Seventeen Magazine

For my second artifact I decided to read through a copy of Seventeen Magazine. This magazine is produced specifically for teenage girls. Fashion, boys, beauty and fitness are all major focuses within each issue. As a 15 year old high school teenager I read this magazine quite often, taking everything it said to heart. Now that I’m a bit older I looked through it and realized it isn’t anything I want to try and live by anymore, it’s just another thing to read when I have nothing better to do.

Thinking back to my 15 year old self, I really fell into this magazine and its hypocrisy. This magazine makes an attempt at talking about “true beauty”. It has an entire section about “true beauty” and then on the next page has an entire section on how to do your make-up correctly and all the ways to “make him drool”. This says plenty about the life in the empire. This magazine is something that many young girls feed into. Young girls read this and really take it all to heart. Therefore they feel they need to do their make-up the way the magazine says in order to reach “true beauty”. The empire is all about making us feel as though we are never good enough. It’s taught us that enough really isn’t enough. The empire has also taught us that if we aren’t impressing people then there is something wrong with us. No girl should be trying to “make him drool” with her make-up. This kind of message is completely unnecessary to feed into a young girl but this magazine takes part in it because the empire has taught us that it’s acceptable. Another way that life in the empire is exemplified through this magazine is in the fashion section. Yet again the magazine shows a little bit of hypocrisy here. On one page it discusses how we should all sign an agreement to love our bodies no matter how we are built. Then on the next page it gives examples of all the different body types from “curvy tummy” to “hourglass” to “petite” and what clothes make those specific body types look the best. So again young girls read this, pick out what body type they are, and go out to find all the “perfect” clothes to make them look good. The reality is that these young girls will never be “perfect” therefore this magazine should be teaching less about how to get the “perfect” outfit and focus more on how to be a better person. Personally, I think that would be a better message for young girls, yet I understand the empire has taught us that those things are not as interesting as “making him drool” or gaining the “perfect” outfit. How can we, as young women, be examples to these teenage girls and influence them against falling into this magazine and its hypocrisy? Are there ways we can show them that there is much more to life then “making him drool” or having the “perfect” outfit?