Girl power: Tween magazine adopts a feminist agenda

London – At our Youthquake II Network Evening, held at The Future Laboratory HQ last week, LS:N Global reporter Rowland Manthorpe spoke to Bea Appleby, editor of Girl Talk, the UK's longest-running tween magazine.

Aimed at girls aged 7–11, Girl Talk recently launched the #GirlsAreAmazing campaign after commissioning a survey that found that girls want to be pop stars and pretty more than anything else. 'There is so much in the media about girls, the ambition gap and the confidence gap,' says Appleby. 'We thought we needed to do something to help.'

The campaign enables people to join the conversation on social media. And while Appleby recognises that the hashtag appeals to parents on Twitter more than young girls, the entire campaign offers a broader range of role models for young girls and brings 'a feminist agenda' to the editorial board. 

Watch the video above to see Appleby talk about balancing editorial decisions with the commercial needs of selling a magazine that is both responsible and desirable.

For more on feminism for young girls, see our Tiny Tot Feminism microtrend. For more from our Network Evening, check out the Seed section.