This book outlines Currie's 1999 study of 91 girls and their interpretations and understanding of "Teenzine" magazines, fashion and beauty magazines developed specifically for adolescent readers. Most of the girls involved in the study were 13-17 years old, while smaller groups of pre-adolescents and 18 year olds also participated. I found many of the direct quotes from the girls fascinating. For example, two magazine ads for perfumes are compared by the girls. The common response was that the ad depicting a woman playing with a toddler was more appealing, and an accurate depiction of motherhood, than an ad showing a woman in a party dress breastfeeding an infant. This latter ad generated comments like "I don't really think she looks

like the motherly type" despite the breastfeeding being a stronger indication of the mother and child relationship than the first ad where the woman and child could be any woman and anyone's child. At the same time, girls saw the first ad as more 'natural' than the second. One thought it too "unrealistic that a nursing mother could be wearing a party dress."

In this book, Currie also explores what fashion and beauty mean to young women in their development of gendered identities. One of her arguments is that the knowledge young women gain from magazines is more impressive to them than their own personal experience. Currie describes the division between feminists who either oppose or support women's magazines. She says feminist analysis has historically underestimated the extent to which women's roles and identities can be sources of pleasure for women. Despite the racialization that dominates women's magazines, Currie argues that visible-minority women can and do take pleasure from magazines promoting Causcasian femininity standards. Coming from the 'opposing' camp, I found these concepts intriguing.

Some girls described not only the pleasure but the usefulness of these magazines to them. "I always look at those [tips on how to do your make-up a little faster] because it takes me like sometimes half and hour, so I want to be absolutely accurate and not screw up because if you screw up you have to start again - fourteen-year-old Kayla." At the same time some girls' critical analysis of the magazines was encouraging. "The stuff they focus on is kind of fun...but it gets boring after a while. It's like the same magazine over and over again. Like a different way to put on eyeshadow, and a different hairdo (laughs). More food for thought was Curries's point that rather than being fashion victims, fashion has been one of the few legitimate avenues of women's creative self-expression. More examples to support this claim would be helpful, since I'm not sure that women have that much control in the whole fashion development industry. Overall, this is an interesting, but long book, 362 pages. Although I enjoyed the girls explanations for what they liked and did not like about the magazines, sometimes the pages of quotes seemed to go on just a little too long. Skipping ahead after getting the gist of some sections was helpful.