Friendly Advice? Beauty Messages in Web Sites of Teen Magazines

Abstract

Studies suggest that adolescent girls are going online in droves and that the Web sites of teen magazines are among their top destinations. This qualitative analysis of the Web sites of CosmoGIRL!, Teen People, Seventeen, and Teen magazines identified three major themes: Beauty is a requirement, beauty can be achieved only through the purchase of products, and we can help you find the right products. The use of youth-targeted language, combined with offers of expert advice in the management of beauty problems, suggests that these sites wish to present themselves as friends rather than marketers of beauty products. Like their print counterparts, the sites may play an important role—in a private, personalized, and interactive setting—in reinforcing the messages concerning the centrality of female beauty in Western societies.