Every year since 2002 Mission Australia has conducted an annual nationwide survey of young Australians. Last year, the eleventh Youth Survey asked 15,351 young people aged from 15 to 19 to share their perceptions of living in the lucky country (Mission Australia, 2012). As well as their individual and national concerns, the researchers asked young people who they turn to for advice and, unsurprisingly, the generation born with a mouse in their hand turned mostly to the internet (78.3%), followed by parent/s (59.4%) and magazines (55.1%).
Not that I needed it, but the Mission Australia research finding of the importance of magazines in the lives of these young people vindicated my decision back in 2003 to accept the offer to write for a teenage girls magazine ‘Advice’ column. Despite some disparaging remarks from colleagues, I regarded this then – and still do – as an exceptional opportunity to deliver evidence-based and hopefully ethical advice and psychoeducation directly to over 80,000 young women each month as they struggle with the vicissitudes of teenage life. The magazine receives thousands of emails to its advice columns every week and even the occasional communication by snail mail.
The upside of writing for this magazine is that I know more about Justin Bieber and One Direction than most grown men. But there are some disadvantages to the role. One is that the moral, ethical and legal dilemmas that our readers sometimes serve up can be tortuous and often require consultation with a plethora of colleagues who thankfully are generous enough to offer their perspectives. After all, what do you say to a 14-year-old who comes home early and finds her mother in bed with a neighbour? Not to mention the 15-year-old who finds her father watching teen porn? Sometimes there aren’t enough specific details to offer detailed guidance, so one has to reluctantly settle for offering generic advice – usually around accessing help from a trusted adult and encouraging a visit to the general practitioner and/or psychologist. The other problem is the delay between the time the writer seeks help and the time at which the answers are published. I take some comfort in the fact that increasingly young people contact the magazine via social media and there is an editorial protocol of referring them to Kids Helpline or eheadspace.
I have shared the concerns that teenage girl magazines have in the past contributed to the proliferation of sexual imagery overlapping with childhood. There is no doubt that adult sexual concepts are increasingly seeping into the lives of children, well before they're cognitively or developmentally equipped to process this information. Most psychologists working with young people would be conscious of the hypersexualised messaging which pervades young women’s lives and the research in this area (American Psychological Association Task Force on the Sexualisation of Girls, 2010). More and more girls are dissatisfied with their natural bodies, as the power of the marketers is so strong. Sometimes it seems self-hatred has become a rite of passage for many teenage girls.
However, magazines that are produced for teenage girls can have an important role to play in shaping the environment in which young women grow up. Some of the more reputable teen magazines have undergone significant changes in the past decade. For instance, the magazine I write for has been running ‘reality checks’ since 2006. These are media literacy tools that graphically indicate when an image has (or hasn't) been retouched, when readers have been used in a photo shoot, and just how much time and effort goes into getting the 'perfect' shot (i.e., it took four hours, 123 shots and a professional hair and makeup team to get this one shot). This magazine now only uses models in one photo shoot per month (mainly fashion), opting instead to use readers who represent the demographic more accurately. In addition, the magazine has a campaign designed to help boost self-esteem, increase confidence and offer young people the opportunity to experience wellbeing.
My bookshelves at home are overflowing with teenage girl magazines, which easily outstrip text books, psychology journals and my holiday reading. For every ‘despairing’ young woman writing to me each month, for every direct or heart-wrenching, hilarious, strange or even downright ludicrous question that comes my way, they are all moving reminders of what is so amazing about adolescents.
We need to meet these teenage girls right where they are getting their information to help them navigate through the struggles of teenage life. As for where adolescent boys are getting their information – now that’s a whole other story! The first general magazine to target teenage boys in Australia was bravely launched in 2005. Despite involving 600 boys in focus groups to determine content, the magazine lasted only a few editions. Let’s just hope that from time to time they sneak a peek at their sisters’ magazines – the thought of them relying on those sexist publications available for men is simply too depressing!
The author can be contacted at [email protected]
References
Mission Australia. (2012). Youth Survey 2012. Retrieved from http://www.missionaustralia.com.au/daily-news/2763-youth-survey-2012-economy-and-living-costs-the-top-concern-for-young-australians
American Psychological Association Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls. (2010). Report of the APA Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/pi/women/programs/girls/report-full.pdf