Of all the magazines, newspapers and websites I've written for as a freelance journalist over the past couple of years, nothing has elicited as much excitement as the work I do for the Australian teen magazine, Girlfriend.
My political pieces inspire the occasional friendly email or blasting on a blog; my sociological stories for fashion magazines a non-committal "huh?" or "that's cool." But put a copy of Girlfriend on a table of my 20-something friends and even the most activist-y types will shriek, giggle and demand to take their turn reading it. And that's just the guys.
It's amusing, but it's not really surprising. Teen magazines are familiar territory, as much a part of growing up as the issues they cover, and it's a rare Australian woman who hasn't flicked through a copy of Girlfriend -- or its key competitor in the teen market, Dolly -- at some point in her life. For men, they're a curiosity, an illicit peek into the minds of the girls they probably didn't understand when they were in high school themselves.
There's also an element of irony to it. As adults, my friends can enjoy looking at Ashley Olsen's new hairstyle or what Ashlee Simpson wore last week, safe in the knowledge that -- falling outside Girlfriend's target market -- they do not actually care about such trivial matters. Their excitement over the stories I write for the magazine is based on similar ironies -- how can I, someone with a background in running political websites and magazines, so easily name-drop Hilary Duff and Nicole Richie?
Last year, I spoke on a panel about feminism and the media at the independent arts and media festival This Is Not Art, held in Newcastle each October. One of the young women in the circle asked me if, as an avowed feminist, I had any moral or political issues writing for a mainstream teen magazine.
I didn't even need to think about my answer: "No, I don't." If anything, I thought writing for mainstream teen magazines (and women's magazines for that matter -- although those are often a different kettle of fish and editorial policies) was a feminist act in and of itself.
After all, writing for Girlfriend allows me to communicate all the things I wished I'd been told when I was a teenager on a national platform: that being "popular" isn't all it's cracked up to be, that real life romance is nothing like what they show you on TV, not to go out with boys for any reason other than the fact that I actually liked them.
For me, one of the main purposes of writing and journalism is to tell stories that aren't being told -- and what better place to do this than the mainstream women's market?
To do it successfully, though, you need to have a sense of humor and you need to have empathy for the people reading. Like a good song lyricist, it's often easier to make a point if you use an analogy lifted from real life. The aim is to communicate universal experiences through evocative examples.
You also need to respect them -- something a lot of adults find difficult to do. Teenage girls, so the tabloid mythology goes, are dressing up as Paris Hilton and giving blowjobs to boys on the bus whenever they're not falling prey to pedophiles on the internet.
But teenage girls are a lot savvier and more critical than people think. They tend to call crap when they see it, and writing for them well means holding up a mirror to the things they're often already thinking but maybe haven't yet found the words to articulate themselves. It means giving a platform to things that they think are important, but which perhaps they aren't expected to -- I don't think I've ever spoken to anyone as excited to be interviewed as the girls who volunteer for the youth aid organization, the Oaktree Foundation.
I suspect that a lot of the people who are most critical of teen magazines haven't looked much further than the celebrities on their covers. The subject matter may be the same old boys, clothes, school, sex, friends and entertainment, but the way these subjects are approached is usually irreverent, critical and -- importantly -- honest.
Australian teen magazines respect their audiences. Each issue of Girlfriend is filled with "reality checks," reminding readers that the model in a fashion shoot has been airbrushed, or that The OC starlet Mischa Barton's outfits are selected by a stylist. The famously progressive U.S. teen magazine, the long-defunct Sassy, so beloved by the now 20- and 30-something women who read it in their teens that a book was released about it this year, was modeled on Dolly.
Even as a 20-something myself, I prefer to read teen magazines when I'm after some light-hearted celebrity- and boy-driven content, than their older counterparts. Partly this is because I write for them, sure, but it's also because -- in my opinion, at least -- the teen market is more critical, humorous and has a greater sense of fun than the women's market. Plus, the fashion is much better (and more affordable).
First published in The Walkley Magazine, Australia's premier publication dedicated to exploring media issues.