girls gone good.

(image:COACD)
I really wish Teen Vogue was around when I was a dorky, fashion-obsessed teen. Back then it was weird that I knew designer's names and I never talked about it with anyone. With Teen Vogue it's okay to be a fashion dork and actually it's expected. Teen Vogue for all its fashion savvy has kind of an innocence and primness that other teen magazines lack. The editorials never show revealing or sexy outfits and don't have the usual popularity or dating advice columns. It's definitely the child of mommy Vogue and not just another fashionable teen magazine. There is also definitely a "good girl" factor in Teen Vogue and it is "cool" to be responsible, conscious and hardworking.

This month's issue features the new generation of American supermodels and the article focuses on how these girls don't party, get their homework done on the road and travel with their parents. I mean if their lives weren't so glamorous those details would sound kind of dull but due to the contrast becomes interesting. In the article Ali Michael, 17, comments on her career, "I personally want to be able to do this for as long as I can, and I don't want to jeopardize it by going out and getting drunk, then showing up late for my job the next morning looking like I stayed up all night". Karlie Kloss, 15, talks about the support of her big family, "It's a challenge to start so young. In between show, my uncle makes me read my schoolbooks and write my papers" as well as Chanel Iman, 16 who explains that, "My mom comes with me everywhere". Even starlets become prim and proper in Teen Vogue. In the October issue Mischa Barton says about her denim choices, "I've never been a low-riding jeans kind of girl; I hate showing my midriff".

I don't know what real teens think but I find all this refreshing in a counter-counter culture way. It's kind of like rebelling by not rebelling. It's like being bad has been done to death so being "good" is the new cool thing. In celebrity terms more Natalie Portman than Britney Spears. Cultural trends aside even though I'm not a teenager anymore life can sometimes still be very high school-like and I have to stand tall as the lone "doesn't do anything, church-going person" in many situations when its NOT interesting but that's okay; I'm okay with being a dork.