Teen girl magazines

Here is 5 examples of different Magazine covers aimed at teenage girls, Seventeen, Teen Vogue, Bliss, Teen Now and Cosmo girl

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

Magazines and print media as a whole have a very strong influence on their readers,sending different views and messages on life and how we should live our lives.Teen magazines are usually aimed at female teenage readers.They almost always consist of gossip, news, fashion tips and celebrity  interviews and may also include posters, stickers, small samples of cosmetics or other products and inserts. 

One of the biggest issues with teenage magazines is the content that is within it and their portrayal of how teenage girls should live their lives.Magazines like Seventeen, Bliss and Teen Vogue act as a manual or guide to a young society that hasn't yet learnt how to deal with some of the very issues that they write the magazines around and whats more worrying is that its not only teenage girls that are affected by these magazines over the years more and more boys have found these very to be a major influence within a  young society.

While researching this topic I selected a number of popular magazines that any teenage girl or boy would normal by .Firstly, looking at the front cover of the 'Teen Now' magazine you can already tell that this magazine is aimed at teenage girls, the cover is all picture of boy celebrities and only two of the pictures featured are girls which shows that this is more targeted towards the girls an as well at that also force feeding it young readers with the issues of sex ,love and relationships to some readers who aren't mature enough to deal with these issues.As well as that, this is also reinforced by coverlines like "More hot boys "  , " yes it could be you" its giving teenagers the impression that its all about chasing celebrities, looking for a boyfriend and going shopping and not once that it talk about things that could actually influence teenagers in a positive.

Moreover I find that a lot of the times with these types of magazine the more important or "serious" are usually the ones to be pushed to the side in very small font which is almost as if they don't want teenagers to deal with the real issues in their lives and just go shopping instead , but in fact that could cause more damage than if those issues were highlighted and talked about more it give teenagers the answers to all their questions and a way to some of those issues if they are going through them, for example if you look at the cover of  ' 'BLISS' bottom right corner the coverline ' Accidental Anorexic' is featured and weight and health issues being one of the biggest problem and not only within teenagers but adults as well I feel like they're not doing enough to try bring the point across to allow the chance to get help and advice but instead the only decide to highlight the less important things in life and  a lot people can argue its just subject to opinion but I believe if issues like that were highlighted more within these magazine society wouldn't be in such of a crisis as it is because we would all be getting advice and guidance at a young age .

Another one trick that most teenage magazines mostly girl magazines is the 'girl - next-door' on the cover and 9/10 usually she would have perfect hair ,flawless skin and a nice smile and as good as that sounds , to a less confidant ,glasses wearing ,over weight  and acne prone that could be a little bit intimidating and that is where the pressure to be thin and perfect like the girls you see on the cover which is where my argument comes back to that is they were to highlight the fact that no one is perfect we all don't look the same or like the celebrities that they use on their covers instead they do everything in their power to make us want to be just like them, buy what they buy and eat what they eat.As well as that, a popular reoccurring theme that found out it the use of the colour pink on the front cover and I guess that ties together with whole ' girl next door' image that's normally on the front but that doesn't justify the fact that no every girl likes pink or infact that not every boy likes pink, magazines  tend to shy away from challenge the normal and sticking to the same theme of , this is what you should by this week , that's what you like this month, and your a girl so you also like pink' when in fact they need to embrace the differences that we all have and use that to their advantage to appeal to a broader audience and educate the younger audience.

Now comes the part to decide who should be held responsible for this  and I completely agree that magazine  have some of the blame to take for the social ramification of the representations they offer, I feel like they don't do enough of educating enough about the things that are actually important to someone in their teens and in fact they give us a non accurate representation of  teenagers.On the other hand , I do have to agree that an audience has their choice of magazine to read but I feel like it doesn't matter if its BLISS or Seventeen if their semiotics the only difference between the two magazines is who would be on the front cover.Lastly if there was one thing I would like to see on these types of magazines is the use of real people with real issues that we can all relate to and not celebrities who all have their own issues that only a celebrity would understand .