‘The Hoopla’ creators launch teen website with books section

The creators of The Hoopla have launched a new website for teenage girls called Birdee, which features a dedicated section about books.

Birdee publisher Jane Waterhouse told Books+Publishing that the website’s books section, called Bookworms, will follow a similar format to The Hoopla’s books section The Book Shelf. ‘It will have book reviews, author interviews, book extracts, competitions and, like on The Hoopla, first chapters and lunchtime reviews,’ said Waterhouse. She said that books will be reviewed from several different genres and ‘many different publishers’, but that there are no plans to work directly with publishers to develop content for Birdee’s teenage readers.

Birdee currently features an article about the nonfiction book Big Questions from Little Minds (Gemma Elwin Harris, Faber), which includes excerpts from the book. Readers can click on a link to buy the book from online retailer Bookworld, although Waterhouse said the site may provide links to other retailers in the future. ‘We aren’t locked in to an affiliation with any specific retailers,’ said Waterhouse.

Waterhouse told Books+Publishing that Birdee will pay a stable of writers to write about books. ‘We have one young writer, someone who is a prolific reader and a fabulous writer, who’ll be championing that area. But we’ll have many more writers as well, and they’ll be sharing their roles,’ said Waterhouse. Birdee is also calling for young writers to contribute to other sections of the website on a paid basis, on topics including love, wellbeing, popular culture, style and sex.

Birdee is published by independent publisher We Magazines, which also publishes The Hoopla, and is edited by Hayley Gleeson, managing editor of The Hoopla. To find out more about Birdee, visit the website here.

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Category: Local news