Good Parenting

I was at the pediatric dentist office this week and found a May 2008 issue of Cosmo Girl. I hope mothers and fathers of teenage girls know what their teens are reading in these magazines. I would guess that many do not.

Parents pay attention! One could say these magazines are meant for 17-19year olds, but those 18 and 19 year olds are reading the regular Cosmopolitan. ItÂ’s your 12-17 year olds probably reading the Cosmo Girl Magazine.

HereÂ’s what I found and I flipped through the issue in the pediatric dentist office.

Cosmo Girl May 2008 Cover

* “Can you be just friends after a “hook up”?
* Sexy Hot Makeup Tips
* 5 Easy Moves to a Hot Prom Body
* I flipped quickly scanning inside and saw “hook up” used several times and the over use of “Hot” and “Sexy”.

Then I scanned other Cosmo Girl covers online. Most had to use the word “hot” at least once on the cover. I also saw an overuse of the word “sexy”. Most of their readers haven’t even finished high school, have a major maturity deficit, and are clueless about what real life entails. Teens don’t need to worry about being hot and sexy. They need to worry about time management, natural body changes, how to deal with moods, figuring out who they want to be and how they want the world to see them.

Here are some more 2008 Cosmo Girl articles and stories.

* August 2008 Cosmo Girl cover had “Quiz: Are you too easy?” and “My Mom married my high school classmate”.
* Nice! October 2008- 100 Best Colleges. Hmm seems to me that is a valid issue for the age! Kudos!
* March 2008 cover “How to get a tattoo the safe way, (how to) become famous on Myspace”.

For now I will enjoy time with my 7 and 5 year old daughters who have no idea those magazines exist.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 28th, 2009 at 2:01 pm and is filed under Good Parenting.