“The Muffin Top Work Out. We help ya bust that gut before spring break” or “1000+ Guys Confess: What they secretly think about hanging out, hooking up - Everything!”
Is this for real?
Maybe I’m old fashioned, but I don’t particularly support seeing 13-year-old girls in sequined tops, mini-skirts and strappy 3+ inch heels. Page after page ... photos of long and perfectly styled hair, manicured nails, twiggy legs and excessive eye makeup. The visual message, both in print and body, remains the same: the preoccupation with weight and beauty.
It’s unrealistic and misleading, especially to the impressionable. Specimens pictured in these magazines have tiny waists, perfect skin, straight teeth, an endless wardrobe and hair with no split ends. The more I read, the more outraged I became. I pity the young readers who grasp the words and images of such garbage. Young women, of all shapes, sizes, colors and backgrounds, turn each page to only gaze upon false perfection and unrealistic messages.
Most of the information I read blew my mind. Seems media’s emphasis on looking, acting and talking like a celebrity overpowers the importance of individuality. In my tween years, popular magazines were limited to published fan mail, Scott Baio’s favorite album or Leif Garrett’s newest sports car. In the middle, folded up posters with pictures of Ricky Shroder and Rob Lowe showed crooked teeth, freckles and maybe a blemish or two. Kids looked liked kids, not airburshed wanna-be sex symbols. Times have certainly changed.
Originality seemed sparse, at best, in these new magazines. Even the advertisements were redundant. Copy cat publications of the Twilight book series were given double, full-page coverage. Seems many authors and publishers continue jumping on the vampire bandwagon. Before and after glam shots of natural-looking young ladies show them transformed into cheap reproductions of little girls trying to look older.
As the mother of an 11-year-old girl, I would like to see a mainstream publication that wasn’t so repetitive with perfection. Our young misses are all individuals with fresh minds, gapped teeth and loose pony tails. I encourage and celebrate their skinned knees, dirty faces and high-top Converse.
The magazines are eye catching. Lots of color, mixed text size, photographs and easy-to-read articles. I can handle the first kiss confessional, the “must read” book list, hair tips, the biological Q & A and the dangers of texting. It’s the clear skinned, white-bread, fantasy-world girls I can do without.
