Is Her Weekly Reader REALLY People Mag???

Article in NYT on Sunday, May 27:
Grade-School Girls, Grown-Up Gossip
What happens when her weekly reader is People?

The article is about tween girls - how they get grown-up gossip and what they do with it.

In the article:
Picture #1: 5 tween girls. Each girl is engrossed in one of these magazines: People, InTouch, Life, US and Star.

Picture #2. 2 girls reading an adult celebrity tabloid. The caption: READ ALL ABOUT IT Arielle Urvater, left, 11, and her sister Jessie, 8, of Manhattan are quite aware of the tabloid antics of Paris, Lindsay, Britney and their ilk, but that does not mean they approve. “We’re well educated,” Arielle explained. “We know that drugs aren’t good and that smoking isn’t good.”

Is this reality or is this about a handful of girls that make a story for a holiday weekend?

Last night, we posted a pulse check poll on allykatzz.com… a community of 30K tween girls from across the nation - to find out where tween girls REALLY get their celebrity gossip. The results:

1. Tween/Teen Magazines including Twist, J-14 and Tiger Beat: 55%

2. Adult Magazines including People, US, Star and InTouch: 29%

3. Online: 16%

Here are samples of the comments the girls posted along with their votes: These sample comments are from tween girls ages 10-13… from NYC, Oregon, Ohio and Washington.

“Yeah I picked Tiger Beat/Bop. It tells me info on stars I like, not just a million ones I dont know that well. Plus, its not as big of a gossip thing as the other teen magazines. People, US, and mags like that talk about adults I dont know, so i dont read those! And the Internet lies a lot...~~CiAo”

“PEOPLE! all the way!!”

“watz STAR??”

“J-14, I have a subscription. It has good posters, a calender, and plenty of news on people I actually know. So what if it's not the most accurate, it's a good read!”

“im not that into celeb gossip. but when i want to hear it i get it online or on the news. it can be interesting sometimes!”

Posted by Denise Restauri