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Magazines for tween girls.

Article Excerpt
What's a "tween"? FreeDictionary.com says, "A child between middle childhood and adolescence, usually between 8 and 12 years old." One of our girls' studies reviewers in 2007 reported on a dissertation about "tween queens" that "traces the coalescence of eight-to fourteen-year-old girls into a recognized and consequently recognizable marketing demographic" (Lisa Mae Schlosser, "Mass Marketing and Our Daughters," Feminist Collections v. 28, no.4, Summer--Fall 2007). The specified age range varies (5-12? 10-15?), but belief in the existence of a measurable and describable population now seems universal. A simple Google search for the phrase "tween girls" gets 158,000 hits: some of the sites offer parenting advice or insight about psychosocial development, and many are about marketing, shopping, and gift ideas (clothes, books, video games, movies, etc.).

The four magazines described below are all intended for girls in the age ranges that are often described as "tween," even if they don't use the label. Some of them are decidedly non-marketing-oriented, however (three do not accept advertising), and all of them appear to have the affirmation, healthy development, safety, and empowerment of girls in this age range as goals, at least implicitly.

Over the past couple of years, I've informally tested samples of these magazines on the tween girl in my life, my now-ten-year-old goddaughter. She seems to like them all, scooping up copies to read whenever I have them around, and asking for them when I don't. She gravitates toward two in particular, and will say that she likes those two best, but can't--or perhaps just doesn't want to--articulate why. (I'll tell you which two at the end of this review.)

NEW MOON GIRLS (formerly NEW MOON: THE MAGAZINE FOR GIRLS AND THEIR DREAMS). 1993- . 49p. CEO and Founder, New Moon Media: Nancy Gruver. Executive editor: ichele St. Martin. Managing editor: Heather Parfitt. Girls editorial board: 15 members as of latest issue. ISSN: 1069-238X. 6/yr, Subscriptions: listed on masthead as $44.95 for one-year "membership" that includes six print issues plus twelve-month access to online, screened community at NewMoonGirls.com; current offer for full membership for just $29.95 at http://www.newmoon.com/offer/. Single copies of print magazine (sold in stores): $5.50. Issues examined: Volume 16, Number 1 (September/October 2008); Volume 16, Number 4 (March/April 2009).

Mission (from inside cover of magazine): "New Moon Girls[TM] is the original girl-centered media. Girl editors, writers, filmmakers and artists from around the world are in charge of all our content, working with adults through our pioneering Share the Power method. New Moon Girls provides innovative, safe, respectful, and advertising-free spaces online and in the magazine where girls develop their full potential through self-discovery, creativity, and community. New Moon Girls is for every girl who wants her voice heard and her dreams taken seriously in the world."

Age range targeted: 8-12.

Advertising? No.

Focus on popular culture? No; rather on current issues and events of significance, as well as...

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