If we were to believe the cover of many women’s magazines, all we females care about are men, our hair and how to lose weight. And sure, we love having shiny hair, we want to fall in love and we care about being fit and healthy – but that’s just a small facet of who we are as women.
We’re strong, we’re funny, we’re driven, and we have a myriad of hopes, dreams and interests that fall far beyond the narrow parameters of the content pushed by so many popular magazines.
So we CHEERED when we saw the ‘makeover’ graphic designer Katherine Young gave to the cover of Girl’s Life magazine – which is aimed at teenage girls.
Suck it #GirlsLife. #DoBetterhttps://t.co/KH3vl1p8AI pic.twitter.com/taHAFN4Ds1
— Katherine Young (@Katersbonnevill) 8 September 2016
Substituting ‘dream career’ for ‘dream hair’ and leading with a cover story about how to help in your community rather than how to ‘slay’ with your first-day-back-to-school outfit, Katherine’s empowering changes showed that magazines like this have a LOT of work to do to empower our young, impressionable girls.
And perhaps the biggest change of all is the girl on the cover. The glamorous, professionally made-up model was replaced with an unretouched ‘normal’ teenager whose smile actually reaches her eyes.
Now THIS is a magazine we would like our tweens and teenagers to read.
