So...

I believe that teen magazines do not just assist in pushing today's generation of teenagers to focus only skin deep on their appearance and image, but instead it actually pushes teenagers to focus solely on these things. They take celebrities, these successful, good looking people, and make them the headliners of their magazine to try to show teenagers an image of success. You don't see any doctors, engineers, politicians, etc. in these magazines, but instead you see actors, actresses, and celebrities who seemed to have found fortune and fame through the use of their looks and appeal. They create this idea for teenagers that if you're not good looking or popular that you won't be successful in life. In modern day society, these magazines are not the type of example you want for the future of our country.

The Shift:Internal to External

The United States used to be a country that housed some of the most intelligent people and strove to make advances in technology and education. However, the newer generation of the United States seems to be only a shadow of the older generation when it comes to education. Instead the newer generation has shifted from a focus on education and technology to a focus on social media, popularity, and trying to become famous.

For today's generation you have 6 seconds to do something that will hopefully get you millions of views and likes. People who spend years of their lives trying to find a cure for a disease or dedicate their lives working to improve other's lives are less known than these people who just make videos of themselves doing weird things in order to try to entertain people. Teen magazines support this transition of the internal to the external focus shift as they mainly focus on having teenagers improve themselves through their fashion, style, looks, appeal, etc. instead of having them focus on trying to improve by strengthening themselves mentally, improving their knowledge, and trying to further their education.

What does this mean?

Some people may be thinking, "Why does it matter what kind of magazines teenagers read?". It actually does matter as these magazines are some of the most popular among teenagers. This means that a majority of teenagers are reading these magazines, perhaps following the advice given in them, and being influenced by these magazines.

SOURCE: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/local/wp/2015/01/21/as-u-s-test-scores-lag-study-shows-violence-poverty-teen-pregnancy-are-high/

From this graph, we can see that the United States has one of the highest teen pregnancy rates compared to other developed countries. Coincidentally, both Seventeen and Teen Vogue magazines are based in the United States and seem to be targeted at teenagers in the United States. In a country where the most popular teen magazines have to deal with fashion, beauty, and style, instead of education, science, mathematics, etc. we see that there is a huge amount of teen pregnancy. Teenagers nowadays are to focused on their looks, popularity, fashion instead of their education and the pursuit of knowledge.

Teenagers today, adults tomorrow

With these types of magazines being the most popular for teenage girls in today's society and setting an example for them, what can we expect from the future generation? Nowadays, with teen's their focus isn't "Did I remember to do all my homework and study for my math class?", but instead it's "Will this outfit I'm wearing impress that guy in my math class?" With the growth of social media, teenagers, guys and girls alike, no longer focus on improving themselves, but they focus on improving their image. We live in the generation of popularity, where you aren't defined by your 4.0 GPA, number of honors classes, or intelligence. Instead, you are defined by your 10/10 "hot" rating, number of likes on instagram, and how much swag you have.

Teen Magazines in Modern Society

In today's society, teen magazines are usually magazines which are created with content focused towards teenage girls focusing on gossip, celebrities, and current trends.

Some examples are Teen Vogue and Seventeen

Cover of the popular teen magazine Teen Vogue

Cover of the teen magazine Seventeen featuring Selena Gomez

A description from the magazine Seventeen's website: Get the latest fashion, beauty, dating, and health tips

A description from the magazine Teen Vogue's website: The latest on fashion, beauty, celebrity style, entertainment, teen issues, videos. Fashion starts here.