Summer recessed
Everything old is new again in this backtoschool season, with denim and the 1970s playing starring roles. As the summer winds down, teens get advice from these magazines about how to nail college applications, keep a summer romance going and, of course, what to wear.
Most of Girl’s Life is a quick page flip about BFFs, BFs, GFs and other three letter words that you wouldn’t like get unless you live in that world, like seriously. But worth a read are two firstperson accounts of surviving bullying — from a teen who writes a book about it and a screenplay — and a hardluck story about a girl who is adopted by her friend’s family after her mother dies. Cue up the tissues as the orphan teen describes how her new family saved her life.
J14 doesn’t pretend to be anything that it’s not. It’s pure celeb voyeurism with lots of posed pics and big captions. Here’s what passes for “news”: An interview with singer Ariana Grande on why she licked donuts on display at a donut shop while the cashier wasn’t looking, but someone else videotaped the stunt. Her excuse? “I’m 22, I’m human. I make mistakes and that’s how I’m gonna learn.” J14 takes a stab at serious subjects, including a piece on texting and driving and a profound statistic: 11 teens will die each day behind the wheel.
Teen Vogue is the sophisticated girl’s guide to all things fashion and topical. Callie Reiff, a 15yearold DJ, model and blogger, sounds off on what she’ll be wearing: “definitely going to add some ’70s velvets and suedes to my closet this fall.” More serious subjects include a cautionary ar ticle about Greek life on college campuses that questions whether sororities and fraternities should exist. It quotes highachieving students from the University of Michigan, Swarthmore and Dartmouth. Bruce Springsteen’s daughter, Jessica, gives an exclusive interview to Teen Vogue about her life as an equestrian. Who knew The Boss had such a blueblood daughter, who is also a graduate of Duke University? Jessica also reveals that none of the Springsteen kids followed in dad’s footsteps. Her brother Evan works at SiriusXM radio while younger brother Sam is a local fireman. She credits their normal upbringing to the fact that they never moved to LA. Smart kid.
Seventeen takes on a discussion about race, featuring four teens who discuss their own racial identities. But this promising piece could have been more interesting had the teens engaged each other in a discussion rather than giving a bunch of quotes in a vacuum. The esteemed mag (hasn’t it been around for forever?) has a fashion spread that includes Sailor Brinkley Cook (yes, Christie’s kid) and a profile of singer Iggy Azalea, who reveals she has “a real connection” with Britney Spears. Let’s hope she avoids some of Britney’s infamous moments.
The New Yorker marks the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina with an issue that’s as mixedup and chaotic as the disaster itself. On one hand we have Malcolm Gladwell, who recruits a few sociologists to make a datadriven and likely unpopular case that Katrina was actually a good thing for many survivors, who “decided to make a fresh start” in other towns with less crime and better schools and job markets. On the other hand we have editor David Remnick, who introduces a photo essay on Katrina observing that “New Orleanians have always resembled New Yorkers; they tend to share the sense that to live anywhere else would lead to a stultifying and pitiable existence.” Against all logic, we might have to side with Remnick on this one.
Eight months after a chaotic upheaval that cost The New Republic its editor and most of its longtime staff, the magazine has relaunched a print edition, this time without the “The.” So now that New Republic has further decluttered following the unceremonious departure of bigwigs like Leon Wieseltier, what’s left? There’s reason for hope, in particular the investigative piece about China stealing agriculture technology from US firms like Monsanto. For a cover story on ISIS, meanwhile, they hire somebody from the Iowa Writer’s Workshop. The result is a little short on action. For those used to the breathless, youthful, kneejerking and even fingerwagging pieces that have been littering the magazine’s daily email blasts, there’s plenty of that, too (see “How to Think About Your Right to Die” and “Stop Making Superhero Movies for Grownups.”)
Time promises on its cover to tell us “What it’s Like to be a Cop in America.” But inside, the story is what we’d feared it would be: a glorified episode of “C.O.P.S.” It’s funny how they put one of their top reporters, former Middle East correspondent Karl Vick, on an assignment that reads like a cub reporter riding in the backseat of a patrol car. “When we do a traffic stop, we have to inform the driver immediately that the camera is on,” says one Philadelphia officer. “That’s why I’m all for it.” That’s one of the few mildly interesting quotes here. Are we being overly cynical? Probably, and there’s no doubt our cops are up against the world. But we’d all be a little better served with a report with a bit more dirt that’s indepth, undercover and yes, offcamera.