I was in the doctor's office, waiting for my appointment. Like other doctors' offices, there are plenty of magazines in the waiting room. Since I am the Editor-in-Chief of Teen Trend Magazine, I tend to grab the latest issues of other teen magazines to see how Teen Trend compares.

Sassy was my favorite magazine when I was growing up. It was fresh. It was wholesome. It was fun. It was, well, sassy. Unfortunately, Sassy grew up with its readers and became Jane.

Teen Magazine was always a little too "girly" for me. It predominantly talked about cute boy celebrities and all things frilly. I just wasn't into that.

Tiger Beat, Bop and Wow! were all about celebrities. Now, I bought my fair share of these magazines just for the locker pin-ups of New Kids on the Block, Kirk Cameron and Ralph Macchio. But, the articles were boring and "fluffy."

I didn't subscribe like I did to Sassy. but I really enjoyed reading Seventeen. This magazine was - and still is - a more fashion-driven magazine for teenagers. Seventeen focused on the wants and needs of teenagers (and their budgets), and gave young teens an idea of the teenager that they could - and should - become.

What happened?

Suddenly, Seventeen stopped focusing on "normal" or "real" teenagers and started focusing on controversy, and the young celebs that controversy seems to follow. No longer do you see the sweet-faced teens on the cover of Seventeen. Now you find the likes of Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears and, on the most recent issue, Paris Hilton. How can teenagers relate to these older celebrities? Britney is in the middle of a divorce and has two children, plus she is 25 years old. Lindsay Lohan has major familial and substance abuse problems, and will be 21 in the summer of 2007. And Paris Hilton? In the feature story / interview with soon-to-be 26-year-old Paris, she talked quite a bit about sex and how it is "no big deal". Why would you expose a 14-year-old to this? After all, reader habits have been studied and the demographic that reads teen magazines is predominantly 12 - 15 year old girls.

The feature stories, aside from the interviews, really aren't that great and are definitely not age-appropriate. For example, there was a story about a 23-year-old woman who contracted HIV from unprotected sex with one guy. This is a story that should be in Cosmopolitan, not Seventeen. Another story that ran in Seventeen was about a 16-year-old that hid her pregnancy until the day she gave birth. This is not the type of message that teens should be receiving from the media. It is just plain irresponsible.

Even the quality of writing isn't that great. Typos riddle the articles. Virtually all of the articles are written in a first person perspective, which makes them very difficult to relate to. Sure, they go through some sort of editing process (at least, I hope they do), but they can seriously do a much better job with it. Even if I enjoyed the articles, it would be under the dark cloud of poor editing.

The photo spreads are nice, but are your run-of-the-mill fashion photos. There isn't anything exciting or interesting about them-- they all seem to have the same, blue background. And this is not for just one issue. There isn't any creativity in the composition of the photographs. Plus, all of the models are clearly not teenagers, albeit absolutely stunning. This doesn't help with a teenager's already poor self image.

I don't know when Seventeen stopped caring about their teenage readers and started caring more about celebrity status. It is such a shame, because Seventeen used to be a terrific magazine. Now, it's a magazine with the same style and feel as Cosmopolitan. If you're a teenager, pass this one by. You're not ready for it yet. And if you're an adult, you can pass this one by, too. Just pick up a Cosmo or Glamour. You'll find the same type of articles, only with better writing and pictures.


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