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Beyond Beauty: Girls Speak Out on Looks, Style and Stereotypes
Beyond Beauty is the first book to give girls under 20 what they really want - tons of advice and insights on the issues that most fascinate them: beauty, style, health, fitness, fame, and the role that these concerns should play in their lives. 25 teens, all notable in such areas as film, sports, science, fashion, dance, theater, and music, reveal to Jane Pratt how issues of physical appearance have affected them: how their experiences, accomplishments, and pressure from friends, family, and skinny girls in glossy magazines have shaped their impressions of what it means to be beautiful. The girls also share makeup tips, their favorite never-leave-home-without-it items, their least favorite physical features, what they love about their jobs (like kissing Brad Pitt) and what they don't love about them (like never getting to see friends), and where they hang out. Jane's own makeup and hairstyling gurus provide beauty techniques and tips especially tailored to girls under 20.
- GenresFeminism
159 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1997
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January 14, 2011Three years after the demise of trailblazing 90s teen magazine Sassy, founding editor Jane Pratt published a book dedicated to exploring the role that beauty plays among teenage girls. Following the Sassy ethos, Beyond Beauty sets out to represent a vast range of modern teenagers (or rather, what was modern in 1997), interviewing 25 girls from different nationalities and backgrounds. Pratt does what she does best in giving a voice to young women. She presents each girl’s perspective without judgement, letting them tell their own stories.
There is a great deal of diversity in terms of the ethnicities, subcultures, and sexualities represented. While there is some range in body types (including at least one girl who has struggled with an eating disorder), they are still almost all overwhelmingly thin - though it’s still way more diverse than a typical teen mag. Some of it is dated, in the charmingly 90s sense – dark lip-liner is favoured among more than a few of the girls. A few actresses, singers and other celebrities were interviewed, so a lot of the novelty comes from interviews with the then up-and-coming teenaged Natalie Portman and Serena and Venus Williams. Then there is the added hilarity of seeing how different they were in their younger years, which more than anything leads me to be grateful that I was not famous at such a young age (14 year old Kirsten Dunst on hippie chicks: “It’s like, ‘That was a couple of years ago, dears.’”).
The title for weirdest interview definitely goes to Kyoko Date, a computer-generated Japanese 17-year-old. While including a cyberteen could’ve presented an opportunity to talk about the unrealistic expectations placed on teen girls, they interview her in the same style as they do everyone else. The result is creepy, to say the least: when asked how she prefers to wear her hair, she answers, “If I were to have long hair, it would take up too much memory on the computer, so I have to keep my hair short.”
A solid portion of the book is dedicated to actual beauty tips, which feels more Seventeen than Sassy. Tips include going to an esthetician (as opposed to a dermatologist) to treat a pimple, avoiding “dated” orange blush, and the imperative of only colouring hair at a salon — a far cry from the experimental, DIY tones espoused on other pages.
As far as this book standing the test of time, almost all of the concrete beauty and makeup advice is pretty much irrelevant. However, the spirit of the book – that is to say, the idea that everybody is beautiful in their own way, and that young women should be given more of a voice in determining their own beauty standards – still hold water. Older readers might like this book for nostalgic reasons, but it is really the intended teen audience who will likely connect with it. (reviewed by Anna Fitz)
There is a great deal of diversity in terms of the ethnicities, subcultures, and sexualities represented. While there is some range in body types (including at least one girl who has struggled with an eating disorder), they are still almost all overwhelmingly thin - though it’s still way more diverse than a typical teen mag. Some of it is dated, in the charmingly 90s sense – dark lip-liner is favoured among more than a few of the girls. A few actresses, singers and other celebrities were interviewed, so a lot of the novelty comes from interviews with the then up-and-coming teenaged Natalie Portman and Serena and Venus Williams. Then there is the added hilarity of seeing how different they were in their younger years, which more than anything leads me to be grateful that I was not famous at such a young age (14 year old Kirsten Dunst on hippie chicks: “It’s like, ‘That was a couple of years ago, dears.’”).
The title for weirdest interview definitely goes to Kyoko Date, a computer-generated Japanese 17-year-old. While including a cyberteen could’ve presented an opportunity to talk about the unrealistic expectations placed on teen girls, they interview her in the same style as they do everyone else. The result is creepy, to say the least: when asked how she prefers to wear her hair, she answers, “If I were to have long hair, it would take up too much memory on the computer, so I have to keep my hair short.”
A solid portion of the book is dedicated to actual beauty tips, which feels more Seventeen than Sassy. Tips include going to an esthetician (as opposed to a dermatologist) to treat a pimple, avoiding “dated” orange blush, and the imperative of only colouring hair at a salon — a far cry from the experimental, DIY tones espoused on other pages.
As far as this book standing the test of time, almost all of the concrete beauty and makeup advice is pretty much irrelevant. However, the spirit of the book – that is to say, the idea that everybody is beautiful in their own way, and that young women should be given more of a voice in determining their own beauty standards – still hold water. Older readers might like this book for nostalgic reasons, but it is really the intended teen audience who will likely connect with it. (reviewed by Anna Fitz)
August 1, 2013
I discovered this book when I was 12 and recently found it again. It has a variety of interviews with young women about what beauty means to them and I love the diversity in the interview subjects. This book does a great job of profiling all different types of girls from the conventionally beautiful to the more unusual.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews