Twenty minutes later, right on the dot, Ali was at my house. We met Leah at Kikku’s, our favorite place to go when we crave sushi, and the horror and almost disturbing part of our lives is now uncovered. What do we talk about each and every Sunday? Well let’s see is it… Did we eat “good” this week? Or was it, I think I gained five pounds this week, can you tell? Oh, we cannot forget the big, I’m starting my diet tomorrow. T

I have a fifteen year old sister and “Twist” is only one of many teenage magazines found in her room. She wakes up very early each school day allotting enough time for her to shower, straighten her hair, put on make-up and chose that very cute outfit. Each morning most of her time is spent looking in the mirror seeing if her jeans are tight enough or if her lip gloss color matches her outfit. This scares me. If at fifteen she stresses most of her time about what she looks like, at eighteen how important to her will it be to look perfect because at fifteen I definitely was not focusing much of my attention on my looks. All I remember was wanting to know when the soccer game started after school and five years later I admit that I fall victim to the curse of yearning to have that “look” of perfection. What if there was no “Twist”, what if society gave out a different message of what should be important to a fifteen year old girl, would my sister be making herself crazy each morning about each strand of hair being perfect?

So, little Jessica buys the August 2000 issue of “Twist”. She quickly flips through to see what she is exactly in for in this issue. Her eyes are now drawn to the pictures. Every ad, every editorial, is pretty boy “Jim” with pretty, skinny “Tiffany” in her cute little outfit right beside him. Every celebrity is thin, dressed to kill, and has a full face of make-up. So of course, the lifestyle in these picture appeals to Jessica. She wants to look like Tiffany because why not? Tiffany has cool clothes and cute boyfriends, so Jessica is thinking to herself why doesn’t she deserve this attention which leads to the major problem: self analyzation. Is she too fat? Is her hair the right trend for the season? How about her clothes, does she look good in them? Jessica is too young to differentiate reality and the world of Hollywood. She sees it more as you either are a loser or you are part of that world Hollywood has to offer. By not even reading “Twist” it is very apparent that the pictures and ads are en

Some topics in this essay:
Leah Kikku’s, Newman MD”, Tiffany Tiffany, Isn’t Jessica, Sweetheart I’ll, FEEL HOT”, , teenage magazines, “twist” teenage magazines, august 2000 issue, 2000 issue “twist”, boyfriends jessica, physical appearance, “twist” teenage, thirteen girl, 2000 issue, “make notice, world hollywood, august 2000, package deal,