British Teen Magazines
About half of British young people aged 12 to 16 read teen magazines! Two of the most
popular magazines for girls are ’Sugar’ and ’Bliss’. They have glossy, colourful covers and
include beauty and fashion, celebrity gossip, real-life stories, horoscopes, quizzes and
problem pages. Of course, boys don’t usually find these magazines very interesting! Instead,
they buy music magazines like ’NME’ or magazines about sport, like ’Shoot’ or ’Match’.
Usually, teen magazines contain a lot of language that only teenagers use! They might use
’celeb’ instead of celebrity, for example, or ’fave’ instead of favourite. They also say ’lads’
instead of ’boys’, ’dosh’ instead of ’money’ and ’natter’ instead of ’talk to your friends’!
This makes the magazines more attractive to teenagers and easier to understand. On a more
serious note though, a lot of girls’ magazines can help teens find solutions to problems they
don’t feel comfortable discussing with their parents. That’s why the problem pages in these
magazines are very popular. In fact, many teenage girls buy them just for the problem page.
How about you? What do you like most in your favourite magazines?