for instance, was pouring over Anyway, a magazine for 9- to 14-year-olds that debuted in 2023. Jen Swetzoff and Keeley McNamara launched the magazine with a Kickstarter campaign to see whether there was an appetite for a publication that deals with the issues tweens are facing, from understanding body hair to developing personal style. The founders reached their funding goal within days, and hundreds of families now receive their quarterly magazine. Anyway is part of a broader wave of new publications that began nearly a decade ago with Kazoo, a quarterly magazine for 5- to 12-year-old girls that features contributors like Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Jane Goodall, and has won a slate of awards. There’s Honest History, which makes history engaging to elementary school kids. And Illustoria, a kid’s magazine for children up to 14, meant to encourage creativity and imagination. One of the more recent entries is Spark, a monthly activity magazine for kids between 4 and 8. According to these magazines’ founders, their publications are growing not in spite of smartphone culture, but because of it. As it becomes clear that too much screen time can be harmful to children, parents are willing to spend money on print magazines because they provide an alternative to technology. And this new world of kids’ magazines raises the interesting possibility that today’s children who grow up with print publications may continue to seek them out as they get older. [Photo: Kazoo] An Ad-Free Business Model Erin Bried, founder of Kazoo, had spent her entire career in magazines, as an editor at Self and Glamour. She’d seen the industry collapse as advertising revenue dried up and people stopped buying print magazines. Despite this, she believed there was a market for a magazine for young girls that inspired them to be smart and strong. I would take my daughters to the magazine rack and there really wasn’t anything they were interested in, Bried says. It occurred to me that I could create it. Bried quit her job to focus entirely on Kazoo. She began with a Kickstarter campaign to see if there was any appetite for the kind of magazine she had in mind, featuring stories by top children’s authors, interviews with heroines like Sonia Sotomayor and Misty Copeland, and comics. She raised an astounding $171,215 the highest figure for a magazine. Nine years later, the magazine has tens of thousands of subscribers who pay $58 a year, and every year the circulation grows. It’s the only children’s magazine that has won a National Magazine Award for General Excellence. [Photo: Kazoo] For Bried, it was crucial not to rely on advertising. She had seen how quickly advertisers had pulled out of magazines when they realized they could reach people more directly on social media and Google. But also, having direct subscribers gives Bried more control over her company. At so many magazines, you were reliant on ad dollars, clicks, and algorithms, she says. You were reliant on outside forces and never had total control over your own success. We aren’t in that situation. While Kazoo is profitable, its budget is much smaller than those of kid’s magazines of the past. Bried has made the business work by doing most of the work herself. She writes most of the copy, assigns fiction stories and comics, and hires illustrators. I only bring on female creators, given the focus of the magazine, and I make sure to pay them well, she says. But you cannot imagine how much work I personally put into each issue. (For instance, she deals with customer service issues, which means walking to the post box to send off isses that got lost in the mail.) It’s a similar story at the other magazines, which all rely on subscribers. The founders run a very tight ship, doing most of the work themselves, tapping on freelance artists and writers. And most are profitable. Sparks, founded by Katie and Cody Gibbs, is already in the black after one year, at a price of between $6.50 and $8.75 a month, depending on the length of the subscription. We didn’t want it to be cost prohibitive, Katie says. But we’re grateful to be profitable so quickly. [Photo: Anyway] Beautiful Immersive Art Objects Given that these magazines are competing with the visual appeal of screens, the founders have worked to make them aesthetically appealing. Their covers are beautiful, featuring stunning, immersive art and very little text. Honest History‘s cover this moth features a retro-modern image of robots, circuits, and clocks to reflect the issue’s focus on the history of technology. Anyway‘s features stunning photography of a female skateboarder in mid air. They’re very different from the magazines of the ’80s and ’90s that tended to have crowded covers packed with text advertising the content inside. While Katie Gibbs creates the content and puzzles in Spark, she partners with a design agency called Whiteboard that creates all of the illustrations. The magazine has a very clean aesthetic and consistent visual branding. There’s a lot of white space, a soft color palette, and some hand-drawn illustrations in the midst of the graphic design. [Photo: Anyway] In the past, consumers thought of magazines as disposable. But given that today’s consumers aren’t used to spending money on magazines, Honest History’s cofounder David Knight felt that it was important to deliver a product that felt more like a book or an art object that families would keep coming back to. When people are spending between $12 and $15 an issue, they’re more intentional about the purchase, and they’re looking to buy something that feels permanent, he says. This influences how these magazines tackle content. While kids’ periodicals used to focus on current events, today’s magazines tend to focus on topics that tend to be more evergreen. We’re trying to stay plugged into the issues kid’s care about today, but we’re always thinking about whether a reader will find this interesting a few months, or years from now, says Anyway‘s Swetzoff. [Photo: Emily Star Poole] An alternative to screen time Gen Z, who are now between 13 and 28, were the first cohort to grow up in a world of smartphones, social media, and video streaming. For years, it was unclear how this technology would impact them, but there’s now a growing body of data suggesting that it is problematic. A new meta-analysis of research suggested that