Look at the covers of some typical UK magazines. Who are they for? What do they have inside?
Look at the feature titles (1−7). Match the titles to the categories (a−g). Think of more titles for each category.
1.This month’s horoscopes!
2. Get Perfect Skin!
3. Out top 10 Summer outfits!
4. Win tickets to a Champion’s League match!
5. Britain’s hottest new boy bands!
6. Do your friends really know you?
7. The Generation Gap
↓↑
a. stars & celebrities
b. health & beauty
c. fashion
d. regular features
e. competitions & offers
f. quizzes
g. articles
Read and listen to the text and say what the underlined words refer to. Then explain the words in bold.
British Teenage Magazines
About half of British young people aged 12 to 16 read teenage magazines! Two of the most popular magazines for girls are ‘Top of the pops’ and ‘Shout’. They have glossy, colourful covers and include beauty and fashion, celebrity gossip, real life stories, horoscopes, quizzes and problem pages. Of course, boys don’t usually find these magazines very interesting! Instead, they buy music magazines like ‘Q magazine’ or read web magazines about sport, like ‘Shoot’ or ‘Match’.
Usually, teenage magazines contain a lot of language that only teenagers use! They might use ‘celeb’ instead of celebrity, for example, or ‘fave’ instead of favourite. They also say ‘lads’ instead of ‘boys’, ‘dosh’ instead of ‘money’ and ‘natter’ instead of ‘talk to your friends’! This makes the magazines more attractive to teenagers and easier to understand.
On a more serious note though, a lot of these magazines can help teens find solutions to problems they don’t feel comfortable discussing with their parents. That’s why the problem pages in these magazines are very popular. In fact, many teens buy them just for the problem page.
How about you? What do you like most in magazines?
In groups, discuss your favourite teenage magazine. Compare it to those in the text.
Portfolio: In small groups, do a survey on favourite teenage magazines for boys & girls in your class. Report the results.