Magazines

I have a confession to make: I love magazines. I think they're one of the greatest things ever. They're usually cheaper than a book (except for Rolling Stone and Mad, they're usually under $5). They're also available pretty much everywhere- the mall, the drugstore, the waiting room at the doctor's awesome. They're colorful (yay!), and make good room decorations.



I buy a lot of magazines. If I go in to a store that has magazines for sale, and I have money, there's a very high chance that I'll buy one or more magazines. It's kind of a waste of money, but I like reading mindless things. It's kind of fun. I love reading dumb articles about random celebrities.



Now, you should know that there are five main categories of magazines that I am interested in.



The first is "teeny-bopper" magazines, generally filled with pictures of and shallow articles about whoever is most interesting to the "tween" crowd. This includes M, Twist, Tiger Beat, Bop, Twist, J-14, Wow!, AstroGirl, Teen, and QuizFest. Some of them are pretty entertaining. They generally come with a few free posters inside, ranging anywhere from 1 sheet across, to 2 by 2 sheets, or, in the case of the Jesse McCartney poster I have on my wall from a few years ago, 4 by 4 sheets (that's almost 3 feet across by almost 4 feet tall, folks). However, when putting up posters, I am often put in a dilemma- most of these posters are double-sided, and it can be hard to decide which side to put up on my wall- in the issue of M that I purchased just today, there's a poster with Robert Pattinson on one side and Taylor Lautner on the other; and another poster with the Jonas Brothers on one side and Miley Cyrus (and a puppy!) on the other. AstroGirl is interesting; it focuses on astrology, and- uh, I guess how it relates to tween girls? It's basically a magazine full of various horoscopes (like, "What your birthday/middle initial/favorite color says about you!"). QuizFest is basically a magazine entirely full of quizzes- like "What type of guy would you fall for?", "What flavor of ice cream best suits your personality?", or "What new trend should you buy?"



The second category of magazines I am interested in are those geared towards teenage girls (like myself)- these include Seventeen, CosmoGirl!, Teen Vogue, Elle Girl, and (formerly) Teen People. These magazines usually have a wide variety of articles- ranging fashion and make-up and hair tips; advice (on how to deal with boys, mean girls, or parents that don't agree with you). Seventeen also has a different workout plan in every issue (focusing on something different each time- cardio, stretching, leg strength, upper body strength, core/back strength), which is pretty cool. I like these magazines because they have a variety of articles geared towards girls my age.



I also enjoy music magazines- Rolling Stone, AP, Spin. Rolling Stone is pretty awesome- it covers a large variety of artists, which is cool. My 3 favorite Rolling Stone covers are the cover from the 1000th issue, the cover from the 40 year anniversary issue (it was silver and red and sparkly! omg!), and the cover with Fall Out Boy and a shirtless Pete Wentz on the front. Rolling Stone is cool, but it's also pretty expensive for a magazine- like $5 an issue. I also like AP, which seems to cater slightly more towards the music I listen to (without being too "restrictive"). They also have pretty cool covers, and have a lot of good articles. Spin is pretty cool, too, except they focus more on the "alternative/indie" stuff, and while I have nothing against that, sometimes the articles are a little snobby- "alternative/indie is SOOO much better than mainstream".

Another enjoyable genre of magazines is celebrity gossip magazines- People, Life & Style, Us Weekly. They range in quality, but I'd have to say my favorite is People; it's also very widely available (think about it- when was the last time you saw a magazine stand that DIDN'T have the latest issue of People?).

Then there are the magazines that make me feel smart- Scientific American, Popular Science, Discovery, The New York Times Magazine. Scientific American has a lot of articles about current issues and new research in science; Popular Science has a lot of articles about the future, and new ideas about products and scientific things that don't exist yet. A lot of The New York Times Magazine is kind of boring, but the occasional articles on "mystery diagnosis", The Ethicist, and the "Lives" section are all pretty cool. When I read these magazines, even if I don't understand 100% of the article I'm reading, it makes me feel smart.

I would also like to add that I really, really enjoy the Weekly World News, which was a tabloid (I believe it was cancelled. Even when it was still in circulation, it was almost impossible to find- I only ever found it in Long Beach Island and in Gettysburg). Next to Weekly World News (which, by the way, is "the world's only reliable news source"), every other tabloid seems like The New York Times.