Cosmogirl vs Cosmopolitan

After we discussed the magazines Cosmogirl and Cosmopolitan in class I realized that coincidently both of those magazines I had back in my dorm room. I myself read both Cosmogirl and Cosmopolitan but I have never really thought about the message these magazines were trying to reveal or the audience which they were targeting. The intended audience for Cosmogirl is teenage girls around high school age, while Cosmopolitan is made more for young adult women. Even though there is supposedly such a substantial difference in the target audience, the content of these two magazines are shockingly similar. As I simply skimmed across the front cover of Cosmogirl I noticed headings called, “10 Ways to a Healthier HOTTER Body,” and “The Real Reasons he didn’t call.” What is even more surprising to me is that when you read letters that people have written to the editors there are girls as young as fourteen writing in. Throughout the magazine there were various articles discussing topics such as: hot make out sessions, parties, and rape cases. Why would a young, fourteen year old teenage girl need to be worried about boys not calling and getting a hotter body? For this reason, girls going to start growing up believing that they need a sexy body in order to be noticed.
Additionally, as I examined the cover of Cosmopolitan I did come across headings which included, “Get a Sexy Bod,” and “Hottie Spotting: Where Your Next Boyfriend Is Hiding.” These titles are astonishingly similar to the ones mentioned in Cosmogirl. Here we have two magazines, for completely different audiences, discussing the same general topic area. I find it dreadful that these magazines give the impression that subjects such as guys, sex, and hot bodies are the most important issues that women should be investigating in our society today.
There is not such a huge problem with the topics and audience that Cosmopolitan addresses but rather with Cosmogirl. The girls reading Cosmogirl are not old enough or mature enough to be reading this type of subject matter. I do not believe they can fully grasp the content of what they are reading, and this is cause for much concern.