13

I got an email from my friend Laura with a query:

[My 13yo daughter] and I have been trying to find a magazine she feels like reading. She gets the kids' version of National Geographic (for the animals, mostly), but hasn't been able to find anything with actual articles aimed at girls her age. Apparently, girls under the age of 10 are supposed to be encouraged to have brains and to read (and write) and think. Once they turn 10, they are not supposed to read anything else until they hit puberty, at which point they are to read only about boys, sex, hair, clothes, makeup, and pop stars and are not supposed to write or think about anything substantial again until they are well into their late twenties. At that point, intelligent thoughts are permitted to occur as long as they are kept under the guise of boys/men, sex, hair, clothes, makeup, (older) pop stars, children, etc. [emphasis mine]

I couldn't agree more about the sad state of young women's periodicals. We did come up with a few suggestions - New Moon for the younger set, Teen Ink for budding writers - but the field is paltry, especially considering the huge array for adults. My friend Katie and I agree that what they need is Bust for teens. In fact, I plan to get Laura a subscription to Bust in hopes that she'll cut out the teen-appropriate articles (there are some) and give them to her daughter to read. This kid is way too smart and funny and curious to be stuffed in some publishing niche market.

It got me thinking about when I was thirteen. It wasn't that I wasn't interested in boys, it was that I was interested in them as people, not just weird sticky, stinky Ken dolls. It wasn't so much "ooh! boys! tee hee!" as "oh, boys, yeah, they're my friends. And I like to kiss them. Narf!*" And there was literally NO magazine that even came close to talking like that. No books, either, except some Paula Danziger. Clearly that hasn't changed much in the periodical market.

[*I'm not sure I actually used the term "narf", as Pinky and the Brain had not yet arrived, but I did watch Dangermouse, so it's possible I said something like "Crumbs, chief!" But I digress...often.]