Wholesome Teens Turned Sex Symbols

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So…who graces the cover of Rolling Stone this week? None other than baby-faced Zac Efron. In the photo, not only is the 19-year-old Disney star taking off his shirt, but it could also be argued that he’s bashfully rubbing his man boob. The picture surely brings squeals of delight to millions of teeny-boppers, and just as equally brings nothing but a big shudder to the rest of us. Efron’s most famous roles are as a singing and dancing high school hunk in High School Musical and the movie version of Hairspray. The roles are innocent but the press he’s getting is anything but.

And if that doesn’t bother you, how about an almost-nude shot of our favorite wizard boy? *Shudders.

But really aren’t we just treating young male celebrities the way we’ve always treated female celebrities—with birthday countdowns, suggestive magazine covers, and sexy interview questions? Is this objectification or just a really great break for these young chaps? Either way, we can be sure Daniel Radcliffe doesn’t mind.

—Anna Weggel

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WE'LL BE BLUNT.

We have a considerable $390,000 gap in our online fundraising budget that we have to close by June 30. There is no wiggle room, we've already cut everything we can, and we urgently need more readers to pitch in—especially from this specific blurb you're reading right now.

We'll also be quite transparent and level-headed with you about this.

In "News Never Pays," our fearless CEO, Monika Bauerlein, connects the dots on several concerning media trends that, taken together, expose the fallacy behind the tragic state of journalism right now: That the marketplace will take care of providing the free and independent press citizens in a democracy need, and the Next New Thing to invest millions in will fix the problem. Bottom line: Journalism that serves the people needs the support of the people. That's the Next New Thing.

And it's what MoJo and our community of readers have been doing for 47 years now.

But staying afloat is harder than ever.

In "This Is Not a Crisis. It's The New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, why this moment is particularly urgent, and how we can best communicate that without screaming OMG PLEASE HELP over and over. We also touch on our history and how our nonprofit model makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there: Letting us go deep, focus on underreported beats, and bring unique perspectives to the day's news.

You're here for reporting like that, not fundraising, but one cannot exist without the other, and it's vitally important that we hit our intimidating $390,000 number in online donations by June 30.

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