Letter to Seventeen Magazine

Dear Ms. Anat,

I am a Human Development major at Brigham Young University and I am writing to you as a concerned woman about how damaging the media can be for young girls and their social development. I am currently studying the effects of media on the family and I would like to talk to you about maybe some improvement in your magazine. I think that the idea of your magazine is wonderful and is a great way for girls to get information about life and fashion and what they go through during their teenage years, however, I think that some of the information can do more harm than good with your teenage readers.

The point of my letter is to focus on the idea of body image. Most teenage girls struggle with body image and the media doesn’t help, bombarding them with images and ideas that being thin is was makes you popular and cool when in reality most girls will never be a size 2. I think it would be great to have images of “normal”, meaning not a size 2, sized girls in your magazines, which would be a portrayal of a lot of teenage girls. Because of all the pressures the media, including your magazine, put on girls I feel like girls are trying to live up to these impossible standards the world and media has set. It’s like they have raised the bar so high it is almost unattainable to young girls. I think it would be a great idea if your magazine published an article once a month in each issue about a young girl who is just your average high school girl who has accomplished something great! But, she might not be the usual type of girl you would post in your magazine, someone who is maybe not a model or someone the world would consider beautiful but, who is beautiful because she is really smart or because she does a lot for other people.

This is just an idea. I think it would make girls feel better about themselves because every girl is beautiful in her own way and a lot of girls need to hear that! I think your magazine is wonderful and can do and does a lot of good for a lot of girls. I think that this would have a great impact on many girls and would give your magazine a lot more attention as well! Overall, I think it would be a win win!

I appreciate you taking the time to read my letter and hopefully it can spark and idea to maybe make a change for the good.

Sincerely,

Jennie Allen

From Here to the Moon and Back

I am willing to admit here and now that I heard this song while I was watching....the Bachelorette. Yes, you heard me right. Now, I know what all you ladies are thinking, finally someone else loves this show too. Haha I know this show is totally rediculous but it is my guilty pleasure. Anyway, I am getting off track. But, this song was sung acoustic by the Queen of country herself Ms. Dolly Parton and I thought it was such a sweet song. It is called from the moon and back! It made me think of my Mom and how much she loves me and how she would do anything for me. Check it out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCdbP2EjDL4

Ad of the Week

So, I saw this ad the other day where this woman's tips are how to get ready in the morning if you have the same problems she does because of smoking. Have you seen this? Now, I don't know about you but this scares me to death. This makes me DEFINITELY not want to smoke. Smoking has never been appealing to me ever, and these ads just confirm that for me. I think that this is such a sad ad and I feel awful for this woman. Smoking has completely changed her life and has given hear so many health problems. I think that these ads are very affective because no one want to go through what this woman has. Besides the fact that she tells you smoking is bad, you can see how scary she looks and how different she sounds. Overall, a very depressing ad but I think very affective.