It’s easy to cast aside a teen magazine and think it’s nothing more than glossy 8×10 photos of teen idols, and random articles about said teen idols. Well, yeah, that’s definitely all of those are on the surface level, but almost everything in life also comes with lessons that people don’t necessarily know they’re learning at the time. These are more lessons learned in hindsight from ‘Tiger Beat’ and its teen magazine brethren…
Reading
Some kids did just get these magazines for the pictures, while others took the time to read them cover to cover – ultimately strengthening their reading skills along the way.
Fanfiction
The internet brushed away the dust of fangirls and boys’ deep and personal thoughts as fanfiction really took the message boards by storm, but where do you think a lot of those thoughts initially spawned from? Yes, reading those teen magazines!
Writing Letters
The likes of ‘Tiger Beat’ and the rest of them used to place addresses in them to the stars. Were they likely a random mailbox that no one checked in Burbank? Yup, but back in the day one might actually get a run-of-the-mill response from their management team.
Personality Determinations
Long before BuzzFeed, we took to teen magazines to learn what boy band member we’d marry, or what concert would be best for our summer vacation. Like now, we took the results to heart and let it determine our entire personality for at least several hours to a month depending on the type of kid we were, and how quickly we moved on to the next.
Decorating
The photos and posters ‘Tiger Beat’ and Co. had were everything, and for $3.99+ we could have a gaggle of new decorating material for our rooms. I feel like adorning one’s room with countless posters isn’t really a thing anymore though, and might’ve died out with…perhaps One Direction fans.
Budgeting
When printed publications were everywhere, it was easy to see at least a dozen teen magazines on the stand. So you couldn’t just walk in and grab them all. Kids really had to sit there and know how to do basic math to figure out if they could get ‘Tiger Beat,’ ‘Bop,’ and ‘BB’ in one trip or not.
Decision Making
If you were a double dipper and loved both Backstreet Boys and N’SYNC, then you were stuck wondering who to hang up when they landed on opposite sides of a single pull-out poster!
Trend Analysis
Even as kids, tweens, and teens, it was easy to see who was the hot thing at the moment by how big or small they were on the cover.
Bartering
Back in the day kids could trade several Jonas Brothers posters for a few Justin Bieber 8x10s. Simpler times.
What One Looks for…
Those glossy photos also helped people realize early on what they did and did not find attractive. Well, as much as anyone can tell by a single picture.
Crushgasm 
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