University of Mississippi

Kids Guidance 

Children’s magazines are usually written and edited by adults to appeal to kids and those 

adults look for advice from their young audience. “The rule in working with kids: don’t presume 

to know what they’ll think,” instructed 

Sports Illustrated Kids’

 publisher Cleary Simpson.

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Publishers need to know children’s frequently changing opinions about everything and 

techniques for obtaining reader input vary.

 

Kids offer guidance by participating in focus groups 

and reader panels, answering reader surveys, personal interviews in shopping malls, lab schools 

(schools that allow magazine staff to watch children reading magazines), serving on advisory 

boards, and writing letters. One young advisor for 

Zillions 

magazine said of her role, “It’s fun, 

and you feel like you’re making a difference.”

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National Geographic Kids

 mails surveys about each issue to a random list of 800 readers 

in addition to receiving input from its 160 junior member advisory board.

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Boy’s Life

 has a 

subscriber reader panel to answer questionnaires.  

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One of the juvenile publications with advertising, 

Girls’

 

Life

 research methods are reader 

mail and focus groups with a party atmosphere. Publisher and founding editor Bokram described 

focus groups with 18 girls. 

We hang out and talk about the magazine, movies, albums, and bring products for 

advertisers and give out samples as presents. One candy company who advertises with 

boys’ magazines said that they couldn’t advertise with 

Girls’ Life

 because girls didn’t eat 

this particular candy. We put the candy in bowls around the room during the focus group. 

The girls loved it. We took pictures of the bowls before, during and after the party, and 

pictures of the candy wrappers on the floor to prove that girls do too like this candy. We 

put out Bonne Bell Lip Smackers. The blueberry flavor was always left in the bowl.

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According to United States Census Bureau statistics, the number of kids attending 

preschool to eighth grade increased beginning in the mid 1980s. Statistics showed 33 million 

people aged four to 12 in the United States or 13 percent of the population. Income from 

allowance and part-time jobs provided children with money to spend or influence the spending of 

$127 billion annually.

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And children are savvy consumers.