Vera Papisova

Vera Papisova (born May 26, 1990) is a Russian-American journalist. Papisova was the first ever digital wellness features editor at Teen Vogue, and covered drug education, gender, identity, mental health, sexual health, sexuality, trauma, and wellness.

Early life and education Papisova was born in Russia to father Mikhail Papisov, a research scientist who specializes in molecular bioengineering and cancer drug development, and mother Elena Tokareva, a cardiologist and clinical researcher. She has a younger sister.

In 2008, Papisova graduated from Winchester High School in Winchester, Massachusetts, where she played doubles on the tennis team, winning the Division 2 state championship and listed as a national champion in the New England region.

In 2013, Papisova graduated from Boston University's College of Communication with a bachelor's degree in journalism.

Career While at Boston University, Papisova co-hosted a sex-positive radio show called "Girls’ Night In" with Allie Rosenberg on WTBU Papisova's work has been part of the magazine's shift towards social activism and empowerment since the sector was launched.

Papisova also ran the Teen Vogue sexual assault awareness campaign with the social media hashtag #NotYourFault. Not Your Fault is focused around a series of videos where men and women read about sexual assault and rape. As part of this campaign, Papisova's video series called Guys Read, and featured men reading sexist comments made about women and girls, won an American Society of Magazine Editors award. Papisova was also sexually harassed and sexually assaulted, saying she was groped 22 times over 10 hours she was at the festival.

Papisova documented the aftermath of reporting and coming forward about the experience on social media and, when the article came out, discussing the experience in interviews. She said that it illustrates online harassment and the double-victimization that victims of sexual harassment typically face.

In February 2025, Papisova published an article in Cosmopolitan that documented her experience going on far-right dating apps dating conservatives over the course of 2024. This piece was widely circulated as it provided a first hand account into the behaviors of far-right men in the dating scene. She matched with 60 men and went on dates with at least five men. The six men she mentioned in the article included: a man who has sent her death threats, a man with a swastika tattoo on his arm, a man who funds a crisis pregnancy center, and a man who touched her inappropriately in a church on a first date.

In 2013, while living in Boston and going to college, Papisova witnessed the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing from a nearby rooftop. 2017: GLAAD, GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Magazine Coverage 2018: Shorty Awards, 1st Annual Shorty Social Good Awards – Video (finalist)

Selected works and publications