First Issue Review: Star
Hello! for teenager’s or OK! for kids. Can you imagine that? The thought of a “little brother”-style celebrity lifestyle magazine for the 12-19 year old market left me with a bad taste in my mouth reminiscent of my student days when a good night out was a half-cooked chicken kebab after 10 pints of lager.
A celebrity lifestyle magazine for rich kids? Or about rich kids? I scoffed horribly at the thought and began to picture in my mind the children of the rich and famous displayed like glass dolls in delightful poses and dressed in baby Prada. I hadn’t even opened the front cover and was already fearing the worst. Packed full of images of the rich and beautiful, it didn’t give a lot away. As I looked at the front page of this glossy title produced by BBC Worldwide and with a cover price of £1.60, I thought there surely is more to this façade then meets the eye!
I ventured past the first page and was automatically hit with and horrified by, bylines like “invites us into her stunning home” alongside air-brushed glossy pictures of teenage American soaps that dominated the first few pages. At first I thought I was in this week’s issue of Hello!. What 12-year would be interested in viewing someone’s stunning home, was my first thought. Surely a teenage reader is more interested in an actor’s love life than whichever stunning home they live in?
Star is packed to bursting point with shining new stars, exciting hip articles and lots of beautiful young teenagers. This magazine is just for and full of the fabulous people, sweetie. (With the exception of Sonia from Eastenders. I guess they had to let a few of us ugly people in!)
The magazine is a good 100 or so pages filled with the young, rich and famous. There is however, refreshingly enough, not one face-lift or bad plastic surgery job in sight (unless you count Britney see pg.73). H from steps is there to tell us what’s hip and what not (he’s a fine one to talk). And with competitions, reviews, gossip and even website guides there’s more information in this magazine that will stimulate the teenage mind with delusions of grandeur then there is caffeine in a double expresso.
“The celebrity interview” is the thing that this magazine excels at best and is, of course, taken from its adult counterparts. The choice is wide, from getting deep and personal with Sarah Michelle Geller and the Dawson’s Creek gal, Katie Holmes, to quizzing those hunks in Hollyoaks about the latest Chester gossip! If you want to you can visit pop singer Louise at home with her 7-stone mutt (and no I don’t mean Jamie Redknapp), as she manages to find something to say to promote her flagging career.
Although the interviews are fun and frisky and I did enjoy reading them, I found the layout and structure was typical of its adult counterparts, ie boring and dull!
Fresh faces fill Star, as do the large glossy photos that portray beautiful people in sexy surroundings, from pop stars to soap stars from Eastenders to Dawson’s Creek, from the Backstreet Boys to Boyzone. It manages to cover these aspects all in a mature and confident way. It has the confidence, but can it break new ground in the teenage market?
For a first issue Star is pretty green around the gills but one thing I will say is that it has potential to be a shinning bright star. Why? You might ask. Well, as a standalone celebrity gossip title for the “yoof” market, it only has it adult counterparts to seek advice from.
It’s a spanking good read if you are “into” the world of teenage celebrities (that often don’t get the coverage in other titles in the teenage or adult market) and of course if you have never heard of Ivana Trump. My opinion is that when this title finds it feet and breaks away from closely following its adult counterparts it will break ground in the teenage market. Being the only one of its kind, it has a niche market but it will be tough work before kids realise it’s just for them. So common sweetie darling! lets give it a few issues to find its feet before we condemn it to the bonfire pile.