Study your target audience members. Know what they are interested in. Keep current on trends that affect your target audience. Since this will be a fashion magazine, keeping abreast of current trends is of the utmost importance. Fashion magazines live or die by how well they stay on top of what's hot.
Name your magazine and design a logo. Think of the magazine names you remember: "Glamour," "Cosmopolitan," "Young Miss" and "Seventeen." Now come up with something equally memorable for your magazine. Choose a name that encompasses what your magazine is about. Avoid names that are hard to pronounce or so off the wall that no one will know what you're about. Get your name trademarked and registered with the U.S. Copyright Office.
Design the overall layout and content of your magazine. This is important if you plan to have more than one issue. Readers like to open the page to a familiar layout month after month. Readers want to know that they can turn to regular columns and features. This applies to young readers as well. Use desktop publishing software like Adobe InDesign or Microsoft Publisher to create the layout of your magazine. Save a template so you don't have to do the same work month after month.
Create your magazine content. If you aren't a writer, it's time to hire one. Better yet, if you know someone who can help you do the work at no charge, so much the better. It will save on publishing expenses. You will need articles, interviews, trivia, quizzes and other filler material for your magazine. The same holds true for illustrations and photographs. Remember to clear all permissions needed before you publish anything you don't own the copyright to, and be sure you have a model release for anyone whose likeness appears in your magazine. If your model is not of legal age, obtain permission from his or her legal guardian.
Use desktop publishing software to pull the pages of your magazine together and make it camera ready. When you have everything laid out the way you want it to look when printed, save it as an Adobe PDF file and find a printer to actually produce the magazine. It's not cheap. Glossy covers will cost you more. The more color you use, the more expensive your printing will be. How the magazine is bound will affect cost. Some printers offer discounts on larger printings. Discuss your options with your printer before you hire him to do the job. Don't be afraid to call around and get price quotes from other printers. You've put a lot of hard work into creating your magazine. You want the finished result to measure up.