Tween-age Health, Fitness, Beauty Magazine?

[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.

[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

[shootingstar]

I come from a heavily sister dominant family.....4 sisters, 1 brother.

We were allowed to wear face makeup around 14 or up. But the eye makeup thing was when we started to earn our own money in late teens.

REally, the cost factor kept us at bay: My parents just couldn't afford it. The focus was shifted to us learning how to sew...so we could be fashionable like our friends.

So in the interim, we experiemented more with nail polish..which was longer lasting anyway and lipstick.

Roxy: Does she wear earrings? Maybe focus on that....

I would agree that every girl needs to experiment to figure out her womanly identity. If you met anyone myself or sisters ..now, none of us wear much make-up. We never really had super big interest.

However we read Seventeen, Glamour, ..etc. borrowed from library. As well as pile of other books we wanted to read of which alot was adult fiction.

[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.