Bibliographic Information: Shoket, Ann. Seventeen. Triangle Publications, Sept. 1944- current. ISSN 0037-301X.
Genre: Fashion, Beauty, young women
Reading Level: Ages 13+
Curriculum ties: Marketing, Sociology
Publisher: Triangle Publications
Awards: None
Note: website: http://www.seventeen.com
Reader’s Annotation: A monthly magazine for teen girls that covers beauty, health, fashion and more!
Content: In the midst of the advertisements, the magazine is broken down into fairly organized categories. The “Fashion” section has latest styles, bargain ideas, affordable accessories, and how to mix up your wardrobe to incorporate it into the next season. The “Beauty” section covers hair styles, care, and maintenance. Also makeup trends, tips and tricks. They also include reviews on products and tools. The “Health” section can range from fitness tips to STDs. This section is important because it covers issues that young girls are usually embarrassed to talk about. “Your Life” is a section where readers share their true stories which can range from Facebook mishaps to rape and abuse. One of the more popular sections is “Love Life” which discusses crushes, how to flirt, what is love and interviews with cute teen stars. Additional sections include horoscopes, giveaways, embarrassing stories, letters to the editor and a special section that highlights a current trendy issue such as prom.
Critical Evaluation: One of the downsides to this magazine was how some explicit sexual things were talked about that even made me blush a little. I didn’t know that young girls were reading “Things to do to satisfy your boyfriend” which talks about how to give oral sex. They do address teen pregnancy and STDs but I think some readers may be too young to have an instructional article. Other than that, there is a lot of commercial ads promoting materialism (about 15 pages worth before you get to the first article) but I think that girls enjoy looking at the latest trends. Not everyone must buy what the models are wearing but instead are encouraged to emulate the look at a less expensive price in the “Fashion” and “Freebee” sections. For the most part, this magazine is a fun expression of youth and fashion. Teens are drawn in by the starlets and fashion but usually come away learning more then they thought they would.
Booktalking Ideas: N/A
Challenge Issues/ Defense:
Challenge Issues: Some sexual content.
Challenge defense ideas:
• Since its title is, “Seventeen,” I assumed that it would be appropriate for girls in the teen range.
Most articles promote safe sex or abstinence saying that sex broke relationships and was unhealthy.
Why was this book included?: Included as a representation of magazines tailored to female teens and a wide range of interests such as fashion, beauty and boys.
Editor Information: Ann Shoket was named editor-in-chief of Seventeen magazine in January 2007. Under her helm, the fashion and beauty icon publication for teen girls continues to represent an important rite of passage, helping more than 13 million readers grow up to be confident, self-assured young women. Shoket has grown the brand beyond the pages of the magazine so that teen girls can be a part of the Seventeen universe wherever they are: on our Web site, in print, on partner sites, social networking platforms and on Seventeen Fashion Finder, the recently launched iPhone application.
Shoket lead the magazine to become the number one teen magazine on the newsstand within her first year, the first time the magazine has held that position since Hearst purchased it in 2003. Additionally, after a successful relaunch of Seventeen.com in April of 2007, the Web site continues to be the number one teen magazine site and the top 10 of all teen sites.
For the past two years Shoket was named as the one of the most powerful magazine editors on the Forbes Most Powerful U.S. Fashion Magazine Editors annual list. She currently serves on the Media Advisory Board for The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy. She also participates in the Benefit Committee for the Fresh Air Fund and as a teen advisor for Step Up Women’s Network.
Shoket made her mark on the iconic brand by implementing fun interactive editorial programs that inspire confidence among Seventeen readers and celebrate real girl experts in fashion, beauty and college. One of the most buzz-worthy programs is the “Seventeen Body Peace Project,” am ongoing initiative to help girls stop obsessing about what their body looks like, start appreciating it for what it can do, and, and ultimately make peace with their bodies. Seventeen also launched the ground-breaking integrated print and Web reality program “Freshman 15,” which gives millions of teens an inside scoop on the often overwhelming emotional and lifestyle changes taking place at college.
Prior to Seventeen, Shoket was executive editor of CosmoGIRL! magazine since October 2003, and originally joined as senior editor at its launch in 1999.
Before CosmoGIRL!, Shoket was senior editor with the Parade family of publications, where she launched the style section for Parade’s teen news magazine, React. At the beginning of the dot-com boom, she created the independent Web magazine Tag, which gave voice to an online community of artists and writers. She began her career as a reporter with renowned journalist Steve Brill at The American Lawyer. She has a B.A., cum laude, from New York University and a certificate in Media Management from The New School.
(Editor information obtained by the Huffington Post website. Retrieved from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ann-shoket).
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