Sugar gets the thumbs up from Irish girls. Colourful, interesting and packed with celebrity gossip, this British magazine appears to have got the formula right for the mid-teen market.
While they have their favourites, for the "average" teen readers who spoke to Media Scope it's not really about the features, fashion, gossip or market strategy. They say the it's the free gift attached to the front that makes them part with the cash.
"I look to see what's free with it!" remarks Catriona Cahill. Her friend Fiona Flavin agrees, and says that "sometimes you don't even look at the content properly before buying it". Both age 15, Catriona and Fiona are Transition Year students at Ballincollig Community School in Cork. The girls say Sugar is their favourite magazine, and list adult-oriented Company, Cosmopolitan and Marie-Claire as other good titles.
"Celebrity interviews are interesting - an interview with Pacey from Dawsons Creek would grab my interest. Music, fashion, horoscopes, celebrity news, feature stories and those quizzes are what I mostly enjoy. There's too many ads in a lot of them."
But Catriona won't read just any teen mag. "Some of the magazines are too young. I wouldn't read one that targeted 12-year-old girls - that's too young for me. I'd read ones that my older sister brings home rather than magazines my younger sister buys."
Jane McCudden and Miosa Murphy say the gossip, readers' embarrassing stories and the problem pages are good fun. "The horoscopes are one of the first pages I go to. Then the celebrity gossip. The problem pages are a great to laugh, especially with school friends. Sugar is my favourite magazine - some of the magazines aren't very interesting and others are too juvenile," Jane says. "But it all depends on the freebies. One of the magazines was giving away a lip gloss during the summer - some of them give away really good stuff," Jane says. Both Jane and Miosa are 16 and attend St Mary's College in Naas, Co Kildare.
"Sugar, J17, Company and Cosmopolitan are probably the best of them," Miosa says. "Hello, OK and NOW are good for the celeb photos. Anything with pop stars or models or just general famous people are good. Everyone is interested in that."
"Sugar is good for the real-life stories," Jane adds. "Sometimes it's about prostitution or drugs or other topics. These give you something serious to read. When it comes to sex topics I think girls learn a lot from magazines. Articles and readers' stories answer questions some girls would be too embarrassed to ask, or wouldn't know where else to find out the information."
