Teenage Magazines Essay.

Above are five magazines that have focused their attention on capturing the teenage girls as their audience. By looking at these magazines and recognizing that they all have the same target audience, we can assume that they will include the same or similar conventions to one another.

The first thing that we notice is the main image that is situated in the center of the page. Generally the pictures are of famous, beautiful and successful women. Some of these people on the front include Cheryl Cole, Taylor Swift and Emma Watson. This can also be used to prove the idea that their target audiences are all teenage girls as these celebrities make their music and series’ to suit their teenage audience. A reason this is a good selling point to female teenagers is because they see these people as their idols, so they are more likely to want to see what they are saying in their interviews, and they are more likely to want to read what they are advising their audiences to do. The color scheme on the page is also a reason for the automatic link to the teenage audience. This is because the colors are generally pinks and purples, or bright colors. This is very stereotypical towards the girls but works very well when they are selling the magazines.

Teenage magazines focus solely on representing and informing the audience of the perfect girl. They do this through giving make-up and fashion advice, allowing the reader access to “Beauty tips” from their idols. The idea of a “perfect girl” is also represented in the main image, as they are all beautiful and slim.

In each of the magazines they all include something about impressing boys, or getting a boyfriend. This is more proof that the target audience of teenage girls because they will probably been concerned about what boys think of them, and how they look. Usually this is highlighted in the left third in brighter colors. This information is also shown in a ‘starburst’, which is a star shape of color showing the information inside. This is usually positioned next to the main image, or close to the face of the subject so that you’re attention is automatically grasped not only by the starburst but then by the celebrity as well.

Although girl teenagers are seen as the highlighted audience for this genre of magazine, boys are addressed as well. This is not in as much detail but in the right third it usually includes a small piece about how boys can look for girls as well, suggesting that the boys are thought to read this magazine as a secondary audience. Teenage boys are only lightly represented and most of the time in these magazines, it is telling them how to look good for girls. It states usually that girls only like boys who have a toned stomach, which is very stereotypical, and makes the girl teenagers seem very picky, which is the same for how the magazines represent how girls “Should” be.