That changing model of a magazine is a journalist's worst nightmare, and an effort toward leveling the type of content that often fits into a magazine. Every three months of receiving contributions from everyday people worldwide, COLORS' staff of eight people select their most representative collected materials (or un-representative, as it were) and pay those people for their content. The next issue is themed "The Sea": "If you know someone who has never seen the ocean, please give them my contact information!" Begs Ravelo.

The "Teenagers" cover features a photography by unknown, unaffiliated-with-COLORS Japanese photographer Kenzaburo Fukihara. When Kenzaburo found out he had gotten his first cover, the photographer shared his excitement with the COLORS staff. "Even before we started sending out press releases, this guy was completely crazy, and telling everyone, 'They choose my cover, they choose my cover!'" Recalls Ravelo.

So what has Ravelo (who isn't an old man himself) learned about teenagers? "It's amazing how transitional young people are, like chameleons," he says. Ravelo remembers his own prolonged Guns N' Roses obsession, which he says couldn't happen again. "Most of the people that we interview,  one day they say they like something, and then the next day they say the opposite," which he attributes to the sampling and over-saturation of information brought on by the Internet, not all of it bad.

Ravelo's also uncovered a certain type of pack mentality when it comes to the technology: "I went to Esquire's web site, which calls itself the 'first magazine to use augmented reality technology.' We did it before. Months before—and we're the ones promoting it!" Teens will be teens.