Discovery Girls Magazine

Discovery Girls (Ages 8 & up)

Summary:
Discovery Girls is a magazine published bi-monthly with a Survival Guide issue published in June. There is a companion web site found at http://www.discoverygirls.com/. Catherine Lee, the founder of Discovery Girls, began the magazine to help girls like her daughter navigate their middle-school years. Each month, the employees of Discovery Girls travel to a state and select 12 “Discover Girls” to assist creating the magazine. There is also a photo shoot of the girls which is included in the print magazine. This magazine is subtitled, “Created by Girls, For Girls.” The majority of the magazine is filled with columns to which readers can contribute such as The Great Debate, Embarrassing Moments, Ask Ali, Mailbag, Health & Beauty, and The Worst Day. The central themes to the magazine’s articles are bullying, family relationships, friendship, puberty/body, life skills, self-esteem, and surviving middle school.

Review:
The interesting aspect of this magazine is the fact that it focuses on building positive, strong, and confident girls. Girls who are having problems in middle school will find this magazine helpful in two ways. It will provide advice to deal with the problems and it will show that they are not alone in experiencing these problems.

The magazine includes fashion articles, but this is not a fashion magazine. Additionally, the magazine doesn’t focus on one’s outward appearance, but focuses on the girls’ inner well-being. Personally, this is a welcomed change as there are many magazines that put a lot of focus on girls’ beauty. Interestingly, one reader wrote that she loves “the fact that the girls on the covers aren’t perfect models. I feel that they are just like me.”

One concern I have is that the topics may be too repetitious and girls might get bored with the magazine. The LMS Library just began receiving this magazine, and only two issues are on the shelf. It will be interesting to see the future variety of topics and how many different angles the Discovery Girls and editor can use to approach each topic.