As you grow up, you start to realize that cinema surrounds us with the glamours of working at magazines. It’s apparently one of the only occupation you can have if you want your life to follow the path led by trailblazing rom-coms such as How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days, The Devil Wears Prada and Sex and The City. There does, however, remain one movie that gets it right in the end.
13 Going On 30 really does capture the essence of everything wrong with the magazine industry. If you look at issues of Vogue, Cosmo and Allure and you’ll end up having multiple issues yourself after getting a small glance at the pictures of men and women dressed in designer clothes with the best makeup artists/dermatologists/plastic surgeons money can buy, and the best photographers and editors and designers on staff.
The moments that a celebrity spends on the cover of a monthly magazine is their chance to show how impactful they are on their own personal journey of self-discovery. There are multiple editorial spreads on them because these are the people we should strive to be like. This is their opportunity to show how relatable they are as a way to show you ways in which you’re the same and ways you can be like them — but that’s just it — more often than not, these are people we will simply never have the opportunity to be like because they’ve achieved a status of wealth and fame that is simply unattainable for most.
The magazine industry thrives on showing us people who are ‘better’ than us. They make us feel inferior and shows us products and clothes and workouts that can ‘make us more like them.’ But never like them totally. They push products to us so that we’ll keep purchasing their publication out of obligation — we have to keep up and find out what the next best products are … because maybe this will be the month I can look like Kendall Jenner on the cover of ELLE right?? She’s a role model to look up to. I mean she’s pretty … and she’s famous … she’s a model … and she has a lot of money … and she’s pretty. These are the kind of hard-hitting, noble values that hold up our society.
Flash back to the beginning of this rant (if you can even recall me mentioning it) where I mentioned 13 Going On 30 for a split second: By the end of the movie, the protagonist of the story, Jenna Rink, has to help come up with a new strategy so that her magazine, Composure, can overcome their rival competitor, Sparkle Magazine. Jenna starts her pitch to the magazine by taking a look at their previous work,
“Who are these women? Does anyone know? I don’t recognize any of them. I want to see my best friend’s big sister, the girls from the soccer team, my next door neighbor, real women who are smart and pretty and happy to be who they are. These are the women to look up to. Let’s put life back into the magazine. And fun and laughter and silliness.”
It is undeniably attractive for magazines to have flashy, A-list celebrities on the covers of their magazines. Big names with relatively big stories are guaranteed to bring in big money. It may be time, though, that we take more of a risk in covers and take a step back from highlighting the names of people who already have big names and pivot toward showcasing people who are making legitimate contributions to society and having large impacts on their communities without celebrity status. This change could also mark a shift in celebrity culture — make celebrities work for their covers by forcing them to actually do something newsworthy.
Having a pretty face on the cover of a big magazine is like having florals for spring — in the words of Miranda Priestly, “groundbreaking.” Mark my words that a transition will come at some point in time when people realize that celebrities lives are not as interesting as they’d like for us to believe (if they haven’t seen so in this pandemic). The first publication to make this move will be rewarded HIGHLY for taking such a bold risk.
We all know why the likes of Taylor Swift, Karlie Kloss and Billie Eilish grace the highly anticipated covers of Vogue — the gold standard of magazines. A regular person on the cover of Vogue? Why? What’d they do? She actually did something unrelated to their music, fashion or acting careers. They worked their ass off in medical school to make a scientific discovery and was the first woman in her field to do so. And guess what — she did it without being a rich and successful girl beforehand and was pennilessly in debt to her student loans for years. BUT WAIT. THERE’S MORE. She’s about as regular and average as you, and now you can see that you’re importance in society is not based upon the makeup that you wear, the face masks that you put on, or the clothes that you buy.
Believe it or not: There is more to life than being a member of the entertainment industry. It’s not all about your biggest song that you’re writing, your upcoming reality show premiere or your breakout screen performance; it is about what you are doing for the good of the world. Magazines have been sending the wrong message for far too long. We do fortunately see some glimmers of hope with the likes of TIME and InStyle. Also for the sake of numbers if that’s what y’all find important. People are much more likely to be engaged if they are reading about someone that they either legitimately relate to or at least someone that is within their reach.
There’s a reason why Humans Of New York has such a massive following on all platforms and I will be the first to tell you that it is not because of all the big names they’re touting. They make a real and legitimate connection with people based on the random assortment of people who choose to share their stories with them. I know damn well that there are plenty of people out there with exciting lives that far surpass those living in a life of privilege and luxury.
Now … if anyone needs me, you can find me watching 13 Going On 30 for the next 5-7 business days.