Task 3; essay.

Images and research links;

http://www.greatdad.com/tertiary/454/3662/why-teen-magazines-might-be-bad-for-your-daughter.html
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/30544/popular_teen_magazines_and_their_possible_pg4.html?cat=25

To what extent should magazines be held responsible for the social ramifications of the representations they offer?

By looking at five different teen magazine covers,‘Look’, ‘Seventeen’, ‘Shout’, ‘Sugar’, and ‘Heat’ I was able to discover an ongoing theme. Beauty and fashion is a well covered subject in all of these magazine covers. These magazines are filling the young girls’ minds with images of celebrities and models, and this forces them to try and look and present themselves like them. Some of the images on the magazines are very revealing of celebrities, and this does not set a very good example for young teenage girls. But, some of the images are the opposite and show celebrities looking innocent and naturally pretty which is the image young teenage girls should have.


The girls will like the look of the celebrities in the images and think that’s how they would like to look. A sense of individuality is lost when everyone tries to look the same. The images on the front of magazines aren’t going to be of the celebrities looking at their worst; the majority of them will be of them in their best dresses and finery, to attract the readers. Some of the celebrities used on these front covers may be wearing a little amount of clothing, for example a short dress or low cut top, and even a heavy amount of makeup can brain wash the readers, as they want to become more and more like them. Also, information about dieting is occasionally comes up on front covers of magazine, which may help some people, but also may drop some girls self confidence with their body image, as they may think they are ‘too fat’. On the cover of look magazine, there is an example of dieting in the bottom left hand corner. It is an image of three girls from ‘The Saturdays’ wearing swimsuits on a beach. The quote next to the image is ‘WOW! The Saturdays super easy flat stomach diet’. By looking at the three celebrities in swimsuits this may lead girls to thinking that if they do not look like the girls in the photo, they need to diet. This does not set a good example to young girls. Another example of an inappropriate photograph is on ‘Shout’ magazine. Pixie Lott is the main image on the cover; she is a huge inspiration to many teenagers all over the country. In this photo, she is wearing a short dress and heels. This does not set a good example to teenagers as this may make them think it is expectable to wear this kind of outfit out. On this cover it also says ‘Yes, you can have Cheryl’s hair’. This will make girls try to get hair like hers which is taking their sense of individuality away. On the cover of ‘Heat magazine’ (a very popular and well known magazine to the majority of young girls) on the top of page is a boxed section about a few of the stars from ‘The only way is Essex’. It again is talking about losing weight which refers back to the idea of teenagers disliking their body image. Also on this cover the main focus is on well known celebrity Cheryl Cole. There are a series of images of her talking about her split with Ashley Cole. Although Cheryl is not wearing revealing clothes or setting a bad example in that sense, the story itself is purely about her and her life. Although this will interest the majority of young girls, the story is filling girls’ heads with junk.


 However, this isn’t the case with all magazines, some may show celebrities looking natural, rather than fake and exposed, and this is the right image to put in magazines. For example, on the cover of ‘Look’ magazine is an image of Kate Middleton. Kate is a member of the royal family who is a huge fashion role model to many women across the UK. This is a good celebrity to photograph for the front of a magazine as she looks elegant and classy all the time. In the photo she is wearing an appropriate length dress and heels. She is setting a good example of an image teenage girls should want to look and dress like. Also, on the cover of ‘Seventeen’ magazine, is an image of Rhianna. She is a huge fashion icon and a well known singer. Although some outfits she may wear on stage are revealing, in this photo she looks elegant and classy. She is wearing a simple purple top and not a great deal of makeup, this shows an example of beauty without looking fake to the young girls reading the magazine. This is a good example of a glamorous celebrity who can look gorgeous by being natural. Along with this photo of Rhianna, is the caption ‘Style of the year’. This shows you can look natural to be stylish. On the cover of ‘Sugar’ is a picture of pixie Lott, who was also featured on ‘Shout magazine’ although the image on ‘Shout’ may not have been appropriate, this image on ‘Sugar’ is very different. She looks incredibly natural and is wearing a pretty summer dress. She is also sitting on a swing, which shows her to be a more young celebrity. Pixie Lott is not showing inappropriate flesh in this photo and still looks beautiful; this will give teenage girls another example of looking gorgeous naturally.


In my opinion, I think the majority of magazines for teenage girls are sending out the wrong image. Although a few do not show celebrities revealing flesh, the majority of magazines on the shelves do.  All of the magazines put forward the idea that Fashion and beauty is all that matters to a teenage girl, when actually I know personally it doesn’t. I think magazines should put forward images to represent natural beauty rather than sexy, because that is how I believe teenage girls should want to be. Magazine editors and publishers need to consider their choices in photographs and stories, because they have a huge effect on the young teenage girls who read the magazine. Girls today have many more life opportunities than just Beauty and Fashion, and I think this should be brought into the magazines.