children who spent a significant time on screens were more likely to develop socio-emotional problems. And a study by Gallup found that Gen Z reports the poorest mental health of any generation. As parents of tweens, Swetzoff and McNamara were alarmed by all of this data. They scrambled to find ways to help their kids navigate technology and develop strategies for coping with emotional challenges. A print magazine seemed like a smart solution. When we first had the idea for coming up with a magazine for teens, some parents asked why it had to be on paper, when it could so easily be online, Swetzoff says. But then, more data began to emerge about the impact of digital media on our kids, and we saw a shift. Parents really understood the value of having a print magazine. Anyway addresses some mental health issues directly. In the most recent issue, for instance, there’s a whole section about why sleep is important and how tweens can get better quality sleep. It’s also full of ideas for fun activities that don’t involve screens, like cooking and flower arranging. [Photo: Emily Star Poole] Parents of younger kids are eager to avoid the pitfalls of the previous generation. Spark is specifically designed to give 4- to-8-year-olds an alternative to screen time. It’s full of old fashioned puzzles and activities, like mazes, spot the difference pictures, and color by number.A big theme throughout our magazine is slowing down and noticing things, she says. We’re encouraging kids to look closely at the art. Can you find the flashlight somewhere in this camping scene? Honest History is on a similar mission. There’s something inherently calming and regulating about giving children something they can sit down with and encouraging them to look carefully at pictures, says cofounder Brooke Knight. It encourages better focus and learning, as opposed to a screen where they have images flashing at them. In an ironic twist, while technology killed the last generation of kid’s magazines, it is also technology that appears to be breathing life back into this business. Today’s parents seem willing to spend money on engaging and educational magazines, if it will get them away from shows and social media and video games. We’re seeing kids fall in love with magazines again, says Swetzoff. It’ll be interesting to see if they keep seeking out magazines as they get older. There’s a chance the magazine industry will make a comeback.
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E-Commerce
Amazon recently announced that it had deployed its one-millionth robot across its workforce since rolling out its first bot in 2012. The figure is astounding from a sheer numbers perspective, especially considering that were talking about just one company. The one million bot number is all the more striking, though, since it took Amazon merely about a dozen years to achieve. It took the company nearly 30 years to build its current workforce of 1.5 million humans. At this rate, Amazon could soon employ more bots than people. Other companies are likely to follow suit, and not just in factories. Robots will be increasingly deployed in a wide range of traditional blue-collar roles, including delivery, construction, and agriculture, as well as in white-collar spaces like retail and food services. This occupational versatility will not only stem from their physical designsjoints, gyroscopes, and motorsbut also from the two burgeoning fields of artificial intelligence that power their brains: Physical AI and Embodied AI. Heres what you need to understand about each and how they differ from the generative AI that powers chatbots like ChatGPT. [Photo: Amazon] What is Physical AI? Physical AI refers to artificial intelligence that understands the physical properties of the real world and how these properties interact. As artificial intelligence leader Nvidia explains it, Physical AI is also known as generative physical AI because it can analyze data about physical processes and generate insights or recommendations for actions that a person, government, or machine should take. In other words, Physical AI can reason about the physical world. This real-world reasoning ability has numerous applications. A Physical AI system receiving data from a rain sensor may be able to predict if a certain location will flood. It can make these predictions by reasoning about real-time weather data using its understanding of the physical properties of fluid dynamics, such as how water is absorbed or repelled by specific landscape features. Physical AI can also be used to build digital twins of environments and spaces, from an individual factory to an entire city. It can help determine the optimal floor placement for heavy manufacturing equipment, for example, by understanding the building’s physical characteristics, such as the weight capacity of each floor based on its material composition. Or it can improve urban planning by analyzing things like traffic flows, how trees impact heat retention on streets, and how building heights affect sunlight distribution in neighborhoods. [Photo: Amazon] What is Embodied AI? Embodied AI refers to artificial intelligence that lives inside (embodies) a physical vessel that can move around and physically interact with the real world. Embodied AI can inhabit various objects, including smart vacuum cleaners, humanoid robots, and self-driving cars. Like Physical AI, Embodied AI can reason about physics, as well as how one object affects another. However, since Embodied AI literally embodies a physical entity, such as a robot, it can also alter the real world around it, whether that be a robotic arm performing surgery, a humanoid bot working construction, or a self-driving truck transporting supplies from one location to another. Embodied AI has advanced capabilities due to the mobility of its physical body and, as Nvidia explains, additional sensors, which can include cameras or LiDAR, that enable it to perceive its surroundings. A real-time distinction It is worth noting that the terms “Physical AI” and “Embodied AI” are increasingly being used interchangeably to describe any AI that understands the physics and spatial relationships of the real world and uses that understanding to power the brains behind bots. However, most experts agree that Physical AI and Embodied AI are interrelated but distinct varieties of artificial