Seventeen

***Seventeen*** is an American magazine for teenagers. The magazine's reader base is 10-to-21-year-old females. It began as a publication geared towards inspiring teen girls to become model workers and citizens. Soon after its debut, *Seventeen* took a more fashion and romance-oriented approach in presenting its material while promoting self-confidence in young women. It was first published in September 1944 by Walter Annenberg's Triangle Publications.

## *Seventeen*'s early history

The first editor of *Seventeen*, Helen Valentine, provided teenage girls with working woman role models and information about their development. *Seventeen* enhanced the role of teenagers as consumers of popular culture. The concept of "teenager" as a distinct demographic originated in that era. In July 1944, King Features Syndicate began running the comic strip *Teena*, created by cartoonist Hilda Terry, in which a typical teenager's life was examined. *Teena* ran internationally in newspapers for twenty years.

After *Seventeen* was launched in September 1944, Estelle Ellis Rubenstein, the magazine's promotion director, introduced advertisers to the life of teenage girls through *Teena*, selling advertising in *Seventeen* at the same time. From 1945 to 1946, the magazine surveyed teen girls in order to better understand the magazine's audience. The magazine became an important source of information to manufacturers seeking guidance on how to satisfy consumer demand among teenagers. Today, the magazine entertains as well as promotes self-confidence in young women.

Sylvia Plath submitted nearly fifty pieces to *Seventeen* before her first short story, "And Summer Will Not Come Again", was accepted and published in the August 1950 issue.

Joyce Walker became the first black model to be featured on the cover of Seventeen magazine in July 1971. In the early 1980s, Whitney Houston was also featured on the cover of the magazine.

News Corporation bought Triangle in 1988 and sold *Seventeen* to K-III Communications (later Primedia) in 1991. Primedia sold the magazine to Hearst in 2003. *Seventeen* remains popular on newsstands today despite greater competition.

In 2010, writer Jamie Keiles conducted "The Seventeen Magazine Project", an experiment in which she followed the advice of *Seventeen* magazine for thirty days.

In 2012, in response to reader protests against the magazine's airbrushing its models' photos, *Seventeen* ended its practice of using digital photo manipulation to enhance published photographs. (See more below under Controversy).

## International editions

* The South African edition of *Seventeen* magazine is published by 8 Ink Media based in Cape Town. The editor is Janine Jellars.
* The Philippine version is published by Summit Media, but it ceased publication in April 2009.
* The Hispanic American edition is published by Editorial Televisa.
* The Indian edition is published by Apricot Publications Pvt. Ltd in Mumbai.
* The Malaysian version of *Seventeen* is published by Bluinc.
* *Seventeen Singapore* is published by SPH Magazines.
* The Thai edition of *Seventeen* is published by Media Transasia Limited in Bangkok.
* In the United Kingdom there is no *Seventeen* magazine, but there is a similar magazine recently touted as a fresher and edgier competition to *Teen Vogue* called *Company*.
* The Japanese version of *Seventeen* is published by Shueisha Publishing Co., Ltd.

## *Seventeen* in other media

*Seventeen* has also published books for teens, addressing such topics as beauty, style, college, health and fitness.

### *America's Next Top Model*

*Seventeen* was a sponsor of *America's Next Top Model*. The winners of *America's Next Top Model* from seasons 7 through 14 have each graced a cover of *Seventeen* magazine, including CariDee English, Jaslene Gonzalez, Sal Stowers, Whitney Thompson, McKey Sullivan, Teyona Anderson, Nicole Fox, and Krista White. Originally, the magazine only planned on sponsoring the show from cycles 7 through 10; however, with such a high success rate and a great opportunity the magazine provided for these women, the magazine sponsored the cycles until the show decided to move the winners to *Vogue Italia*.

### *Cyberbu//y*

In 2011, *Seventeen* worked together with ABC Family to make a film about a girl who gets bullied online called *Cyberbu//y*. The point was to raise awareness of cyber bullying and to "delete digital drama". The film premiered July 17, 2011 on ABC Family.

### Controversy

In April 2012, 14-year-old ballerina and blogger Julia Bluhm from Waterville, Maine created a petition on *Change.org* titled "Seventeen Magazine: Give Girls Images of Real Girls!' advocating for the magazine publication to vow to print at least one unaltered and Photoshop-FREE monthly photo spread".

Julia Bluhm is a "SPARK Summit activist" and declared that "as part of SPARK Movement, a girl-fueled, national activist movement, I've been fighting to stop magazines, toy companies, and other big businesses from creating products, photo spreads and ads that hurt girls' and break our self-esteem".

In May 2012 Julia Bluhm, her mother, and a group of fellow SPARK Summit activists were invited to the New York headquarters of *Seventeen* by editor-in-chief Ann Shoket.

On 3 July 2012, Bluhm officially won her petition upon receiving almost 85,000 (as of 23 February 2015, 86,435) signatures, resulting in *Seventeen*'s editorial staff pledging to always feature one photo spread per month without the use of digital photo manipulation.

Furthermore, *Seventeen*'s Ann Shoket published The Body Peace Treaty in her editor's letter of the 2012 August issue, as an extension of the magazine's ongoing Body Peace Project.

## Editors

* Helen Valentine (1944–1953)
* Enid A. Haupt (1953–1970)
* Midge Richardson (1975–1993)
* Maci Hunter (1993–1994)
* Caroline Miller (1994–1997)
* Meredith Berlin (1997–1999)
* Patrice G. Adcroft
* Mia Fausto Cruz
* Simon Dumenco
* Sabrina Weill
* Annemarie Iverson
* Atoosa Rubenstein (2003–2007)
* Ann Shoket (2007–2014)
* Michelle Tan (2014–present)

## Changes in United States cover price

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