[women’s] magazines promotes a highly
gender-stratified world in which men are
[…] the ‘worker’, yielding all of the power,”
(Byerly and Ross, 2006, p.51). Although
this myth has been dismantled in recent
years, Teen Vogue’s focus on women in
jobs that historically lack women, such
as engineering and STEM, signifies the
transformation of the industry through
providing a more accurate representation
of modern women.
Beneath the title is a collage made up of
personal photographs of the girls in the
article. The first photo is a professional
photo of Paige, an engineer, in front of the
world’s first solar powered airplane. Her luminous vest attracts the reader
to the photo and indicates her place of work. According to Kress and Van
Leeuwen, the placement of elements enhances salience (McLoughlin,
2000, p.29). Therefore, it can be suggested that through placing the
image of Paige at the top, they direct attention towards it, emphasising the
‘at work’ discourse and reinforcing Teen Vogue’s support for sustainable
projects such as a solar powered airplane. The majority of the collage
includes selfies taken by the girls, adding personality to the article and
establishing a mutuality with the reader. This engagement between the
magazine and the reader is evident throughout the texts analysed. For
example, the article includes each of the young women’s ages in a black
font placed underneath a large black box that displays their job title,
for example ‘Teen Scientist’. The connection between the age and job
title inspires a reflection of the reader’s own life and age, motivating the
young readers to see themselves as ambitious and successful. Hackney
(2007, p.6) found that magazines concern processes of “conscious and
subconscious identity formation and transformation”.
The collage is accompanied by professional, on-set portraits where
the girls are almost always looking at the camera with a strong stance.
Each of the young women is styled in expensive, high-fashion clothing,
which connotes the coupling of fashion and the working world, which
has been systematically absent in traditional women’s magazines.
The accumulation of fashion and beauty with news and social activism
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