How Has The Pre Teen Girls' Magazine Influenced Girls From The 1950s To Present Day?

How Has The Pre-teen Girls’ Magazine Influenced Girls From The 1950s To Present Day? Kezia Newson

How Has The Pre-teen Girls’ Magazine Influenced Girls From The 1950s To Present Day? Kezia Newson

ŠKezia Newson, Angela McRobbie, Valerie Walkerdine, Mel Gibson, Martin Barker, Will Eisner, Frank Hopkinson, Natasha Walter, Joanne Hollows 2014

Contents Introduction

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1 The Birth of The Pre-teen Girls’ Magazine 3 2 Reinforcing Stereotypes In Early Pre-teen 11 Magazines & Reiterating Class Values 3 The New-Wave of Pre-teen Magazines

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4 Did The Photostory Kill The Comic?

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5 The Growth of The Celebrity: What do Today’s Children Want?

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Bibliography

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Introduction This report will be exploring how the pre-teen girls’ magazine has influenced girls from the 1950s to present day. It will explore the growth, changes in tone and appearance as well as investigating the longer-term effects they may have had on their readers. Angela McRobbie has said that comics and girls’ magazines ‘Define and shape the woman’s world, spanning every stage from early childhood to old age’ (Mcrobbie, Angela, The Audience Study Reader, 2003, p236).

The pre-teen girls’ magazine market is aimed at a readership of girls aged between 7 and 12. These girls are at primary school and in a transitional period of their lives where they are growing and learning about themselves. It is a key moment for them, before moving into the hormone-filled ups and downs of teenage life. It raises the question of what a pre-teen girls’ magazine should contain to maintain normality and comfort in a young girl’s life.

There is little to no research, currently, on the pre-teen magazine. I will be looking into studies that sociologists, such as Angela McRobbie and

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Mel Gibson, have compiled. I will also be conducting studies myself, organising focus groups to discuss their perceptions of the content. I feel it is an important topic to research, especially as the ‘tween’ – a subculture that is ‘too old for toys, too young for boys’ is rapidly growing.

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1 The Birth of The Pre-teen Girls’ Magazine After soldiers arrived home from the Second World War there was a population boom, resulting in massive demand for children’s entertainment. There was no television and although they could play outside, post war Britain was bleak.

The comic brought excitement and colour into young lives.

Following the success of The Beano and The Dandy, Reverend Marcus Morris [fig 1] wanted to bring a more wholesome comic to the market.

He had become increasingly worried about the influence of American comics on British children, writing an article for The Sunday Dispatch entitled ‘Comics That Bring Horror Into The Nursery’. In response, he created a comic strip for The Sunday Enterprise News called Lex Christian that featured a brave and adventurous Parson. Morris, determined to bring something new to the market, organised a group of writers and artists, and Eagle was invented for young boys.

For girls, magazines such as School Girl and Girl Crystal couldn’t attract a large enough audience

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after the mid 1950s. Eighteen months after Eagle was set up, Marcus Morris offered Girl to the fortnightly comic market.

[Fig 1] Rev Marcus Morris [Online image] Available at < http://petercrawford1947.wordpress.com. tag/scribd/> [Accessed 15 January 2014]

Stories such as Belle of the Ballet [fig 2] and Angela Air Hostess were favourites, with characters that were ‘aspirational yet also appropriate’ for young ladies (Gibson Mel, Art, Narrative and Childhood, 2003, p88). With the ‘pin-ups’ being the Duke of Edinburgh, recipes and articles such as Mother Tells You How, the magazine tended to be too serious for most girls’ tastes.

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[Fig 2] Houghton Stanley, Belle of The Ballet in ‘Rag Bag Ballet’ [Online image] Available at < http://kb-outofthisworld. blogspot.co.uk/2010/11/british-girls-comics-girl-pioneer-of.html > [Accessed 15 January 2014]

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Although the title was successful, girls hungered after adventure and mystery. They often went to lengths such as stealing copies of their brothers’ Beano to find stories that were more light-hearted and humorous; something that was brought up in one of my focus groups. Jill Lewis (52), the only girl and youngest child in her family, explained that for her, boys’ magazines were in the house, and the fluff and frills of Belle of The Ballet didn’t appeal. Not until Bunty arrived, did she take interest in pre-teen girls’ magazines.

