Discovery Girls magazine prides itself on reaching approximately 900,000 girls, ages 8 to 13. But now the publication —which comes out six times a year — is under fire for printing an article titled “What Swimsuit Best Suits You?”
In the spread, the suggested looks are broken down by body type, with subheads such as “if you’re rounder in the middle” and “if you’re straight up and down.” The magazine suggested that tweens who are “curvy up top” keep in mind that “coverage is key” and advised girls to choose a one-piece with side cutouts to “draw the eyes down.” Their advice for girls who are curvy on the bottom: “Pull the attention up.”
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“If my tween girls buy @DiscoveryGirls, do they get a free month at Weight Watchers?!” asked one mother on Twitter, while another person wrote: “Hey @DiscoveryGirls, why not include diet tips/surgical options with this? Your readers are 9, after all. Tick tock.”
Catherine Lee, the CEO of Discovery Girls, took to Facebook on Tuesday, May 10, to respond to the backlash. “It’s still hard for me to believe that an article so contrary to our magazine’s mission could have been published on our pages,” she wrote in the lengthy open letter. “The article was supposed to be about finding cute, fun swimsuits that make girls feel confident, but instead it focused on girls’ body image and had a negative impact.”
But her apology only added fuel to the fire. “Why does the publisher make it sound like she didn’t read her own magazine and this article just ‘happened to’ them?” tweeted one person. A mom on Facebook added: “More importantly, you should print an apology to the GIRLS issue of DG.”
