Despite the fact that Tavi Gevinson is 16--and therefore bang on in the middle of Seventeen's demo--the teenage blogger superstar is not too keen on the magazine. Which is kind of the reason why she started her very own (and totally awesome) teen magazine Rookie in the first place. So, you can imagine her ire when Seventeen not-so-subtly ripped off Rookie's Ask a Grown Man feature with its Ask an A-lister feature. For those of you unfamiliar with Ask a Grown Man, it's this awesome feature that has adult celebrities like John Hamm and Judd Apatow honestly answering reader-submitted questions via a home computer camera--it's un-produced and completely genuine (and if you haven't watched the John Hamm one watch it now). Seventeen's take however, plays up the celebrity angle and has the so-called "A-lister" done up in hair and makeup and filmed in the magazine's offices. "This is the first time that I've felt that something I've done, or Rookie has done, has been copied," Tavi told Racked today. She continued:
Back in April, we told you about 14-year-old Julia Bluhm, who started a petition on Change.org urging teen glossy Seventeen to post one unaltered “real” photo spread per month, with the hopes it would help girls feel better about their bodies. At the time, the petition had collected a respectable 7,000 signatures; now it's close to 85,000 and Bluhm, along with an organization called SPARK, staged a demonstration outside Seventeen's New York offices, launched a Twitter campaign, and met with Seventeen EIC Anne Shoket, who, as we've learned from Ad Week, has finally responded to Bluhm's request. The August issue of Seventeen features a page dedicated to the new "Body Peace Treaty." Here are the most relevant "vows:"
Girl power is not dead, people, and we love it. (Exhibit A: Tavi). Today Julia Bluhm, a 14-year-old eighth grader from Maine, is making headlines with a petition she started in her school lunchroom that's since gone viral. Her request? For Seventeen magazine to post one unaltered "real" photo spread a month.