As competitors Fleetway bought the rights to Girl and eventually merged it with Princess, DC Thompson had brought a radically new girls’ comic to the market: Bunty. Alongside Bunty, DC Thompson owned Judy [fig 3] (1960-1991), Diana [fig 4] (1963-1976) and Mandy [fig 5] (19671997). …a burst of publishing aimed at pre-teens in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Bunty, first published in 1958 by DC Thompson, was the first in the field… (Gibson, Art, Narrative and Childhood, 2003, p91) Bunty was a brand new initiative; DC Thompson used staff from their other comics rather than

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women’s magazines. Consequently, the magazine was around 90% comic strip. This set Bunty apart from other publications and earlier girls’ magazines. It specifically wanted to reach new audiences, too. …Create a comic that would appeal to working-class readers, creating new markets by further differentiating the audience. (Gibson, Art, Narrative and Childhood, 2003, p91) An example of this is shown in the continual use of the school story, something that every girl could relate to. Differing from its competitors, Bunty documented changes in education in the 1950s through to the 60s. For example, their most popular story, which was published in the first issue and continued to be printed until the last in 2001, was The Four Marys: A story which followed the lives of four students at St Elmo’s, a girls-only boarding school. Two of the girls were middle class, one was aristocratic and one, Mary Simpson, had been accepted to the school on a scholarship place.[fig 6] As she leaves her state school she ponders, ‘Would she be as happy at St Elmo’s…’[fig 7].

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[Fig 6 & 7] Mitchell, Barrie. (1958) The Four Marys, Simpy gets a place at St Elmoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s. [online image]. Available at <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yzjUl2hFMs&list=FL-JRRcxIDjOcvjZkgLfGW_w&index=2> [24:4925:01] [Accessed 15 January 2014]

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Although the notion of boarding schools became increasingly out-dated, the story stayed popular and remained favouring the working class character, belittling upper class snobbery. Mabel and Veronica, the enemies to the Marys were portrayed rich, stuck-up bullies. [fig 8]

[fig 8] Mitchell, Barrie. The Four Marys, Mabel laying a trap to get Mary Simpson in trouble. [online image]. Available at <http://www.scans-daily.dreamwidth. org/2611001.html> [Accessed 15 January 2014]

As Cadogan suggests It is possible that many working-class girls did not think of themselves as â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;council-school pupilsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; until the authors of popular fiction hammered home the difference between their environment and that of more wealthy families.

(Cadogan cited in Art, Narrative and Childhood, 2003, p92) Therefore furthering the gap in audience from that of Princess & Bunty.

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[Fig 3] Judy (1961) [online image] Available at < http://girlscomicsofyesterday.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Judy_61.jpg> [Accessed 15 January 2014] [Fig 4] Diana [1963] Available at < http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTYwMFgxMjA2/z/iYQAAOxydlFS0Jz1/$_58.JPG> [Accessed 15 January 2014] [Fig 5] Mandy (1967) Available at < http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/d/d7/Mandyfirstissue.jpg/220px-Mandyfirstissue.jpg> [Accessed 15 January 2014]

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2 Reinforcing Stereotypes In Early Pre-teen Magazines & Reiterating Class Values As explored earlier with Girl magazine, early pre-teen magazines reinforced the stereotype of the woman in the home, or those seen with ‘suitable’ careers. However, it could be argued that this stereotype never truly left the pre-teen magazine.

They [girls’ comics] implicitly offer guidance as to how young girls may prepare themselves to be good enough to ‘win’ the glittering prizes: the man, the home… they work on desire. (Walkerdine Valerie, cited in Gender and Generation, 1984, page 165) Alongside the comic strips, stories and historical facts, were more insidious ‘helpful tips’ for bettering a girl’s appearance.

Fashion and beauty pages are equally problematic: beautification is equated with ‘selfimprovement’ and the conservative, neat and matching fashions suggest that a girl’s appearance should “please both boyfriend and boss alike and threaten the authority of neither” (Hollows Joanne & McRobbie Angela (cited), Feminism, Femininity and Popular Culture, 2000, p168) 11

Jinty (1974-1981) offers tips in an article titled ‘Ideas… Big and Little’ [fig 9] with the opener reading ‘Nobody’s ever really happy with their shape, but whatever your figure problem, you’ll find something on these pages that will help!’

(Jinty, 1975, page 110-111); this instantly makes girls judge their own appearance and pick out their flaws. If you were happy with your body, the whole double page spread would be entirely pointless. Therefore, girls are made to feel it is normal to have anxiety about their bodies.

