“Consequently, lifestyle magazines may limit or broaden their readers’ perspectives on gender if they are perceived as authoritative.

Nevertheless, adolescents may be particularly vulnerable to these messages owing to the nature of this developmental phase (Delamont, 2001). According to Kehily (1999), Massoni (2004), Simić (2006), and Jackson (2005: 295) young women, in particular, are likely to view magazines as authoritative sources of information about femininity – although the latter also indicates that they may, at times, be ‘cynical [and] critical’.” (Constructing femininity: A critical discourse analysis of Cosmo by Marthinus Conradie)