Teen: Another evil tool that society is using to corrupt us.
Written: Apr 16 '00 (Updated Apr 16 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Good articles about violence, drugs, and health that teens are sure to skip.
Cons: Shallow material that will make you need Prozac later.
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| rebelgrrl's Full Review: Teen Magazine |
Okay, first of all I'd like to start by saying that I used to subscribe to this magazine. Why did I do it? Probably because I was 13 and all my friends subscribed to it, too. But, even at that young and vulnerable age, I was aware that I would receive the magazine, skim it, cut out cool little phrases in the ads to put on my wall, and throw it away. So when the subscription ran out, that's all she wrote.
This review is geared at any teen magazine out there. Until someone proves it, these are the guidelines that all teen magazines follow.
1)When they subscribe, put them on mailing lists for other teenish stuff.
2)Be sure to focus on the pop culture that every other magazine is focusing on.
3)Make a "Hottest Babes of the Century/Millenium/Year/Week" feature at least twice a year.
4)We need horoscopes to tell the teenagers what their secret crush will do next!!!
5)KILL THEIR SELF-ESTEEM
Okay, I'm going to close in on #5 for a bit. I cannot tell you how many times when I was 13 I thought that I was never going to find a boyfriend. I had no car, but already I was thinking about the do's and don'ts of dating. I wore makeup all the time and tried to keep up with the latest fashions. I was a shallow pre-teen. I would see the stories that these magazines posted that were written by 19 year olds and think that they were supposed to apply to me. I had never been sent flowers. No boy had ever taken me to a lake and confessed his eternal love to me. I thought that surely there was something wrong with me because I couldn't make guys do stuff like that. And how confusing is it when the 13 year old boys don't even want to hold your hand??
So what's a girl to do? I'll tell you exactly what every girl that I knew did. Look to older guys. Older guys can take you out on dates, older guys aren't afraid to kiss you like they talk about in magazines, older guys will give you teddy bears and send you flowers. Are you seeing where I'm going with this one? I know that you can't blame that just on one magazine, but is this really what every teenage girl should be reading? We see depictions of these glamorous lifestyles and we want them. We don't want to wait until we're mature, we want them now.
I won't even go into the details of the weight thing, because it's too obvious. In the 8th grade, I became anorexic. Is it the magazine's fault? Well, I made a poster out of the models in those magazines that I would look at every time that I wanted to eat. It motivated me not to eat. Luckily I had friends who saw what I was doing and I only lost about 15 pounds.
I am a huge anti-society activist. Anybody who knows me or reads my reviews knows this. I think that Teen, Seventeen, and other teen magazines only encourage young people to look for the wrong things in life. Seeing models with good looking guys and reading about expensive clothes will only make most teens unhappy that they don't have all that. I have to hand it to the magazines, though, I have seen really good articles about eating disorders, drug use, date rape, and that sort of stuff, but I know that my friends and I always skipped over those.
So if you're a concerned parent, just think about what's important in your daughter's life. I'm sure that there are teenagers who are mature enough to not let society tell them how to live, but I wasn't. So it's iffy on whether you should give in to your daughter's pleas for this magazine. Buying one once in a while won't hurt, but don't let them make a habit out of putting this trash into their brains.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
rebelgrrl
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Member: Melody Addington
Reviews written: 36
Trusted by: 19 members
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