Another title, June shows the illustration of a slim girl ‘Angela Barrie’ in underwear, and gives the reader direct instructions on how they can be this vision of a ‘modern miss!’ [fig 10] Instructions include bleaching elbows with lemons, and toenails ‘worn not too long, like these nails cut straight and not shaped at the sides’. (June, 1972, page 30) The minutiae of the instructions are shocking from today’s perspective, but it was taken for granted at the time. Considering the readership age, these magazines were preparing girls on how to present themselves as women.

It is deemed that every young girl ‘inevitably’ loves ballet and horse riding, but is it a case of the bandwagon effect, or a continuation of belief that girls should find ‘appropriate’ hobbies to fit into

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[fig 9] Jinty (1975)

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[fig 10] Judy (1972)

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society? Mel Gibson explores the use of ballet to reiterate core middle class values on readers. Girl, aimed at middle-class girls, used ‘Belle’ of Belle of The Ballet as an icon for their readers, deeming ballet an achievable career for young girls. … it encouraged the mainly middle-class readership to make ballet an important aspect of their cultural practise, popularising ballet lessons across Britain. (Gibson Mel, Nobody, Somebody, Everybody: Ballet, Girlhood, Class, Femininity and Comics in 1950s Britain, 2008, p108) Other careers seen in Girl were nurses, secretaries and airhostesses. These offered the idea that working as a woman was natural, and yet they also had to have the key skills of a housewife: caring for people, cooking and cleaning. So, in reality, these careers were just reiterating the role of the housewife in society. … girls saw their futures in terms of being wives and mothers, their ‘feminine’ careers totally at odds with the project of feminism. (Hollows Joanne, Feminism, Femininity and Popular Culture, 2000, p169) Princess, intending to entice the readership of Girl, had more focus on factual information, even having a helpful homework query page. Although it had comic strips, they only totalled to eight out of

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thirty-two pages. The focus was ‘improving’ the reader and keeping them up to standard in middle class society. The comic strips themselves were more adventurous than Girl’s, but the balance of information to fiction showed its strong connection with a middle class dominance.

In contrast with Princess’s glossy paper, Bunty was printed on newsprint. With Princess, a girl was obviously buying into a ‘model of middle class girlhood’ (Gibson, Art, Narrative and Childhood, 2003, p93), which thus meant that fiction and comics were associated with working-class life by the producers and readers of these publications.

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3 The New-Wave of Pre-teen Magazines Although there was a boom in the 1960s for girls’ magazines, numbers started to take a downturn in the ‘70s. This was for a number of reasons, argued

by C.L. White as: “The transitory nature of current crazes”, to a youth culture different from the experience of earlier generations in being based around the swift transition from one consumer-based trend to the next. (White C.L., cited in Art, Narrative and Childhood, 2003, p95) In short, the ‘60s had seen the growth of the ‘teenager’. With their own style, subcultures and their own money to spend, they were discovering their ever growing, newly found independence.

They definitely were not interested in Mother Tells You How anymore. These older readers, McRobbie argues, had lost interest in romance and ‘fluffy stories’ of the pre-teen variety. She reported that ‘…publishers claimed to have moved beyond treating teenage and younger readers “with amusement if not downright ridicule” (McRobbie Angela, cited in Art, Narrative and Childhood, 2003, p96)

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Change was needed if pre-teen magazines were to continue. Pat Mills identified Tammy as ‘what could be called the ‘new wave’ comics’ (Barker Martin, Comics: Ideology, Power & The Critics, 1989, p17) The ‘new wave’ were a phenomenon that insisted on market research being vital to the development of the magazine, which was a ‘rare occurrence in relation to girls’ comics.’ (Gibson, Art, Narrative and Childhood, 2003, p94) The girls, aged eight to thirteen, who took part, confirmed the editorial team’s assumptions on what they would prefer in the magazine.

However, to the surprise of the editors, the girls also placed emphasis on their enjoyment of crying at sad stories.

