FOR KIDS : Stirring Catholic Youth : YOU! magazine, with its emphasis on faith in celebrities’ lives, seems to fill formerly neglected need.

With a slogan like “The Alternative Youth Magazine,” readers might imagine the bull pen of YOU! Magazine in Westlake Village to be filled with the lingering scent of marijuana and staffed by foul-mouthed youths with more body piercings than Madonna.

Heavens, no.

Instead, this unusual clan of writers, artists, etc. have banned smoking in the office, speak in tongues and pray the rosary daily to honor the real Madonna, the Virgin Mary.

Yet YOU! staffers have every right to brand their product an alternative to the other Generation X magazines on the market. Although it has the same splashy graphics and celebrity interviews, YOU! touts itself as the only international youth magazine aimed at Catholics.

“Every other teen magazine I look at out there has one thing on its mind--aesthetic beauty,” said Chris Taleck, 25, from Tuscon, a graphic artist for YOU! “We go one step further. We bring issues into the light. And the readers respond to that.”

With 45,000 paid subscribers in Latin America, Europe and the United States, YOU! has the numbers to back up this approach.

According to publisher Paul Lauer, YOU! is published in four languages (English, Spanish, German and Polish), has no competition from other Catholic youth magazines and rates well against Catholic publications aimed at adults.

By comparison, the National Catholic Register, a weekly Catholic newspaper published in Sherman Oaks, has about 23,000 circulation, according to Catherine Calvin, its circulation manager.

Like many other magazines, each issue of YOU! features film and music reviews, the latest pop culture trends, reader response columns and celebrity interviews. But what separates the magazine most from other publications is the way the interviews and articles bolster the Catholic faith by tackling modern issues from teen sex to bulimia.

“If you look at the front cover, you won’t know this is a religious publication,” said Lauer, 32, pointing to the magazine covers featuring Kurt Cameron, Amy Grant, Joe Montana, Los Lobos and Harry Connick Jr.

“Our forte has been interviewing celebrities of all kinds about their faith,” Lauer said. “Once we’ve broken that wall and been able to get into a celebrity’s faith, it has a tremendous impact on our young readers out there.”

“The gospel message is simple to understand,” Lauer said. “What is difficult is communicating the message in a language youths can understand. The reason YOU! magazine works is because we communicate the message in a language and a format that young people understand: pop culture. Movies, music, celebrities, sports. That’s their language.”

Teresa Cech agreed. She helps produce the 10,000-circulation German-language edition of the magazine in Austria.

“Many young people think the Catholic faith is boring,” said Cech, 20, who is spending three months at the Westlake Village office learning new production techniques. “The magazine is a good chance to let them know that the Catholic faith is exciting.”

This excitement is generated through a variety of features. While some are as unusual as articles on a sports-broadcasting nun or shark attacks, most focus on guiding youths over rough spots in their faith.

Recent examples include a guide to answering pro-choice arguments, a crash course in the world’s faiths and a how-to column on avoiding sexual pressure from other teens--all written by a rotating crew of staff writers.

And while the magazine follows the traditional Catholic line by bashing lesbianism and abortion, it also takes on social issues not yet addressed by the church. The June/July issue lauded a nationwide boycott of Calvin Klein products because of the firm’s alleged use of anorexic-looking models.

“The truth is,” wrote YOU! reporter Gina Davis, “advertising’s portrayal of bone-thin models doesn’t represent reality and could never reveal the true beauty that shines through each person’s soul.”

Church officials have responded to the magazine with praise. Cardinal Roger M. Mahony of the Los Angeles Archdiocese said he is “impressed with the quality of YOU! magazine’s content. It shows young people that it is possible to integrate their faith into their everyday lives, especially through features such as interviews with celebrities young people admire who are living their faith.”

Although the magazine draws such advertisers as Domino’s Pizza and Word, a Christian record label, many missionaries, monasteries and convents also seem to appreciate the magazine, as shown by the many advertisements recruiting youths. Mahony also sees the magazine stirring up future men and women to serve the church.

“I appreciate the magazine’s emphasis on each of us answering Jesus’ call to service,” Mahony said. “I would expect that vocations to ministry in the church will have their origins in the pages of YOU!”

Ironically, the magazine’s founder is a self-described former pagan who steam-rolled through Judaism, Buddhism, Christian Science and Christian fundamentalism before devoting himself to the Catholic faith in 1984.

Even more ironic, Lauer got his magazine idea off the ground with a boost from an Orthodox Jew. Starting with $3,000 left to him in his Jewish grandfather’s will, Lauer left a career playing guitar in a rock band and used the experience that gained him a college degree in English literature to print his first issue in his parents’ garage in 1987.

“I fell in love with the Catholic Church’s structure and the clear meaning and guidance,” Lauer said. “It’s changed me for the better. I felt that this is the thing that other young people are searching for. The same void exists in the U.S. for young people as exists all over the world.”

According to Lauer, Catholic adults have 626 publications to choose from to learn about their faith, while Catholic youths have only one: YOU! Magazine. To fill that void, Lauer seeks out the same people to run the magazine as those who read it.

Recruited from all over the world through the magazine’s published appeals for help, youthful interns make up nearly all of his staff, committing themselves to one-year internships and housed with room and board in a Westlake Village condo rented out by Lauer.

In addition to the free rent, the nine interns on the staff of 12 are paid a small monthly stipend of $75.

But it’s not always easy for Lauer to pay even those small stipends, such as when Lauer’s company, Veritas Communications Inc., was $50,000 short to publish the August/September issue. Thanks to a 17-year-old assistant controller named Keith Adams and a $50,000 grant from a Detroit benefactor, however, the YOU! bullpen got the magazine out. Despite such frantic episodes, Lauer contends that the financial picture is improving for his company.

“We have run under an annual deficit that has been as high as $250,000 per year, but in 1995, it is only expected to be $170,000,” he said. “We have always relied on large contributions from foundations and individuals to offset our annual deficit.”

The young writers look at it as a learning experience.

“It’s a lot of pressure, but I think it’s easier when we are all working together,” said Adams, who came to YOU! fresh out of high school in New Hampshire. “This is a good opportunity to learn about business and learn about my faith.”

And there is no sin in that.

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WHERE TO GO

What: YOU! magazine.

Location: 31194 La Baya Drive, Suite 200, Westlake Village, 91362.

Subscription rates: $19.95 per year, for 10 issues.

Call: (818) 991-1813.