Analysing Magazines - Cosmo Girl

Cosmogirl was an American magazine based in New York City. The teenage spin-off of Cosmopolitan, it targeted teenage girls and features fashion and celebrities. It was published ten times a year and reached approximately eight million readers before folding.

Inside each issue of CosmoGirl, there was an interview and photo shoot with a current celebrity, a beauty section featuring hair, skin, and makeup tips and trends, a fashion section highlighting various spreads of trends and clothes, and the Stars section which included articles on celebrities other than those featured on the cover. A monthly freebie calendar allowed readers to win various prizes by typing in a code to enter for a chance to win a prize on the magazine's website.

Cosmo Girl is a magazine for the 11-15 age range audience. Its a spin off from the magazine cosmopolitan, as that is more focused at the age range of 20-40 year olds and Cosmo Girl is something for the younger age range. This is also where the heading of cosmo girl came from, instead of cosmo-politan they instead changed it to cosmo-girl.

The magazine also lets you interact with them online. You can go on to their site (http://www.cosmogirl.com) and complete competitions and play online games which link up with the magazine.

Inside the magazine it has adverts for shoe shops, clothes shops, make up, new films out that are fitting in with their age range. This is evidence for the magazine to be more focused on the younger teenager generation as this is the sorts of things they like to read and see in a magazine.

On the front cover there is headings that stand out to try and draw your attention to the magazine. "Real Life Drama" is in a bold and big font to try and grab your focus onto the magazine, then underneath that it then tells you a few headlines of the stories they have on the magazine to try an make you want to read more into them. Another one of the headlines is about "The Miniskirt Workout," which makes younger teenages want to read to see how they can improve that and then below that they have a "plus" to say there is more than just the miniskirt workout in the magazine. As the younger generation are just starting to get interested in boys they have at the bottom of the front cover about "4 Dates Guys Love" drawing the younger girls interest into the magazine to read about what boys would love, so they can impress them. About 3/4 of the way down the front cover they have a bold and big "fresh!" across the page, making you look at that heading and what it is about, as it then tells you just beneath that it is about "85 ideas for a hot new you this spring," which girls will all love as they want the latest fashion and to be with the new clothes and ideas.

This kind of front cover attracts the younger generation as there is a lot going on and a lot for them to read. The model used on the front cover is a younger model than one used in a magazine such as cosmopolitan so it is more focused and aimed at the younger generation. It gives the younger teenager girls someone to look up to and admire as she is closer to their age.

This magazine has a lot of competiton with other magazines such as Sugar, Mizz and Shout. All these magazines are aimed at the similar age range audience and all have similar stories, quizzes, adverts and competitons to put in the magazine. I think Cosmo Girl stands out quiite a bit more than the others as you see cosmopolitan on the shelf near it when you buy the magazine and this is a bonus as people think they are more mature buying it as it relates quite well to the older generation magazine.