Consequently, Tammy and Jinty (IPC, 19741981) differ from earlier titles in their emphasis on suffering central characters and emotional turmoil. (Gibson, Art, Narrative and Childhood, 2003, p94) These newer stories turn the heroines into victims, placing the main character into some situation of self-sacrifice. Walkerdine points out particular characteristics that were often used, including that the heroines were ‘often in receipt of gross injustices’ (Walderdine Valerie, cited in Comics:

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Ideology, Power and The Critics, 1989, p216): They are rarely part of a normal family, they respond to most situations by being ‘ever-so-good, passive and self-sacrificial’ (Walderdine, cited in Comics: Ideology, Power and The Critics, 1989, p217) and often feel indebted to the people causing them distress. It is because of this self-sacrifice and goodness that they are placed within a normal, loving family in the end. All of these emotions and horrors are distanced for the reader through historical or often geographical location. Therefore the reader can feel the emotion, empathise and dilute the details, but understand that it is not indeed, their life.

If cruelty is seen as exciting and works at the level of fantasy to romanticise difficult practical and emotional circumstances, this suggests a passive and not an active response to violence (which in psycho-analysis would relate to the displacement of angry and hostile feelings onto others).

(Walkerdine, Gender and Generation, 1984, p172) Examples of this can be seen in stories such as Nobody Wants Dixie [fig 11] (Judy, 1964). The heroine, Dixie is paralysed and confined to a wheelchair after falling from her pony. However, ‘…in the dark months that followed, Dixie’s parents had marvelled at the patience and courage

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with which she had endured the countless visits to the hospital.’ (Judy, 1964). She is ruthlessly bullied by students and teachers alike at her new school, and is seen as ‘in the way’, cluttering up the classroom with her wheelchair. This story has a happy ending when Dixie, after undergoing months of bullying, wins the archery contest for the school and manages to walk a few steps to collect her trophy.

[fig 11] Judy (1964)

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Throughout these comics there is an ongoing debate about what being a ‘good girl’ is, and how a girl should cope with the ‘bad’ side of herself; essentially a constant inner struggle. These stories reach out to their young working-class audience, who probably already have these struggles in life and continue that inner battle. The stories may seem harmless from an outsider’s perspective, as they are so sensational and melodramatic.

However, Barker discusses that: Girls use the stories as the basis for fantasies.

In living out the exciting drama of these stories they are internalising values which may then play a part in moulding their desires. (Barker, Comics: Ideology, Power and The Critics, 1989, p217) The heroine in the story must never show anger, sadness or desire; instead she internalises it and stays patient and passive. ‘… their suppression is rewarded by the provision of the longed-for happy family, the perfect bourgeois setting.’ (Walkerdine, Gender and Generation, 1984, p173) If a young working-class girl, [the readership] takes these emotional values on, then she limits herself to not being angry or selfish in any situation, for then she will not be ‘rewarded’. … Fiction is not a mere set of images, but

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an ensemble of textual devices for engaging the reader in the fantasy. Because the fantasies created in the text play upon wishes already present in the lives of young children, the resolutions offered will relate to their own wishes or desires. (Walkerdine, Gender and Generation, 1984, p168-169) Although none of these stories are based on romance, the passivity of the heroine can often be referenced from fairy tales, and is therefore seen as a girl ultimately preparing herself for her ‘prince’; her happy ending. … the beautiful girl whose rewards for her good deeds is to be taken out of her misery; she is to be freed by the prince… In reading little dramas in which activity is associated with selfishness and passivity with goodness and eventual success, girls are being offered a shaping of their emotions whose logical outcome is the waiting for the ‘prince’ who will rescue them, and continue their passivity: emotionally, socially, sexually.

(Barker, Comics: Ideology, Power and The Critics, 1989, p218) So we are back to the social problem of the woman being ‘owned’ by her husband in society, and the earlier problems of Girl magazine preparing the pre-teen girl for womanhood. This expands

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on Walkerdine’s view on how the pre-teen comic has underlying themes of desire, linking with romance.

Her [Walkerdine’s] argument is that these comics can play an important part in shaping the psychic pattern of young girls appropriately for a heterosexual future-even though they do not explicitly deal with romance or sexuality at all.

They deal instead with the desires and emotions which will, the next phase of their lives, become the sources of responses to sex and romance.

