Seventeen Again

by Abbie C.

Seventeen magazines are the most highly read magazine by teen girls in the world. Walter Annenberg’s Triangle Publications published the first issue in 1944 and now Hearst owns the magazine. Unlike many teen magazines that undergo serious problems, Seventeen has been flourishing from the beginning. The content of Seventeen has information any teen girl would dream of. Including, fashion, makeup, dating, health and exercise, college and career, and then a specific section for “fun stuff.” This is made up of “Traumarama” a section where teen girls from around the world share their most humiliating moments for readers to view.

Seventeen, despite its name is mostly targeted to teens under seventeen years old. A lot of the information in the magazine is extremely immature for seventeen year olds these days. In every issue of Seventeen’s, readers are allowed to comment on the previous issue. Majority of the reviews published are by girls between the ages of 13- 16 with a few erratic females over the age of seventeen. Many reviews consist of girls explaining their reaction with the previous publication. The majority of the time, the reviews highly praise the magazine for its honesty on important topics. Some of the time, adults become highly involved with the magazine because they are paying for their children to read it. It is shown through extensive research for ongoing years that magazines such as Seventeen play a monumental role in adolescent girls. Many adults believe the messages sent out in Seventeen undermine girls.

Seventeen’s messages are usually very virginal and understandable for a teen magazine but at times people think it goes a bit too far. Some readers see that the central focus is on the body. Not only to be healthy, but as well to make sure it looks “hot.” Many adults are concerned with how prioritized the magazine is on to look good for other people, and that diminishes teens self-image.

I started to read Seventeen magazines at a young age of 8. My parents were very cautious to have me begin reading it, thinking I would “grow up too quickly” reading a teen girls magazine. I discussed with them I was only reading it to see the cute clothes, and the fun horoscopes in the back of the magazine. Secretly, I was incredibly amused by the engaging stories that were a bit too mature for me to read. I began to ask my mom overly sophisticated questions, which she easily connected back to the last issue of Seventeen. We would talk about the latest horrific story in “Real Life.” Growing up the constant discussion about the body in the magazines was overwhelming for me. It began to make me feel like I should look a certain way, which I was far from. I began to realize how ridiculous the magazine was really quickly. The clothes quickly went from cute to trashy, the makeup beautiful to cheap, the advice interesting to unreliable. The magazine no longer fascinated me like it did before. Now, when a Seventeen ends up in my reach, I flip through it laughing at the ludicrous advice and clothing. It’s extremely amusing now, and probably will be forever.

www.womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/1580