Magazines Target Preteen Girls

I’ve decided to write a review of Seventeen Magazine. It is owned by Hearst Magazine that also distributes such readings as Cosmo Girl, Teen, and Marie Claire also targeted at adolescents. Even though this magazine is called Seventeen it’s targeted audience is structured for teenage girls between the ages of 13-18, roughly.

The topics that are most popular in this magazine are many. The ones that stand out the most are on the cover which is hair, kissing boys, jewelry, and what to wear in the spring time. They also have a few articles that have a little of concrete value such as “Why College is Better Sober” which explains how to have fun without drinking all the time. There is another article titled “Worth Waiting for……” to educate girls on why you should abstain from sex. Then there is one titled “Why Don’t I look like That?” which is meant to help girls understand that not every girl is tall, blonde and skinny.

These topics are of interest because the most important things to girls this age are how to dress, what their hair looks like, and how to deal with boys. Obviously, these topics are presented in a majority positive light, because why else would this magazine be able to sustain for so many years? It does still present some negative aspects because most of the girls feel the need to have the expensive clothes or the expensive hair styles and some girls families can afford to give their teen that while most cannot. The biggest negative thing is that this magazine talks a lot about relationships with the opposite sex and goes so far as to include an article of how to tell if you might be gay. As a target audience of kids as young as 13, this is not something that should be advertised or learned about from a magazine