Cosmo Girl x Elle Girl

Cosmo Girl http://www.chineselaundrybags.com/images/InitialSet/2006CosmoSeptC1.jpg
Elle Girl http://www.meganmarysmith.com/images/gallery_ellegirl.jpg

The cover of Cosmo Girl shows a medium close up of Ashlee Simpson, she is looking directly towards the audience in an innocent way. On the other hand, Elle Girl shows OC star Rachel Bilson in a medium long shot with the camera at a low angle. With the wind blowing in her hair and her facial expression there is a sense of a provocative pose.

The background for Elle Girl is more natural and shows greenery whereas the background of Cosmo Girl is just a plain white studio backdrop. The colour scheme for Elle Girl uses mainly pinks, whites and blacks some use of yellow to highlight the special price. The pink can be seen as a typical colour to represent girls. Cosmo Girl has a colour scheme of pink, black and green, ‘Girl’ is written in a pink lipstick style conveying this magazine is for girls.

The genres for both magazines are teenage, girl’s magazines, which often have topics regarding clothes, beauty and lifestyle, similar to the kind of subjects found in the older women’s version to Elle Girl and Cosmo Girl.

Ashlee Simpson on the cover of Cosmo Girl is show to look innocent and is a celebrity who Cosmo Girl feels is a good role model for their readers. She is shown to be pretty and with light make-up Cosmo is attempting to convey it as natural beauty, so that younger readers can aspire to look that particular way with little effort. Elle Girl does the same; however, Rachel Bilson is conveyed to be naturally beautiful, as she is not wearing noticeable make-up. Rather than conveying her as her OC character Summer, Elle Girl conveys Bilson as the person she is.

Cosmo Girl is the teen alternative to Cosmopolitan; the target readership for this magazine can be identified as young teenage girls aged between 14 to 19 year olds. Elle Girl is for a similar demographic for young girls and teenagers. The ‘Girl’ in both titles of the magazines creates a separation from Cosmopolitan and Elle from which the younger magazine alternative are produced. This also shows some element of continuity, as the audience grows up they can continue read Elle or Cosmopolitan.

The tag lines of Elle Girl convey the ideology that as a girl one has to look beautiful with “perfect back-to-school makeover” and “Hollywood Style Special”. The ‘Hollywood style’ reinforces celebrity culture and suggests to the audience that they can look like their favourite stars such as “…Hilary Duff, Lindsay Lohan…” Cosmo Girl focuses more of the aspiration of looking beautiful with “beauty Qs” and “Amazing Abs”. With Ashlee Simpson the only celebrity on the cover it can be seen that Cosmo are down playing the celebrity culture.

In conclusion, although Cosmo Girl and Elle Girl are two different types of teenage magazines they both have some similarity. The masthead and the use of pink coloured text within the masthead allow the audience to identify these as girl’s magazines. Furthermore, the celebrities used on the cover reinforces the girl magazine status and somewhat encourages celebrity culture. Finally, the taglines of the magazines show the audience what to expect when they buy it and both Cosmo Girl and Elle Girl have articles about beauty, lifestyle and clothes often similar to articles in Cosmopolitan and Elle.