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Melva Simons
Teen magazines are magazines aimed at teenage readers. They usually consist of gossip, news, fashion tips and interviews and may include posters, stickers, small samples of cosmetics or other products and inserts.
The teen magazine industry is overwhelmingly female-oriented. Several publications, such as Teen Ink and Teen Voices, cater to both male and female audiences, although publications specifically targeting teenage boys are rare.[1] Many scholars have critiqued teen magazines, as the topics presented are narrow and only present a limited range of female roles, some believe that they are effective because of the relationship developed between magazine and reader. There is a distinct feminine space that is made by the text itself as editors of teen magazines focus on making the content of their text appropriate to the analytical ability of their readers.
Although in the United States, adolescence is generally considered to be the period between the ages 11 and 19, and teen magazines usually cater to people within that range, many readers comprise an even wider age range.[4] According to a 2006 report by Magazine Publishers of America, 78% of teens read magazines.[5] Of the media that adolescents refer to for information about sex, teen magazines are particularly important because they influence knowledge, attitudes, and values about sex and sexuality, especially for teenage girls.[6]
According to Amy S. Pattee, author of The Developmental Appropriateness of Teen Magazines, the experience of reading teen magazines can result in heavy psychological impacts on their readers. The covers and content of the latest teen magazines promise adolescent girls dates, beauty, and success.[7] Compared to the rich superstar singer, and the skinniest model shown and praised in the magazine, the reader is most likely to be left with a negative self-image and a heavy desire to aspire to be just like the women they read about.
While some teen magazines focus almost exclusively on music and film stars, others feature more extensive coverage of lifestyle issues and are virtually junior versions of magazines such as Cosmopolitan or Cleo. Cosmopolitan is more focused on readers between the ages of 18 and 25, whereas Seventeen and Teen Vogue are geared towards teenagers and focus more on the bubbly teen gossip, celebrity culture, and newly stated trends on fashion and beauty.
In recent years, rapid technological advancement and the rise of the Internet has led to the emergence of online teen magazines. Examples include Faze in Canada, which is published in both web and print versions, and Rookie, an independently run online magazine and book series founded in 2011 by Editor-in-Chief Tavi Gevinson, which publishes writing, photography, and other forms of artwork by and for teenagers. With a digital format, the accessibility of teen magazines has also greatly increased, reaching readers from a diverse range of backgrounds and nationalities.
In the UK, sales in the teen magazine sector peaked in 1998. Teenagers had many more attractions competing for their cash and their attention, such as media delivered on the web and through mobile phones. Also, the booming celebrity weeklies attracted more teens from ever-younger ages (driven by celebrity TV series). In response to this, in April 2007, National Magazines - publisher of Cosmopolitan and Cosmo Girl! - launched a digital weekly magazine for teens, Jellyfish, in a trial. This was the second attempt in the UK to establish a new online business model, the first being Monkey from Dennis, which aims to sell to men aged 18 to 34. In both cases, readers sign up to be sent the 'eMag' by email. Each issue features interactive elements and 'pages' that can be 'turned'. However, National Magazines closed Cosmo Girl! in June and the Jellyfish experiment was drawn to a close in August.
The experience of reading teen magazines can result in heavy psychological impacts on their readers. The covers and content of the latest teen magazines promise adolescent girls dates, beauty, and success[8] As teen magazines are full of images of society's definition of physical perfection, compared to the rich superstar singer, and the skinniest model shown and praised in the magazine, the reader is left with a negative self-image and a heavy desire to aspire to be just like the women they read about.
Teen magazines overtly suggest through content and pictures, how women should look, dress, and act; they more subtly suggest, through exclusion of pictures and content what women should not do, be, or think.[9] The teen magazine, with its images of corporeal perfection and promises of social success, can be seen as evidence of a social ideal to which developing teens may aspire when reading the magazine. Self-development is influenced by an individual's alignment with a social group.[10] Such identification may lead an adolescent to form a mirror group, or clique of her own. As teens seek refuge in a socially safe category; teen magazines in particular offer monthly images of social promise.
Research shows that teen magazines are also having cultural impacts on its readers. Kelley Massoni, author of Modeling Work, considers teen magazines as a possible source for girl's perceptions about the work world, including their own career futures. The labor market in Seventeen-land is heavily skewed towards professional occupations, particularly in the entertainment industry.[12] A close reading of the text reveals four primary messages about the world of work: entertainment careers are a viable and prestigious option, men are the norm as workers, men hold the power, and fashion modeling is the pinnacle of "women's work".
Thylane Loubry Blondeau, a 10-year-old with stunning good looks, seems destined for a wildly successful modeling career. But photos of the preteen in this month's issue of French Vogue are reigniting a debate over the sexualization of young girls.
With her full lips, waist-length hair and piercing blue eyes, Blondeau is already an in-demand model. The Parisian has been modelling since she was four, appearing in such magazine as Vogue Enfants. But it's her spread in this month's French Vogue that has tongues wagging.
The issue, which was guest-edited by designer Tom Ford, shows the preteen Blondeau wearing a red dress, leopard-print stilettos and red nail polish while lying on a tiger skin rug in one shot. In another, she reclines on a bed dressed in a low-cut, gold lame gown and gold stilettos.
The editorial is said to have been designed to question our culture's -- and the fashion industry's -- obsession with youth. The copy in the spread asks, in part, "What makeup at what age? How does one wear makeup at 13? What about at 70? Obviously not like one does at 20."
Janna Sauers, editor at Jezebel.com notes the images are disturbing, but that they're "purposefully, knowingly disturbing" and aimed to provoke a reader to question the fashion industry's treatment of young girls.
"Models only three or four years (and one middle-school growth spurt) older than Thylane grace international runways, glossy magazine covers, and ad campaigns for luxury brands regularly," she writes. "Only they are not styled as children, which Thylane and the other child models so obviously were in this spread, with their too-big shoes and their white, little-kid cotton undershirts peeking out from too-big designer outfits."
Blondeau is not the first young model to stir up the sexualization debate. Brooke Shields created plenty of controversy in 1981 when the then-15-year-old posed provocatively in Calvin Klein jeans and declared that nothing came between her and her Calvins.
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