title: "I want to read stuff on boys": white, Latina, and black girls reading seventeen magazine and encountering adolescence.
abstract: This study is based on interviews with four focus groups consisting of fourteen white, Latina, and black girls, ages 13 to 16 years, from diverse backgrounds. The objectives of the study are to gain insight into what forum girls use to learn about the adolescent experience and to examine teenage girls' views of their sexuality and femininity. The girls' discussion of their lives and perceptions of the teen magazine Seventeen reveal a displacement of female sexuality. The magazine's message to teenage girls of gaining self-worth through emphasized femininity seems to resonate with these girls regardless of class and race. We conclude that responsible adults need to challenge the distorted media images of adolescent development and teenage girls' sexuality.
authors.affiliation: Department of Sociology, University of Southern California, University Park Campus, Los Angeles, California 90089, USA. ekaplan@usc.edu
authors.forename: Elaine Bell
authors.initials: EB
authors.lastname: Kaplan
authors.forename: Leslie
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cole
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D001741:Black or African American; D001290:Attitude; D005006:Ethnicity; D005260:Female; D006630:Hispanic or Latino; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D010506:Periodicals as Topic; D011932:Reading; D012725:Sexual Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D012923:Social Class; D012931:Social Environment