Karen the editor's page.

Benjamin Franklin said that the two things you can always count on are death and taxes. I am tempted to add: You can also count on lots of boy-related articles to appear in just about any teen magazine.

What I didn't count on was how many readers are driven nuts by this fact. Take this e-mail we got from Jen in Pennsylvania: "You know, there's more to life than guys and dating. When GL prints stories on how to get a guy to like you, I feel like you're telling us all girls need boyfriends to be happy. I'm not boy-crazy, and you have no idea how frustrated these articles make me feel." Jen, duly noted.

For the first eight years, GL barely ran any articles on crushing, dating, kissing or anything else that smacked of guydom. But after getting letter after letter from girls asking for help and advice, we felt we needed to step up. After all, we were always saying that girls should go after their dreams. Suddenly, it seemed super-judgmental to totally blow off all girls whose dream was to have a boyfriend.

Don't get me wrong--I don't think anyone needs a boyfriend. But for most of us, sooner or later, boys do factor into the picture. The trick is to be smart about them. That's why we try to write articles about how to crush on a cutie, find a BF and, yikes, get rid of a dog of a dude before he turns your heart into a pancake. And after running more of these articles than perhaps Jen from Pennsylvania would like, you'd think I'd be the queen of smart dating. Uh, no.

I recently broke up with my long-time boyfriend, a great guy who is still one of my best friends. As much as it royally blew to say sayonara to someone I truly adore, I know it was the right thing for both of us. So that means I am single.

Of course, since I edit GL, everyone assumes dating must be a piece of cake for me. I write articles on this stuff, after all! But as capable as I am at telling girls how to crush without driving themselves crazy, when it comes to boys, I still dork out every single time (yep, every single time).

Often, people ask me if it's tough to come up with new topics for the magazine after 10 years. While I am constantly inspired to do articles I feel are fresh and exciting, the truth is, each and every issue, I could probably write about the male species. Boys seem to be the mystery no girl will ever really solve--no matter how boy-crazy or boy-sane (or somewhere in between). Even, it seems, if you are a GL reader--or the GL editor.

And, in some ways, that's the beauty of the whole thing. After all, if crushes were simple, what fun would that be? Maybe, someday, one of us will figure it all out and I can write about it.

But until that day, GL will still be here to help you--and me--out.