4 Years And Ending - My 4 With 14

My first time reading a J-14 had to be, ironically, when I was eight. It was during the boy-band craze and that lame guy from Backstreet Boys was sporting the same hair as my friend. Wow! And thus began my 4 year collection.

I'm ending my collection now for a few reasons.

One, because it's about the same price as Twist, but less entertaining, and is more Twist than I described. What that means is, simply put, it's too bubble-gum-pop. Pardon me, I must get out of Britney Times. It's Avril Mania now! It's too pop-punk. Entertainment. And when I'm looking for entertainment, I want stuff I can relate to! And like I said in my Twist article, I don't really give a rat's tushy about Hilary Duff.

Two, because my music interests are growing and morphing. It was a year ago that I liked P. Diddy, 50 Cent, and Nelly. Then I discovered rock music, shuttling my abyss of hip-hop to the basement. Seether, Evanescence, Korn, Three Days Grace, Kittie, and my favorite, Nirvana. Grunge, metal, emo, etc. Magazines like this consider "rock" music to be Good Charlotte, Simple Plan, and Avril Lavigne. No insult to any of them, but I consider them to be pop music. In that case, there's no rock in that magazine.

Three, I can get satisfaction and articles from the Internet. Provided, the Internet costs about 10 times the cost of a magazine, but comparing the Internet to a magazine is like comparing a pamphlet to Webster.

Four, I'm stuck in the past. I can get articles from the 50's and 90's about grunge music and Marilyn Monroe on-line.

J-14, like many magazines for teens on the shelves, is boy-crazy. It has a monthly article called Boy-Crazy, containing celebrity quizzes, how to snag your guy, and what guy would be perfect for you. To summarize that up, I don't like any of the guys listed in the quiz, there are no guys to snag, and the list of guys perfect for me left out guys LIKE me. Plus, read my Twist review and you'll now how I feel about boys. Guy friends are cool, but there is life outside the boys for girls my age.

The celebrities listed in J-14 all, frankly, stink. Hilary Duff, Avril Lavigne, pop-punk bands, The O.C., I don't even know what the O.C. is! I'm stuck in the past! I didn't even know Barbie and Ken broke up! Pardon me for being close-minded, but I simply do not like any of the popular celebrities out there! And the ones I do like of this decade surely wouldn't be listed in this magazine. I mentioned above that the Internet is a great resource, and I'm saying it again. Forget magazines! Plus, it's a place where you can quote Nirvana and not look crazy (Me: "I'm so lonely, but that's okay I shaved my head." Friend: "You WHAT?!").

As for the pages written by the girls that send in stories, they're poorly rated. Embarrassing moments? Sneezing in front of a nice boy or falling in the mud hardly is labeled as embarrassing to me. If I fell in the mud in front of some guys, we'd laugh so hard we'd fall again, and as for sneezing, sometimes I forget to take my Claritin. Stuff happens! Perhaps I seek perfection, or by my low embarrassment standards I see no problems. And they have this page called "Cool Comebacks." That's worse than Twist, because Twist takes letters sent and rates them "Sweet" or "Sour" ("sweet" is having the person insulting or cheating get just desserts, "sour" is insulting those unworthy, or something of the sort), and J-14 rates how smooth the comeback was! Tripping a person who did something wrong then saying, "And you said I'm tripping?" just doesn't suit me. It just cheapens yourself in the end, if you ask me.

One nice thing: they have posters in the middle. If I get lucky, a KoRn one will appear. If I'm very lucky, Evanescence. Never has a Seether poster appeared there, and the day they put Nirvana or Kittie in there will be the day I produce computers with my pinky finger! But, you must cover the walls with something.

As for clothing, they did have a nice issue, okay, scratch that, nice page (it was a promotion of the movie Sleepover, and I can't say anything since I didn't see it, but it looks incredibly superficial and teenybop), that had inspirations of gothic (or as they called it, rock star) clothing. Now, I'm not going to spend $21 on a cat with two heads or $15 on boy briefs, but at Wal-Mart and thrift stores you can find a great deal, and it did give me inspiration on what to buy or make! Other than that, the clothing is usually not of my liking and when it is, my wallet screams for mercy.

I've collected at least 50 J-14 magazines, and after 4 years, I'm keeping it, but not buying anymore of them. Maybe I'm stuck in the past, maybe I'm too unique to read a trendy magazine, but J-14 has had it's last laugh in my bookshelf.