Deception | Teen Ink

Deception MAG

By Anonymous

   Skinny, beautiful, flawless young men and women. That is all I see as I skim through this so-called YM magazine. I think that the Y and the M stand for Young and Modern. It seems as if the cover is screaming with headlines such as "Fashion Trends" and "Love Lessons" surrounding a skimpily dressed cover model. How can 100 pages of loosely bound paper determine my destiny?

The first couple of pages are trying to tell me that I'm going to go through some kind of a transformation of beauty - if and only if I purchase these miraculous products. Next I see a section where people ask somebody they don't even know for advice. I don't know about that, but where I'm from we only trust our true-blue friends with our deepest, darkest secrets. I think to myself ... I would love to live in this world of love and beauty. It's almost like all my problems can be answered in this book of life.

As I continue to flip through the pages, I notice that there aren't any "different" people or people who look like they are dressed like they want. All seem to want to achieve only one thing. That feeling of completion comes from having people like and admire you for what you wear and what you own. I only see people, more like mannequins, in clothing with dollar signs written all over. Next I come to a big, full-page advertisement: How To Get the Body You Always Wanted. This tickles my interest, and look further. This is too good to be true. There is 100% guaranteed satisfaction, easy payments, everything a girl could possible want.

Onto the next pages, one thought pounds: "Why does everything in this magazine seem so superficial and selfish?" Am I allowing myself to be sucked into this ignorant world? I don't see much on family, but a lot on boyfriends; not much on love, but a lot on sex.

Like waking up from a nightmare, I begin to see how much my feelings have changed from page 1 to page 120. It's amazing how I thought that this was a good and informational, magazine. I can now come to the conclusion, by reading the biased articles and advertisements, that this is clearly another form of deception. ?



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This article has 2 comments.


i love this so much!

on Jan. 13 2011 at 3:58 pm
DoloresDarling, Cambridge, Ohio
0 articles 0 photos 137 comments

Favorite Quote:
Sarah Michelle Gellar- [on the importance of reading] I love books. I\'m constantly afraid we\'re moving into this digital era where books are going to go away, and to me books are the basis to everything in life. Reading is how we function.

 I really love this article, because I feel the same as you do. I've read a lot of magizines and it's horrible to see  girls my age, skinny as a tooth pick advertising clothing that is way to much to buy, and in my opinion and my friends that are ugly looking and oh its the latest "style", psh what ever. It's stupid. I don't dress in aeropostle, american eagle, and hollister clothing I like to look diffrent from the rest, I don't want to blend in with everyone else.

  I've tried wearing american eagle clothing, but really the only clothes I like there would probably the cheapest pair of jeans, and thats it. I don't need to look like everyone else to be "popular" being popular is so overated :3 Love your article!