10-year-old Ananya is frustrated by magazines aimed at girls

There are quite a few magazines available in the shops aimed at girls of around the ages of seven to 12. These magazines suggest that girls only be interested in certain topics, e.g. fashion, celebrities and some pop stars selected by the magazines themselves.

They also suggest that girls must not be interested in any school work and find it fun or be clever. Whereas, I don’t see why they can’t be interested in both!

For example, I love Leona Lewis but I still find these magazines pretty boring. I like Rihanna but I also love writing stories. I’m now going to give two examples of the magazines’ attitude:

In the film High School Musical, the character of Gabriella Montez was brilliant at maths and science and enjoyed studying and she got called a ‘brainiac’, and also she loved singing. This appealed to me and I’m sure it appealed to many other girls who saw the film. However, the magazines, when referring to the character and Vanessa-Anne Hudgens the actress who plays her, always use words like “cute”, “smiley”, “girlie”, and “shy sweetie”. They ignore the fact that she was also really good at studies and things in the film.

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Posted by Jess McCabe on 4 October 2008, at 5:47 PM