Three 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.

Beyond Beauty, by Jane Pratt, Clarkson Potter/Publishers, 1997
Review by Anna Fitzpatrick

With all the different things I love about fashion, over-groomed starlets wearing expensive dresses is not usually at the top of the list. I’ve usually already seen their clothes at preceding fashion weeks, and so there is generally very little exciting about seeing them again on unnaturally shiny celebrities. I am more interested in the Met Costume Institute exhibition than I am interested in who wore what at the gala that opened it (well ok, with the exception of Chloe Sevigny).

However, as things tend to happen following an event of this sort, the entertainment blogs and mags like to divvy up the looks into the thoroughly scientific categories of what is “hot” and what is “not.” The best dressed lists seem to consist of those who were the most traditionally pretty: buzz words like “flattering” and “feminine” get thrown around. Which, naturally, leaves everything else to the worst dressed list. Perhaps it is my inner contrarian that needs to defend the honour of the riskier pieces, perhaps I just like to cause a fuss with my clothes (like that time in the tenth grade I went to school wearing leg warmers over flared jeans in order to prove a point to my mom - a point which I cannot remember, but it was important, let me tell you). Yeah, yeah, we all know Marion Cotillard and the legions of ladies in sparkling floor length gowns looked nice, but they’ve gotten enough praise already.

I decided I would put Kristen Stewart (wearing Chanel Haute Couture) first because 1) it was probably the most universally panned by bloggers and 2) got your attention, didn’t it? MTV says: “Her outfit last night looked like a prom dress gone wrong. Essentially, the cut and shape were totally unflattering.” Maybe it’s just because the girls who covered teen magazines when I used to buy them a long time ago (read: 2004) tended to be impossibly sunny and dressed in technicolour poufs (you wanna talk prom dresses gone wrong?) Either way, I can appreciate the existence of a teen queen who prefers to wear a sheer skirt on the red carpet and who doesn’t know how to fake a smile if her life depended on it. I swear I’m not just saying that in an attempt to get page hits from Twilight fans.

What I love about M.I.A. (here in Alexander Wang) is that she rocks the hell out of whatever she wears and yet continues to be a target for critics (I probably don’t need to tell you to google “Henry Holland + Grammys”). She continues to provoke and keep things interesting in a way previously seen with certain swan dresses of red carpets past. Is she wearing a gold knit dress over a leather catsuit? Yes. Am I going to question it? God, no.

My favourite ensemble of the night (but anything Rodarte I tend to automatically fawn over), Kirsten Dunst’s dress was well recieved, although her footwear, not so much. Personally, I think the white tights and laced shoes create an unexpected addition to the dress’s victorian details and layers of lace. In other words, she looks like an elegant grandmother who could hold her own in a fight. That’s a compliment, by the way.

To be honest, Tina Fey’s look didn’t make me gasp in awe, but I felt her choice was in tune with the gala’s theme of the American Woman. Her decision wear pants in lieu of a dress that night was very modern, just like the type of woman Fey herself is. Plus, out of all the looks that night, this one was probably the most convenient when time came to use the washroom. Which, you know, is always a plus.

Disagree with me? I’m sure at least one of you out there must, at least on KStew. Tell me your own picks in the comments.

- Anna Fitz