For me, I don't write anything unless I have at least an eye toward selling it -- and selling teen articles really requires that you be very familiar with teen magazines. It doesn't sound like you are. Since I hate wasted effort, I would go for intermediate nonfiction. There are probably 3 intermediate nonfiction markets for every 1 teen market that takes unsolicited freelance. And the sky really is the limit for topics. Science articles are very popular -- I recently read a newspaper article about mice that glow under a black light. It seems to be something scientists produced by monkeying around with the mouses genes. I immediately recognized a cool article -- what other "kid cool" things are coming out of genetic tinkering? Remember to pick a fairly tight focus and stick to your slant. And chase a topic that seems like fun to you -- nothing will kill an article quicker than a bored writer.
gran