...this study answers the questions: What are the contents of the magazines that girls read? Who most influences girls' perception of their appearance?, and What does an ideal woman look like?
THE RIGHT WAY TO KISS. LOOK HOT, FEEL GREAT. WOULD YOU DATE THIS GUY? WILL YOU SURVIVE REAL LIFE? 10 WAYS…TO SMELL PRETTY ALL SUMMER. QUIZ: ARE YOU BOY CRAZY? These are headlines in current issues of popular teen magazines Seventeen, CosmoGIRL, and YM. The number of teenagers in this country is on the rise, and magazines and advertisers are desperately vying for the billions of dollars of discretionary income that teenagers spend on entertainment (Dobosz, 2001). However, the teen market is fragmented and fickle, so magazine publishers struggle to keep up with shifting tastes (Merrill, 1999). The traditional "big three" teen magazines are Seventeen, YM, and Teen (Dobosz, 2001; Merrill, 1999; Norton, 2001; Thomsen, Weber, & Brown, 2002). Just these three magazines have a combined readership of over 10 million (Norton, 2001).