In June 2007, Boys' Life garnered four Distinguished Achievement Awards conferred by the Association of Educational Publishers (AEP), including Periodical of the Year.

[7] The magazine's mascot is Scout the Maileagle, who answers readers' letters and is the subject of a comic strip.

In 1911, George S. Barton, of Somerville, Massachusetts, founded and published the first edition of Boys' Life magazine.

Content includes Special Features, Adventure Stories, Bank Street Classics, Entertainment, Environmental Issues, History, Sports, and Codemasters.

Comics have included Bible Stories, Pedro, Pee Wee Harris, Scouts in Action, Rupert the Invincible, Rocky Stoneaxe, Space Conquerors (1955 to 1975); The Tracy Twins (created by Dik Browne), Dink & Duff, Tiger Cubs, Webelos Woody, Norby, and John Christopher's The Tripods trilogy.

Boys' Life contracted with the Johnstone and Cushing art agency to produce much of its early cartooning content.

[10] Feature columns include Electronics, Entertainment, Fast Facts, History, Hitchin' Rack With Pedro the Mailburro, Think and Grin (jokes page), Science, Scouting Around, and Sports.

Pedro's official function is "mailburro," and for years, he appeared at the beginning of the letters to the editor column.

A short paragraph detailing Pedro's latest "adventure" was decorated with a cartoon version of the beast by cartoonist Reamer Keller.

In every issue since 1989, Boys' Life included a column "written" by Pedro that later evolved into a department known as "Hitchin' Rack".

Writers contributing over the years include Isaac Asimov, Bertrand R. Brinley, Catherine Drinker Bowen, Ray Bradbury, Van Wyck Brooks, Arthur C. Clarke, J. Allan Dunn, Bobby Fischer, Alex Haley, Robert A. Heinlein, William Hillcourt, John Knowles, Arthur B. Reeve, Ernest Thompson Seton, Zane Grey, and Isaac Bashevis Singer.