Teen Magazine Essay, Research Paper

Lately I have been reading the teen magazines YM and Seventeen

and I’ve noticed one thing; they really annoy me. I feel like they are

just for preps and the trendoid freaks. Well what about the other groups?

The gangsters, punks, skaters, bikers, or whatever. They should really

give recognition to the other people in our society. Maybe they want just

the good teenagers around. They are not going to get what they want.

Maybe they think if they print stuff up all about preps and trends everyone

will follow. Well they should guess again.

I for one, will not follow any of that shit they say. They give

some of the most whacked advice for things. Take romance, I’ve tried to

follow the advice, but my outcome has not been successful. I know other

people who have tried, and their outcome has been the same. Take their

quizzes, then tell me that you do all that stuff. If you know me, then

tell me how often I wear bellbottom pants, or platform shoes, or pink

make-up, or little shirts that fit me. For those of you who don’t know me,

I can tell you right now, I wouldn’t be caught dead in that stuff.

That takes me to the clothes the models sport. How many girls in

this society are actually that skinny? It’s actually kind of sick. I

think they should widen their models to all sizes and shapes. What? Just

because a girl who is not amazingly skinny for a model, the company won’t

sell anything? Well I can’t exactly describe the clothes they wear, but I

have never run across a person wearing the same thing. But in Seventeen

they have a section called “School Zone” and they go around different

schools and take pictures of the students. I can understand the way they

dress and they do show different looks.

Both magazines put out information about bands, but I don’t listen

to those bands. As a matter of fact, I hate those bands. They are

alternative bands, and coming from me, they just suck. Well I will confess

to one thing. I have run across about 3 bands that I do like, but I have

been reading these damn magazines for about 3 years. So that tells you

something right there. I still haven’t listened to a word either one the

magazines have said. Otherwise I think I would have been a changed

teenager. The only thing that changed about me is that my clothes got

baggier and bigger.

I have to say one thing about their make-up and their little

jewelry and other crap like that. Some of it is way cool, but the other

stuff is only stuff that the run-way models would wear. They never tell

you where you can buy the stuff, but they will tell you the prices, which

are way the hell out there. So all a teenage girl can do it just sit there

and drool and wish she had that. Well I’m sick of that, and so are my

friends.

My best friend and I have subscriptions to these magazines. You

may ask why, if I’m talking so badly about these magazines, then why do I

still subscribe? The first reason is that my mom gave it to me and

sometimes I can actually enjoy reading YM and my best friend likes

Seventeen even though it annoys her sometimes. We’ll sit down and flip

through them when we get them and the first thing we’ll notice (well

besides the guys) is that all the advertisements show a girl and the first

thing that comes to our mind would have to be the word “sluts.” Well one

thing I’ve noticed is that yes they do have white and black models now.

But I’m still not seeing any Latino’s or Indian girls.

To conclude, I do share my opinion with many of my friends that

they should not just stick to the trendoids and preps. Much of what is in

these magazines is just plain sick. If people disagree with my opinion, I

respect their opinion and hope they respect mine. If Seventeen and YM

don’t want anything to do with other groups, then they should make other

magazines that can help with people like me and my friends.

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