PST, GST, a sagging job market, prohibitive post-secondary academic requirements, AIDS, drugs, alcohol, peer pressure... Even though many feel that to be a teen today must be a living nightmare, as recently as 2001, a national survey of adolescents indicated that today's teens are more optimistic than ever about themselves and their futures (Macleans, April 2001). And yet, despite their hopeful outlook, today's adolescents have more issues to confront than adolescents of the past.

As an enterprising young publisher, you realize that a magazine market window exists, and that you can draw in a large teen readership with a monthly publication aimed directly at adolescents.

Potential topics to be covered in each issue might include:

• teen diet; eating disorders; teen pregnancy and parenting; jobs and careers
• youth unemployment; educational goals, programs and planning; teen consumerism (e.g., shopping, cost of living, cost effective buying)
• chemical misuse
• AIDS
• peer pressure
• self-concept and esteem
• dysfunctional families
• relationships (parents, friends, boyfriends/girlfriends)
• teen sex
• teen political views
• leisure activities
• values and attitudes
• teen prostitution
• youth and the law
• personal appearance (e.g., fashion consciousness, skin problems)
• health and fitness

Related Lesson

Magazine Production