Jason Gardner in this week's LICC mailing talks about the phenomenon of magazines aimed at girls - particularly the lucrative tweenager/young teen market:
It came as something of a shock earlier this year when Ofsted ...decided to single out for praise the much maligned world of teen-girl magazines. It lauded the likes of Sugar and Bliss not for their top 10 tips on dealing with acne or their insight into the motivation behind Britney’s bizarre buzz cut but rather for their informative approach to the matter of sex.
I’m not quite sure what sort of information Ofsted found so worthy of note. Perhaps it was buried somewhere in the article ‘My Boyfriend Gave Me Herpes’ or ‘I Had a Fling with My Physics Teacher’.
He then notes with some pleasure that many of these magazines are 'folding' (not sure if the pun was intentional) and the corrosive effects of sexual encounters at such young ages:
Many girls who admit to having under-age sex say that one of the reasons they do it is out of low self-esteem. As one survey of 2,000 British teenage girls found, 70 per cent disliked their faces and only 8 per cent were happy with their bodies. Two-thirds thought their lives would improve dramatically if they lost weight. The constant parade of stick-thin models in the pages of these mags, and their endless tips on diet and beauty, do take their toll.
The point of the article is to trail a new magazine - aimed at distribution through churches and youth groups - called simply Grace. We'll be getting some trial copies here in August, but you can take a look at their website and even download their pilot 16-page version in pdf form. If you've got a daughter of that age, do print it off (or send them the link!) and let me know what they make of it...
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