(Just like to mention that I do have internet access, so I figured I would post this- I wrote it last week not sure whether or not I would be able to access the internet on vacation.)

Okay, so, I hate to admit this, but I am subscribed to Seventeen magazine. Don’t get me wrong, I used to love the magazine, but after reading BUST for half a year now, Seventeen just pales in comparison. The few times they have articles about college I read them over and over again, but for the most part it’s about choosing a college or getting into college- which, doesn’t really help me anymore. And I am realizing that I am really getting sick of all the boy centered articles- it’s everywhere! Sure, they have some articles not about boys, but they are the minority.

I will give Seventeen props for their clothing section. They usually (if not always) have clothing advice for all different bodies types, atleast recognizing that we are not all the same. And that is usually the only section I see any, even slightly, fat girls… I mean “curvy all over” girls. In the most recent issue the main feature was on jeans. They have this fold out thing were you find your size under a certain style and it tells you where to find the jeans. The sizes went up to 15/16, and even then half of the jeans were “Sorry! They don’t come in this size!”. Two of them were “It comes in size 17/18 too!”, since they didn’t have a row for 17/18 (probably since only two of the styles were even available). Which pretty much just sucks.

For the fun of it (well, not really fun, but curiosity), I went through the magazine and counted how many times I saw any girls who might even count as “chubby”. There were 6. Yes, 6. And that’s considering I counted one model twice (she was in two different pictures on the same page). And three of them were in a Torrid ad. The last one was featured as one out of the 17 in their “Best Dressed Girls Across America”, which they do maybe once a year. I’m guessing 6 is actually rather high for any magazine.

This year, Seventeen also started their “Body Peace Project”, which, I can’t remember, might have been mentioned in other blogs back when it started. Each month (except last month, for some reason) has an article by Jess Weiner, a “why we need peace”, a goal for each month, and a body peace prize winner. I always enjoy this page, because I think what is being said is important for girls to hear. This month’s was about how girls can take out their feelings on their body.

Again, I think this Body Peace Project is great, but it frustrates me to no end how hypocritical the magazine is. The page before the BPP page is titled “How to Get Your Best Butt by Back-to-School” and the other is “eat all day long!”. I guess it wouldn’t be catchy enough to just have “August’s fun workout!” or something. They are saying to love your body as it is, yet you must work out to get your best butt? Because your butt is not okay the way it is?

The magazine also has a problem with calorie counting, as evidenced by the second title “eat all day long!”, which is all about how you can eat lots of certain low calorie foods instead of a few high calorie foods which can use up a lot of your “daily allowance”. They also have a little star 17 FYI, which mentions to go to the mypyramid website to find out what your daily caloic intake should be, based on your height, weight, and activiy. That is definitely NOT the website you want to send people to. Seriously, I went there because in my nutrition class in school last year we were forced too, and it recommended about 1200 or less for me. And not to mention their “step to a healtheir weight“- it’s all “calories in, calories out” bull, or their “If you are significantly overweight, you have a greater risk of developing many diseases including high blood pressure, Type 2 diabetes, stroke, and some forms of cancer. For obese adults, even losing a few pounds or preventing further weight gain has health benefits.” same old crap. Look, I can see the benefits of eating food for it’s nutritional value and all, but is that what food has become to us? Just fuel for our tanks? That seems like a crappy relationship to have with food.

I remember reading in their letters section someone had complained about the hypocritical nature of this, and they said they were changing. Well, that change lasted about an issue, because every month it’s the same old “best abs/ best butt/ best arms/ best bikini bod/ best whatever” and “good food/bad food” trash. I won’t lie and say they’ve gotten worse, they are much better about this than when I first started reading the magazine two years ago- they had weight loss stories galore. I remember one that I photochopied and would re-read over and over again because the girl looked like me in the before picture, and if she could do it, I could to! Atleast now the magazine stresses healful eating for the sake that it is good for your body, not that it will help you shed pounds.

This month’s magazine also has an article about Eating Disorders (which, again, ironic considering the magazine’s continuous usage of calories and all the advertisment’s airbrushed models). The one section of the magazine featured “Secret Triggers”, and one of them was food labels.

With so many foods marked “diet” or “low-cal”, you may think it’s wrong not to eat them. But they can make you feel obsessive about counting fat and calories.

Which, again, is ironic considering how the magazine stresses low calorie, low fat type food options.

I’m not an expert on eating disorders (and I won’t pretend to be) so I can’t say wether they handled the subject correctly or not. To me atleast, it seemed like a good and informational article, and they had a “Getting Help” section. While I was looking through the comments on Seventeen’s Myspace page I saw this comment:

I like your magazine. I do have a suggestion. They always have models as, like, really skinny. And very rarely do I see average looking people in your magazine. I mean, I will never be able to look like those girls because I’m not built like that. And I don’t want to. But I used to stress out alwys wanting to. Putting egular people in there and not just professional models may add readers to your magazine but also, help girls. It really just puts pressure on them because they think the “right way” to look is like what everyone is in Hollywood.

Also, I’d like to suggest something about your eating disorders articles. When you put articles in there saying “This is how you know if you have an eating disorder…”, it really just gives girls and guys step-by-step directions on how to be anorexic or bulimic. I know people who used teen magazines to have an eating disorder to get skinnier. And I thought that your magazine was trying to help. And it was really disappointing.

I think Seventeen has improved greatly in the two years since I have had the magazine (though has also taken some steps back with all their mixed messages), and their Body Peace Project is a great start, but it seems like they still have a long way to go. I’ll continue to read the magazine until my subscription is up in December, but once that ends I’m making the switch to BUST and giving them my subscription money.

*Edit* I just saw this post whilst catching up on my fatosphere reading, which lead me to this post as well. I am SO done with Seventeen.