Encouraging young women to exercise: can teenage magazines play a role?

This study used focus groups with young women, content analysis of teenage magazines, and interviews with key health professionals and magazine editors to investigate the role currently played by teenage magazines in shaping adolescent attitudes towards physical activity. It suggests that magazines may play an influential role in the lives of adolescent girls. Current coverage of physical activity in teenage magazines is minimal, and gives prominence to concerns of attractiveness and physical appearance as motives for exercising. However, improving the coverage of physical activity appears to be a strategy acceptable to both readers and editors. Recommendations are made for using teenage magazines to promote physical activity among young women.