Tween-age Health, Fitness, Beauty Magazine?

[Desert Tortoise]

Roxy, you mentioned you tried American Girl magazine but she didn't rave about it. What about going back to it for a quick look with her? Or try a current issue?

You know how kids sometimes don't like something the first time around but 6 months or a year later, it's a whole new world. Just a thought.

[sfa]

It took my DD (11 y.o.) a while to start really liking the AG magazine, and now she looks forward to it and reads it cover to cover and tries some of the crafts and games. It wasn't until the second year of the subscription that she started liking it. I love their books as well--I need to get her the guide to starting middle school (that happy event is happening in the next couple of months for my daughter), and she's been reading The Care and Keeping of You pretty carefully recently, now that she's dealing with some hormonally induced issues of her own.

Another money making idea is weeding--my DD has a weeding job this summer that's perfect for a first job. It's only a couple of hours once a week, but it is enough to earn her a bit of money and (more importantly) get her in the habit of showing up on time, working diligently, and doing the work even when she'd rather be doing something else.

For makeup (not territory we've covered yet), I'd go with books instead of magazines, just because the purpose of magazines is to sell you stuff, while the purpose of books is to teach you stuff (and sell you the book, of course). When I was in middle school my best friend's mother was an Avon lady and she got me a book about makeup and how to apply it. I read it cover to cover and tried all of the suggestions (and then pretty much gave up on makeup entirely when I was about 25). I'm fairly certain my mother spent a lot of time rolling her eyes and not laughing in front of me as I experimented!

[badgercat]

I guess I'm one of those not-too-far-out-of-adolescence types (24). I used to subscribe to Seventeen, YM, and... Sports Illustrated. I never quite fit the mold. So I don't have any great magazine recommendations.

I know you're not really asking about health books--and it sounds like you already have good discourse on sensitive topics--but I do have a recommendation in that arena that I wanted to pass along to you or anyone else with a pre-teen daughter/niece/etc who might benefit from it. My mom didn't *avoid* talking about sex/periods/etc with me, but I was a voracious reader (and a little awkward ) as a kid so I think she felt a book would be best for me rather than bombarding me with "the talk."

Anyway, the book is called "It's A Girl Thing: How to Stay Healthy, Safe, and In Charge". I'd say that the fact that it's still being published (since 1996... I think my mom got it for me when I was 10 or 11 so it was brand new, then!) and the fact that I remembered the title after all these years is a positive testament. The only negative reviews it appears to have on Amazon are from parents who took issue with its very frank discussions about sex/birth control/STDs, which I suppose all depends on your personal philosophy. But I was glad that I learned about some of that stuff from a book written at my level rather than rumors in the grammar-school cafeteria--without always having to ask my mom about *everything*.

Anyway, good luck in your search. It sounds like you and your daughter make a great team.

[westtexas]

I'm 26 and your daughter sounds a lot like me at that age. I also had a great mother who let me ask all kinds of questions (I was too embarrassed to ask most of them so she let me write them down on notes and she would write back) about anything. Now we have a very close relationship and I can seriously ask her ANYTHING. She overshares sometimes too about her and my dad (uuugggh ). But I love it that she's my best friend.

I have no magazines suggestions for you, but rather, if your daughter is anything like me as I suspect, Seventeen is probably not a great choice for her. I remember getting that when I was younger, starting at about 13 or 14 and I don't think I read it for more than a couple of years. I just can't get into the vapid, ultra-rich lives of celebrities, and I never cared much about doing anything with my hair or makeup. The only stuff I ever found useful was how to manage acne, because at 26 I STILL have that (also, ugh). In the whole 100 page magazine I only ever remember there being one article per issue worth reading, generally about some important women's health or women's lives sort of topic that I found interesting. After that I mostly used them to cut out pictures to decorate notebooks for school.

You could always try Mental Floss, which is generally hilarious and has some really interesting tidbits. I get the magazine and sometimes read the blog and I always enjoy it.

[PamNY]

Roxy, you sound like such a great mom. I don't have kids but I distinctly remember being one!

[OakLeaf]

Roxy, you sound like such a great mom. I don't have kids but I distinctly remember being one!

+1

A resource for you might be B*tch magazine - Feminist response to pop culture. From the way you describe your daughter, she's probably not ready for the magazine herself, but might be in a couple-three years. It has great thoughtful discussion of the music, movies, TV, advertising, and trends that all of us, especially young women and girls in their formative years, are exposed to. It's a quarterly, available at most larger newsstands; there's a lot of content on the website if you want to check it out.

And our old standby, Our Bodies, Ourselves is still out there, publishing and blogging in today's world.

[blackhillsbiker]

My oldest daughter loved New Moon! My younger 2 are another story for another day...

Deb