Karlie's Cover

Here's the thing, Teen Vogue. I love you. I am interning for you & I will forever be thankful for this incredible, dream come true opportunity. You've inspired me since your inception. I love how you give teenagers the credit to be savvy, knowledgeable, creative, and conscious of fashion's history. And you usually do a really great job of making young girls feel great about themselves. Your covers in the past year have been racially diverse (i.e. there were women of African descent on your cover, including a pregnant teenager), your DIY and street style photos and articles are creatively juicy, and you always strive to include articles about issues affecting teenagers such as online hazing, drug and alcohol use, eating disorders, sexual health, and relationships. You’ve let the magazine grow Anna Wintour style by featuring celebrities on the cover since it’s inception, with the occasional exception of Gemma Ward and Chanel Iman. And while Karlie Kloss’s cover looks great, the article inside is what really disappointed me.

Printing an article about the model on the cover of a teen magazine in which she is praised, lauded, and perfected in every aspect is not going to be good for any young girl’s self esteem. Models already appear perfect in magazines and notoriously set the standards of beauty in our society today. Featuring one on the cover is a throwback to the history of magazines in the first place, that is to say, it’s totally fine. But when that model becomes the perfect human being as per her own quotes and quotes about her, she no longer becomes a healthy role model for anybody, boy or girl, young or old. In this article, Kloss is described to have perfect grades, study backstage as opposed to smoking cigarettes with other models, bake cookies for the staff backstage, be your average girl from the Midwest, and also be versatile and exuberant in her professional career, all at the age of seventeen. And while this may all be true, and props to you Karlie for living life they way you want to, it also cannot be the whole story.

What I am asking is that Teen Vogue be more conscious of their impact on the self-esteem of the young women who are reading their magazine. Now, I am older and stronger in myself, and articles and features such as these wouldn’t affect me. However, when I first started reading Teen Vogue, they certainly would. I don’t look like the models that are featured, and I am not perfect. I look up to Diane von Furstenberg, Grace Coddington, and Diana Vreeland, women who have been through immense hardship, are not your average beauty, and yet positively shimmer with their brilliance and radiance. Please feature real young women, Teen Vogue. The truth is what moves people and inspires, not a depiction of a young girl who is not only already considered physically perfect, but also perfect in every other way, too. Nobody is perfect, and a real role model is one who exemplifies their strength in overcoming challenges and personal imperfection. I’m not saying Kloss hasn’t been through anything in her life, no doubt she has, but it would be beneficial to the young women readers to learn about that side of her, too, as opposed to all of the ways in which she is the perfect seventeen year old. Ultimately, models are a clothes hanger; they sell the item, they are photogenic, they fit the popular look. Their hours are long and tiring, their work is hard and it is necessary to the industry, however it should not be idolized and the models themselves shouldn’t be either.