West Orange High School junior Autumn Tucker read out loud her three pieces of writing in The Pulp Pages’ October “spooky” issue to the other eight teens sitting in the room.
The cover of The Pulp Pages’ third volume and October “Spooky” issue.
Photo by Megan Bruinsma
She read through her music review of the Mezzanine Album by Massive Attack, her photo of a spooky cupcake she encountered at Halloween Horror Nights and a book review of Gris Grimly’s “Frankenstein.”
Tucker has a love for creative and fun writing. It’s a passion she’s carried throughout her life and wants to continue. She views it as a way to express herself, and she enjoys sharing her work with others. In school, she’s had challenges finding a creative outlet.
When she discovered The Pulp Pages, a community service outreach where she had unlimited creative opportunities, it was a no brainer for her to join. Through the magazine, she’s found a creative outlet.
Once per month, students like Tucker gather in West Oaks Library to work on The Pulp Pages, which is the official West Oaks Library’s Teen Literary and Creative Arts Magazine. Teens earn community service hours by participating.
The Pulp Pages officially launched in July 2025 at the West Oaks Library as a part of the Teen Zine program in the Orange County Library System.
The Alafaya Branch Library first started the program in March 2023 with the Orange Slice edition to celebrate 100 years of OCLS, and since then, four more branches have followed suit.
The Pulp Pages captures the essence of a magazine. It has a colorful and graphic cover and inside are elements you would find in a traditional magazine. There’s pictures, stories, a crossword puzzle, information for events and a page highlighting the teens who submitted their work.
CREATIVE OUTLOOK
The Pulp Pages’ magazine editor, Ashley Rosario, said the magazine was created to encourage teen volunteers to express themselves creatively through writing, art and photography. The Orange County Library System wants the teens to share their experiences.
“It gives them a platform to use their voices and talents in meaningful ways,” she said.
Tucker felt proud to physically be able to hold her work. She said it’s like her baby. She’s never done anything like this before.
“It feels really official and professional,” Tucker said.
Although Tucker initially joined simply for the community service hours, The Pulp Pages quickly has turned into something “really fun.” She feels free to express herself and explore different forms of writing with peers in her community.
Tucker enjoys the community experience of sharing their creative ideas. She said even if she exceeds the amount of hours she’s able to log, she plans on continuing to write as a leisurely activity.
Teens have a wide variety of submission categories they can choose from, including short stories, poetry, art and photography, comics, as well as book, entertainment, music and program reviews.
Rosario said it’s special because teens gather community service hours for something they like to do. It’s exciting for her to see what teens submit and the work they’re capable of producing. She’ll share the submissions with other members of the library to show off their work.
Ashley Rosario proudly held up The Pulp Pages October issue. It was “spooky” themed. The magazine’s past editions had sports and nature themes.
Photo by Megan Bruinsma
Every completed issue is displayed in the public area of the library for visitors to look through or take home with them. Rosario strategically places it in areas teens frequent more, like the children’s reading section and a table by the entrance with local newspapers.
“It’s also inspiring for younger children who get to see what older students are creating and imagine what they might do when they’re older,” Rosario said.
Since the magazine has started, they’ve had anywhere from eight to 12 participants. The meeting Saturday, Oct. 18 was the group’s third one and they’ve started to build a steady group of regular attendees.
During the meeting, the teens started by stapling together the pages of the October issue. They all grabbed a copy before heading back to their seats and Rosario allowed those who had a submission in it to read it.
They set to work brainstorming on a theme for the November issue and decided on “food” in light of Thanksgiving. After settling on the theme, the teens pulled out canvases and paint the West Oaks Library provided them and started working on creating their own masterpiece. They turned in their finished paintings to Rosario to add to the next Pulp Pages issue.
With every paint stroke and word written, teens earn themselves more community service hours.
COMMUNITY SERVICE
Aside from giving teens a creative space to publish their work, The Pulp Pages allows them to earn community service hours.
To participate, teens need to register for the Teen Volunteering: The Pulp Pages program at West Oaks. They can do it online, in person or over the phone using their library card.
Rosario said depending on how involved teens are, they can earn anywhere from one to eight community service hours per month. They earn one hour for each meeting they attend and an additional hour if they present their work. Each entry they submit to the magazine earns an hour, too.
The October meeting was Tucker’s second time attending and she plans on returning again. She said it’s an opportunity many different people can enjoy and it’s a lot more fun compared to other volunteering opportunities. Tucker and her sister Grace Tucker, began brainstorming what photography submissions they could do for the November issue. They used Autumn Tucker’s cupcake submission from the October as inspiration for future photo submissions.
After the meeting concludes, teens have a two-week deadline to submit their pieces for the next issue. Sometimes Rosario has new teens reach out after the deadline and in that case she’ll make an exception.
Rosario said everything the teens turn in is submitted to the magazine as long as it adheres to the content restrictions. All creative submissions must be age appropriate. It cannot have mentions of drug use, sexual content, drinking or nudity. Teens can’t use inappropriate language and they have to avoid topics of self-harm and other controversial topics.
OCLS placed these restrictions to make a welcoming magazine to all in the community. Rosario hasn’t had any issues with teens following the rubric.
As the magazine editor, Rosario is responsible for editing and revising all the submissions.
Teens either email her their work or hand it in during the meeting and she helps guide them throughout the creative process when they need inspiration. She accumulates all submissions to lay out the magazine.
“The number of submissions we receive varies each month, which keeps every issue unique,” she said.
The whole process takes her about a week to put together. Rosario makes all of the graphics behind teens’ submissions but they’re responsible for the bulk of its content.
Rosario has known about the Teen Zine program for a while, ever since Alafaya began it in 2023. When she heard it was coming to West Oaks, she jumped on the opportunity to take on the role and be a part of the teens’ creativity. She saw the success at the Alafaya branch and thought it was important to expand the program to other branches.