(Barker, Comics: Ideology, Power and The Critics, 1989, p216) However, some heroines were not lucky enough to gain their ‘reward’, as Barker explores in the story Nothing Ever Goes Right [fig 12], which was a weekly piece in Judy that ran from April to June 1981. Even at the beginning of the story, heroine Heather Morgan’s face is scarred after an accident and she also has a heart condition. Her mother is dead and her father ill and poor. She is put into care with evil foster parents before being sent to a school for problem girls where she is locked in and forbidden from seeing her father. She escapes only to find her father has also died. On the run from the police, she finds friends who try to help, but whilst rescuing children from an abandoned

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house her heart gives out and she dies. The end of the story sees characters mourning, or wondering what happened to her. This contradicts Walkerdine’s theory, since the heroine receives no ‘reward’, and yet the story was an ‘all-time favourite’ with readers - Heather ran out of options. ‘She has to die. And the readers loved it.’ (Barker, Comics: Ideology, Power and The Critics, 1989, p238) DC Thompson never published as harrowing a story again, but saw how alarmingly far they could push the reader.

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[fig 12] Nothing Ever Goes Right!, Judy (1981)

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4 Did The Photostory Kill The Comic?

Despite these new sensational narratives, the girls’ comic continued to decline towards the end of the 1970s. In addition to C.L. White’s theory mentioned in the last chapter, the Royal Commission on the Press claimed that: Largely due to a fall in the age of puberty, older teenagers were now enjoying periodicals once considered suitable for only their mothers and grandmothers, whilst younger girls had graduated from comics featuring ‘Bunty of the Vth form’ to the strip weeklies and their sagas of love in the typing pool. (HMSO, 1977, p11, cited in Art, Narrative and Childhood, 2003, p95) As well as this, the Royal Commission on the Press also argued that the “launch and merge” process resulted in girls’ comics lasting for a single decade or less.’ (Royal Commission on The Press, 1977:39, cited in Art, Narrative and Childhood, 2003, p95) The publishers had a habit of merging failing comics, that were breaking even, with sister magazines. This was seen as a lack of commitment, and that they weren’t invested in the identity of the comic. Recycling stories was

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also seen as a contribution to the downturn of the comic, the turnaround time was around seven years but could be as low as four! There was a continuing growth in the market for magazines and feature, rather than the comic strip, which started to filter down into the pre-teen readership.

‘Although elements of the comics were recycled, it is clear that the comic no longer defined or shaped girls’ lives’. (Gibson, Art, Narrative and Childhood, 2003, p96) In the 1970s and ‘80s, photo strips were introduced that reinvented the market for magazines.

Picture Post, a photojournalist magazine that ran from 1938 to 1957, proved how popular photo based publications could be, selling around 1.7 million copies after just two months of opening.

IPC’s My Guy and Oh Boy initiated the craze of photostories in girls’ magazines by first printing theirs in March 1978. [fig 13] Photostories were an instant success and soon every teenage magazine had to have them… rival firm DC Thompson lumbered on with drawn strips for a while but eventually succumbed to including photostories, too. (Hopkinson Frank, My Guy, The best of the photostories, 2007, p6)

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[fig 13] My Guy photostory. (1980s). [online image] Available at <http://forums.doyouremember.co.uk/ threads/6669-Photo-story-books-My-Guy-amp-Oh-Boy> [Accessed 15 January 2013]

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These magazines were aimed at a slightly older audience. However, they were so popular, pre-teen magazines were forced into using them by the 1980s. They were seen as problematic by many titles, as the assistant editor at Jackie elaborated: With the advent of the photo story we found that the scope became much more limited… It all became much more realistic, like the problem page set to pictures. (McRobbie, cited in Art, Narrative and Childhood, 2003, p96).

The photostory brought reality to magazines. In one sense this could make the situations in the stories relatable, and readers felt an even closer personal bond to their favourite magazine.

However, it restricted what the characters could do and where a story could go. McRobbie argues that this constraint brought comics to an early grave. Gone was the fantasy and melodrama, replaced by something that had a certain ‘wooden’ element to it.

In Jackie, what starts off as an underlying theme in pre-teen comics, becomes a strong theme very openly. Girls in these photostories are seen fighting with each other, with the boy or ‘prince’ seen as the prize. There is no sense of togetherness or

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sisterly affection, as other girls are only ever seen as rivals, out to ruin your chances of getting your ‘happily ever after’ and stealing your prince.

It is because getting a man is identified as a central resolution to problems of female desire that it acts so powerfully. (Walkerdine, Gender and Generation, 1984, p177) It also relates back to the last chapter of passivity in the comic. The heroines in these photostories are often seen upset, but never angry or holding any of the ‘bad’ qualities as discussed before. In fact, since their only conquest is to find the prince, they don’t even consider why past relationships failed, they just carry on until they find ‘the one’.

