Seventeen

Seventeen Magazine, (2012). New York: Hearst Corporation. Retrieved from: http://www.seventeen.com/

Annotation

Seventeen magazine was the first magazine published in the US marketed exclusively to teen girls. It was first published in 1944 and currently has over 2 million subscribers. Seventeen‘s major focus is on fashion, beauty, celebrity culture, and romance. The magazine also features a “traumarama” section where readers share embarassing stories, and of course a ton of different kind of quizzes.

Critical Evaluation

I really struggled with whether or not to include Seventeen because in my ideal world girls are reading magazines that are more about how awesome they are and less about how to impress guys and get the perfect eye makeup. Then I tried to put on my objective cap and remembered that even I liked to read Seventeen when I was a teenager, and it’s not like Sassy exists anymore, and I thought including the British or Australian girl positive magazines might be too much of a stretch, so Seventeen it is. I’m still not crazy about the hyper focus on what guys think and getting your look just right, but the quizzes are just as mindless and fun as they’ve ever been.

Reading Level/Interest Age 

15+

Challenge Issues

Some parents may object to their teens reading Seventeen. The magazine is pretty subtle in it’s indoctrination of young girls into the cult of femininity and womanhood, but maybe that is what parents are objecting to. As with all the items in the collection we urge our users to make the right choices for themselves. The library does not monitor its user’s reading habits, nor does it support censorship. We take reconsideration requests very seriously and reserve the right to make final decisions after review by the board.

Reason for Inclusion

This is a wildly popular magazine that will appeal to many of our readers.

References

eCirc for Consumer Magazines. (2012). Audit Bureau of Circulations. Retrieved from: http://abcas3.auditedmedia.com/ecirc/magtitlesearch.asp

Moorehouse, E. (2007). History. Everything Teen Magazine. Retrieved from: http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/fall07/Moorhouse/index.html