Editor Rain Francis Founder John and Vicki Francis First issue November 1986 | Categories Youth Year founded 1986 Final issue October 2014 | |
Tearaway Magazine was a free youth lifestyle magazine, founded in Whanganui, New Zealand in 1986. Known as The Voice of New Zealand Youth, it was aimed at teenagers and young adults in New Zealand. It was founded by John and Vicki Francis and, after a series of changes of ownership in the late 2000s and early 2010s, it was then run by Publisher Rain Francis. Rain, the Editor of Tearaway since 2009, announced in October 2014 that Tearaway was becoming fully digital, with the Term 4, 2014 edition of the magazine being its last printed issue. Tearaway is now predominantly a magazine website, with its own YouTube channel, Tearaway TV.
The content in Tearaway is created almost entirely by the Tearaway Mavericks, a group of young New Zealand writers, photographers, film-makers and illustrators gaining experience in the media industry.
The name of the magazine was chosen because in New Zealand slang a "tearaway" is a bit of a rebel, which was thought to describe the magazine's readers. In addition, the founders intended to 'tear away’ from the style and attitude that most other publications had towards teenagers – to find new ways of presenting the stories of young people.