Girls who lose their boyfriend to another are supposed to suffer in silence, certainly not make a fuss or get angry, and are supposed to work towards the next relationship in the hope of ‘better luck next time’. The girl is therefore encouraged to put work into attracting the next boy rather than examining any aspects of the past relationship or for that matter, relationships in general: the next prince might after all be the ‘real thing’. (Walkerine, Gender and Generation, 1984, p177) I gave my youngest focus group, Girl Guides aged between ten and eleven, several annuals to look

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at, which were all comic based and asked them how they felt about the comic, now associated with boyhood [figs 14 & 15]. Their reactions were very divided; either fascination or boredom. The girls who were interested in the strips had said they’d never read comics before, although one liked her brother’s Beanos, which harks back to what an older focus group member had said about her brothers in the ‘60s. Overall, it seems that the stigma comics have with being ‘boyish’ cannot be lifted unless all girl magazines started publishing comics again. The division of opinion on photostories was again, very strong. Interestingly, the divide stayed with the same people. I noticed that the girls who read current girls’ titles were not at all bothered about the comics, but were still interested in the photostories of the 90s. This made me wonder about the influence that modern girlmagazines have on their readers, forcing soap-like reality and femininity on them.

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[figs 14 & 15] Discussing Comic Strips With Girl Guides Focus Group

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5 The Growth of The Celebrity: What do Today’s Children Want?

In the 1980s, more imagery was derived from celebrities, particularly musicians. Before, the celebrity was seen as more of an idol in terms of career aspiration. Women featured were typically prima ballerinas or ice skaters, just like the comic strip stories set to real people’s lives. Popular musicians at the time, for example The Beatles in the 60s, were not featured in the pre-teen comics, instead having their own titles. Jackie was one of the first magazines to turn celebrities into heart-throbs and see the male ‘icon’ for his looks and not just his talents.

The pop pages are not interested in music but stars, offering readers “yet another opportunity to indulge their emotions, but this time on the popstar figure rather than the boyfriend”. (Hollows Joanne & McRobbie Angela (cited), Feminism, Femininity and Popular Culture, 2000, p168-169) Although Jackie was a teen magazine, similarly to photostories, these features filtered down to the pre-teen market. In 1995 Top of The Pops Magazine (1995-Present), was launched as a supplement to run alongside the show. Originally

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meant to be a cross between Smash Hits and NME, it ended up aiming its demographic towards young girls. There was music content, but it was mainly based around the private lives of pop stars. This could range from silly anecdotes about ‘dinner disasters’, to them opening up about their love lives to an audience of girls aged between eight and twelve. [fig 16] Whilst Top of The Pops Magazine was all about pop stars, Girl Talk, launched in the late ‘90s, focused on animals, arts and crafts and book reviews. The biggest celebrity they featured was a Blue Peter presenter. However, there was a shift of interest between the years of 2004 and 2007 that showed a growing interest in the celebrity.

This was influenced by the emergence and popularity of the Saturday night talent contest.

These television shows, all shown at family viewing times, were seen by millions of people. They all showed the reality of the music industry: you would see the contestants work their way up the ladder of success, crying and stressed along the way despite the glittering on-trend outfits and living in luxurious accommodation.

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[fig 16] Top of The Tops Magazine (2000). [online image] Available at < http://eil.com/images/main/Westlife%2B%2BTop%2BOf%2BThe%2BPops%2B-%2BApril%2B2000%2B-%2BMAGAZINE-420599.jpg > [Accessed 15 January 2013]

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These shows were designed to be addictive, almost like a soap, as the viewer was as excited to see the ‘recap’ of the week showing all the emotional ups and downs, as they were to see the actual performance [fig 17]. This journey is very reflective of the comic strips in magazines such as Bunty and Judy. The heroine, or contestant, starts with nothing, abides by the rules patiently and passively and although upset, never lashes out. She then receives her reward of fame and more importantly fortune. She is finally a part of the bourgeoisie she so aspired to be part of. This heroine is part of a new class, the ‘New Money’ elite.

This desire for a certain lifestyle filtered down into the interest of girls and their aspirations.

Gone were the dreams of being a ballerina, girls wanted to be on television, to be adored, get their prince and have money. Therefore the magazine had to assess their audience and what they wanted; and what they wanted was the celebrity.

Originally it started out featuring the pop stars ‘from rags to riches’ who had won talent contests, such as Girls Aloud, [fig18] but widened its points of interest, as girls did, to Disney Channel stars and even models.

