Yaldah Magazine - History

History

In 2004, Leah Caras (then Larson) published the first issue of Yaldah at the age of 13 as a way to connect Jewish girls around the world. The first issue of the magazine sold out and after a year, they were printing two times the number of copies. The magazine became more and more widely known, and all different types of Jewish publications, and even other ones like American Girl, started requesting interviews and began to publish an enormous amount of articles. This helped spread the word about the magazine. But Leah Larson could not do the entire magazine on her own, especially as she was beginning to have more and more personal responsibilities, and in 2005, Yaldah formed their first Editorial Board with 13 girls, whose jobs consisted of writers, illustrators, photographers, Q&A editors, and more. In 2006, another Editorial Board was formed, and the first Jewish Girls Retreat was attended by over 50 girls. Along with winning many other awards, in 2008, Leah Caras (Larson) won $100,000 as a first place Wells Fargo Someday Stories winner. Throughout this time, many advertising campaigns were launched including the Real Readers Campaign, 10Friends, Project 2010, and more. In 2009, Yaldah Media Inc. was founded, and its first two books were published. Now Yaldah is available in bookstores nationwide, and is constantly expanding.