intelligence. Henrik I. Christensen, an expert on robotics and AI and a professor of computer science at the University of California, San Diego, says that one distinguishing factor between the two is their real-time operational capabilities. “Physical AI denotes systems that [infer things] related to the physical world, such as friction, elasticity,” Christensen told me via email. This kind of system “may not operate in real time but has a detailed model of interaction in the physical world.” Embodied AI, on the other hand, “denotes systems that operate in the physical world [and also] interact with objects in the real world, [so] they must operate in real-time,” Christensen says. This real-time requirement is essential for robots working in the real world. If a robot doesn’t grab something as fast as it should, disaster can strike on the factory floor. He notes that Embodied AI systems often need to use simplified models to ensure they can “provide an answer fast enough.” Will robots take all the jobs? LLM artificial intelligence systems that power ChatGPT, Claude, Llama, Grok, and others have long been seen as a threat to white-collar jobs, since they can reason about information and generate answers based on that information, much like a human can. However, because LLMs lack both a physical presence and an understanding of how physics affects objects in the real world, they have generally been seen as less of a threat to blue-collar jobs, which typically involve physical labor and an understanding of how objecs interact in the real world. But Physical AI and Embodied AI systems change the blue-collar risk assessment. Physical AI systems now possess reasoning capabilities regarding physical interactions, and Embodied AI enables robots to apply that understanding in the real world. Yet, for now, at least, LLMs still pose a greater threat to white-collar jobs than Physical AI and Embodied AI do to blue-collar ones. This is because LLM technology is readily available and easily deployable across organizations at scale. While Physical AI systems could see nearly as speedy a rollout in the years ahead, Embodied AI systems face more hurdles due to the need to manufacture legions of robots capable of operating in real-world environments. However, as Amazons one millionth robot rollout demonstrates, companies are increasingly interested in integrating more bots into the workforce, whether thats in the factory or in the kitchen flipping burgers. As for why? Well, to take a line from my own novel, Beautiful Shining People, bots never accidentally drop or damage thingsnot to mention they never get sick, or need days off, or give away free burgers to their friends. In other words, Physical AI and Embodied AI-powered robots have the potential to save companies a significant amount on their biggest expense: labor. And they are sure to take advantage of it. The only question for me, then, is: When AI takes all our jobs, who will be left to buy the things these companies sell?
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E-Commerce
You dream of quitting a toxic job, pivoting to a new career, or starting your own business. But theres a financial reality to such a move: can you afford to earn less? In 2021, I quit a job as an executive at a tech company. I pivoted into content marketing and journalism, and, initially, I was earning about one-third of my previous salary. But I had spent months looking at our household budget, and was prepared to earn even less. When youre determined to make a change, youll look at your finances differently. You should calculate your freedom number and understand the changes you need to make in your budget. {"blockType":"creator-network-promo","data":{"mediaUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/04\/workbetter-logo.png","headline":"Work Better","description":"Thoughts on the future of work, career pivots, and why work shouldn't suck, by Anna Burgess Yang. To learn more visit workbetter.media.","substackDomain":"https:\/\/www.workbetter.media","colorTheme":"blue","redirectUrl":""}} Keep in mind that your freedom number is not your final destination. Its a transitional change in your income to pursue the career you want. Why your freedom number matters Your freedom number is the bare minimum you need to cover your essentials: rent/mortgage, groceries, insurance, utilities, etc. Its not the same as what youre spending to support your current lifestyle. Calculating your freedom number forces you to think about what youre willing to give upeven temporarily. Lets say youre earning $100,000 today and think you need to earn $80,000. But once you go through the numbers and cut everything nonessential, you might find that the number is far below $80,000. Knowing that makes it easier to navigate a career change, because you know what you need to get by. The bare minimum is your freedom number. Closing the gap in your freedom number If you dont think youll earn enough to cover your monthly expenses, there are ways to close the gap between your income and your freedom number. You might build up some savings and draw from that account when you make your move. Or you could supplement your income with a side hustle. When I first changed careers, I took a new full-time job and freelanced on the side. The combination of my new salary and my freelance earnings helped me reach my freedom number. It meant working in the evenings and on weekends, but it was worth it to make the change. Keep in mind that a lower income might be temporary. Within eight months of starting a new career, I took a new job at a much higher salary. I just needed to get a bit of experience on my resume, and then many more doors opened for me. As you settle into your career change and earn more, you can add back the things you enjoyed about your lifestyle. The temporary squeeze is worth it to find a freedom number that makes a lot of career options possible. {"blockType":"creator-network-promo","data":{"mediaUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/04\/workbetter-logo.png","headline":"Work Better","description":"Thoughts on the future of work, career pivots, and why work shouldn't suck, by Anna Burgess Yang. To learn more visit workbetter.media.","substackDomain":"https:\/\/www.workbetter.media","colorTheme":"blue","redirectUrl":""}}
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