Teen Magazines Made Me Hate Myself
These periodicals did lasting damage to my journey into womanhood
When I was a young girl, I couldn’t wait for one particular rite of passage: getting my first subscription to a teen magazine. Having seen all those fresh-faced, beautiful teenagers on the covers of Teen, Seventeen, and YM, I couldn’t wait to start reading them and learning how to become like those girls.
Sadly, my first encounter with one of those magazines, at the age of 12, was brutal — not at all the joyous experience I had imagined.
The first thing I stumbled upon were the endless ads for feminine hygiene products. I’d just started my period, so I made sure to read through all the text-heavy ads that were so popular in the late 80’s. They featured girls with permed hair, long, painted nails, and petite frames, wearing bathing suits at the beach — because it was so important to show that the product advertised would allow you to wear a bathing suit and be feminine when you were on your period.
The girls in this particular ad were talking to each other about how bad they smelled when they were on their period and that they were so happy for Product X that now came with a scented option. Now Joey, the guy one of these girls had a crush on, would never know she was on her period and they could go on…
