Ypulse Mashup in June for Youth Culture Geeks Like Me

In addition to my passion for music and college radio, I'm also hugely obsessed with pop culture (it's even what I got my graduate degree in). In particular I love teen media and would happily spend an entire weekend watching teen movies and high school-themed TV shows.

So, it's no surprise that when youth culture blog Ypulse started up in 2004, I was smitten. I remember running across the blog one day at work and immediately shooting off an email to editor Anastasia Goodstein, telling her how much I loved the blog and how similar our interests were. We'd both worked at some teen-related start ups and nearly crossed paths at the much heralded teen girl site Kibu back in the Internet boom years. I ended up doing some guest posts and conference reports for Ypulse and for awhile was one of their contributing editors. Writing for Ypulse was a blast because sometimes you really really need to review the latest crop of teen/college-themed TV shows or reminisce about the power of high school journalism.

Even in the early years, Anastasia loved the idea of connecting people who shared her passion for the intersection of youth culture, teen media, and technology. She started out hosting small mixers and eventually grew her idea into a conference that she calls the Ypulse Mashup, since it brings together folks with wide ranging interests in youth media (tween, teen, and college), from school librarians and youth ministers to non-profits like 826 Valencia and Youth Radio to major media companies like MTV, Disney, MySpace and ABC.

I attended the Mashup the last two years in San Francisco (got to hear about teen tech trends, some Go-Go's related teen music trends and about some amazing hip hop-related projects last year and in 2007 both danah boyd and Henry Jenkins graced the stage, chatting about technology) and am excited to be going again this year (June 1st and 2nd in SF).

Spinning Indie readers can get 10% off the conference cost by using the code SI during registration. Some early-bird discounts are available until tomorrow and there are also lower fees if you're a student or at a non-profit.

If you're planning to go, let me know. It should be a blast.