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[fig 17] Popstars The Rivals (2002). [online image] Available at <http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/wIpfy9Jje74/hqdefault.jpg> [Accessed 15 January 2013] [fig 18] Girls Aloud. [online image] Available at < http://kw2007.com/upload/news/8E/8E280340B093487DAE3FBBD5DBAAB3F1/4008209E4A 414ABCA10F4AF52D7CF4AB.jpg> [Accessed 15 January 2014]

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It is often shocking to see how narrow the physical ideas held up to young women truly are… While the magazines I read at school were never feminist tracts, they were not littered, as girls’ magazines are now, with page after page of expensively dressed and made-up young girls exposing such skinny, airbrushed bodies.

(Walter Natasha, Living Dolls The Return of Sexism, 2010, p67) Since reality was fulfilling the melodrama of the comic, it was no longer needed. Girl Talk at its birth, contained around four stories per issue, at least one being a comic strip and one a photostory serial. The magazine today only holds one story: a photostory about girls in a performing arts school, which covers a double-page spread.

Furthermore, girls craved gossip-style information, more likely to be in Heat than in a girls’ publication. I asked the girls in my youngest focus group about gossip [fig 19]. One girl in particular, aged 11, was so obsessed that she bought two magazines every week with her pocket money and always kept up to date with her phone.

These girls are part of a new generation who can easily access the internet, but also apps via their

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phone or tablet. Out of the thirty girls I asked, twenty-seven said they had access to a tablet that was either their own or their family’s. Will Eisner, comic book theorist, acknowledges the growth of comics and the internet. ‘Digital technology has begun to compete with print, so mastery of this tool is now worth the creator’s attention’. (Eisner Will, Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative, 1996, p159) This audience may be the last generation to read magazines physically, with babies interacting with iPads and iPhones.

On the Girl Talk website, there is nearly only celebrity news, which is titled ‘gossip’. When talking to the teachers focus group [figs 20 & 21] they were shocked, as gossip has always been seen as a bad, unkind thing. ‘These magazines are now glamourizing what we say is bad at school, kind of undermining what they learn socially here.’

Another went on to say ‘If a child is being talked about, they may now dismiss it as ‘just gossip’, since they are so used to reading about other people’s lives, they may think it is their business to know every detail about their classmates, which is worrying.’

The future of the pre-teen magazine lies in the growth of the technology sector. Since print is on

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[fig 19] Discussing Gossip With Girl Guides Focus Group [figs 20 &21] Teacher Focus Group Disscussing Gossip

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the downturn and magazine apps are cheaper per issue than print, it is inevitable that titles will turn to tablet audiences. This of course, offers the opportunity of more interaction with the reader, but like in the ‘60s, class could be an issue. Just like Princess, printed on glossy paper, and Bunty on newsprint, the girls unable to access these new options of media will be quickly divided from those who can.

Essentially, each girls’ magazine is a time capsule for how childhood was seen and defined at that time. They have overseen a change in education, class, the growth of the teenager, consumerism and the rise of technology. Throughout, they have portrayed the image of what ‘girlhood’ is and what it continues to be defined as today; even with such radical changes to format and content. They have influenced choices in career, attitudes towards body issues and the obsession with celebrity. With these ongoing changes in media and technology, it will be interesting to see how the next generation is influenced by the pre-teen girls’ magazine, and whether it will take away the innocence of childhood as many predict. Will, in fact, the pre-teen girls’ magazine be around in 10 years? Or will girls, craving gossip and love tips in search of their prince, reach for titles such as Heat or Glamour? [figs 22 & 23]

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[fig 22] Glamour Magazine [online image] Available at < http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_NuQ1asHchXU/TSIhHA29-nI/ AAAAAAAAPYI/EY6AaA9pEfM/s1600/Kim%2BKardashian%2BGlamour%2BMagazine.jpg > [Accessed 15 January 2013] [fig 23] Heat Magazine. [online image] Available at < http://www.liquorishonline.com/sites/default/files/CCF06032013_00000.jpg > [Accessed 15 January 2014]

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With thanks to Chase Bridge Primary School teachers, First Whitton Girl Guides, Jill Lewis, Margie Edwards, Angela McRobbie, Mel Gibson, Sally Lewis, Sarah, Richard and Alfie Newson.

Image used on front & back cover (Princess Annual 1971)