DISCOVERY GIRL is the world's worst magazine.

I am mad. Like, really, really mad.

Everyone knows how defiantly I will fight against women's body image issues in the media, everyone knows what a firm feminist I am and everyone knows I run what is predominantly a woman's magazine that doesn't focus on women's bodies or looks. It's all very important to me. 

So you can only imagine my fury when my friend sent me a link to this article: 

What the actual heck?! I could not believe my eyes! It makes me angry enough to see articles about being "beach body ready" in magazines such as Cosmo or Heat or whatever, but to see it in a children's magazine aimed at 8-12 year olds?! Several thoughts ran through my mind...

How the heck did this get an 'okay' from the editor?
What actual imbecile is running this magazine and thought "yes, great idea, let's try and get 8 year old's to care about how they look in a swimsuit, rather than just letting them enjoy their holiday". Do they want to be a contributing factor to the rising levels of eating disorders and mental heath problems in young children? Whoever okayed this, whoever wrote this and the editor should all be sacked off in my opinion! What total, total idiots!

The categorisation.
"Curvy Up Top", "Straight Up and Down" and "Rounder in the Middle". Rounder in the middle. Oh my God. These categorisations for children are absolutely horrific I can't even type the words to express my utter disgust and frustration. First of all, they're children. They're either healthy or not healthy, there is no needs to start pushing a label on their body shape, especially when they're still growing and changing all of the time. Secondly, they've only selected three body types and yet literally every single body type is different. How weird will a child feel if a magazine tells them that their body has to match one of these three labels and it doesn't? It's just not okay!

The sexualisation.
Not only does it tell girls- remember they're aged 8 to 12- how to find a flattering swim suit, it also advises them on how to (and I quote) "add curves" and "draw the eyes down". Why the heck are they trying to turn a child's body into a woman's body, a sexualised body at that? No eight year old girl needs to add curves to her body! What a horrific thing to try and suggest to a child!


Of course, there was major backlash from parents on social media, and rightly so. The publisher of the children's magazine, which is called 'Discovery Girls', posted an 'open letter' to address the situation. Her letter stated that she was "in total agreement with all of you regarding this article". If she's in total agreement then WHY DID SHE BLOODY GIVE THE OKAY TO PUBLISH IT?!

The open letter also stated that "no magazine works harder to ensure the well-being of your daughter's than Discovery Girl".

Um, I can tell you one that does. Love from... magazine (lol). We focus on empowering females, giving career advice, chatting about real life problems. Other magazines such as Girls World, Girls Talk and maybe even Top of the Pops (although I haven't read it in a while) are all for young girls and all discuss things that girls aged 8-12 should be talking about, like toys and TV shows and how to make fairy wands, without a glimmer of an article on their bodies in sight!

Discovery Girl magazine, you suck. I have never been more horrified, more shocked and more disgusted at a magazine article. Women have dealt with this kind of gross treatment from media publications for an age, and we are pretty much used to it by now. But children? That's not okay. They don't deserve to have women's body ideals pushed onto their underage and pre teenage minds. It's so far from okay. I am so beyond angry.

This is just another reminder of why I started my own magazine- to empower females of all ages (although 8 may be a bit young to read about choosing a career path...) and give them something else to focus on that isn't how they look. Children's magazines need to remember their effective duty of care over children, the position of power they have over children, the level of responsibility they have and the trust that parents put into them. Children's magazines also need to stay in their lane. You aren't Vogue, you aren't Cosmo, so stop trying to write articles like you are. Let children be children!

Love from,
Florence Grace

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