Fanzine craze

Zanessa may be over. That may not mean much to those outside the adolescent demographic but to preteen and some teen girls, it could be devastating.

The one-named moniker, the prepubescent answer to Brangelina and TomKat, is made of Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens, stars of The Disney Channel's "High School Musical."

The teen stars famously met on the set of the movie and now give young girls a sanitized romance to read about in their favorite gossip magazines. According to the July issue of Twist, their romance may be headed towards a Jen and Brad ending, sans an Angelina, of course.

"Fanzines," the adolescent counterpart to celebrity-heavy magazines such as US Weekly and People, are targeted for the female 10-15 age range. Editors noticed a quick rise in their popularity after "High School Musical's" 2006 release.

"For us, It's been really great because there are a lot of fresh faces in the movie," Leesa Coble, editor in chief of Tiger Beat, said.

The covers of fanzines such as Tiger Beat and Twist, with the grinning crowded mugs of teen idols, look like adolescent versions of The Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper" album. In place of Marilyn Monroe and Edgar Allan Poe are icons of a different kind, mainly from "High School Musical" and shows on The Disney Channel and Nickelodeon.

Karen Bokram, founding editor and publisher of Girl's Life magazine said the preteen and teen demographic hasn't seen this kind of boom since the days of boy bands such as N'Sync and Backstreet Boys in the late 1990s and new millennium.

"We haven't really seen this kind of activity in the lower end of the demographic in sometime," she said.

This time around, fanzines tend to focus on TV stars instead of musicians.

Kelly Bryant, entertainment editor of Teen magazine, said the onscreen personas of TV and movie stars are more accessible than music stars.

"A lot of the music stars, (readers) love their songs, but they may not be as interested in them as people."

Twist magazine's newsstand sales reflect that interest making 90 percent of overall sales.

According to Baueradsales.com, 12- to 17-year-olds make up 85 percent of the magazine's audience of 889,000.

Mariah, 10, a Florence resident and member of the YMCA of the Shoals, favors Tiger Beat, J-14 and BOP. She reads fanzines because she likes "learning things about people that I didn't know."

She discovered Nick Jonas, of the Jonas Brothers Band, has diabetes.

Coble said the new tween wave brought back traditional tween idols to the magazine who are actually, well tween-aged as opposed to the older music stars previously populating the magazine.

"(The trend) sort of livened us up a bit," Coble said. "It brought a youthful look back to the magazine."

While "High School Musical" may center on the flirtation of Troy (Efron) and Gabriella (Hudgens), their romance is a triumph in that they are teens from two different worlds, jock and academic, who by the end of the movie discover they can be together despite differences.

"I've had a lot of readers write me and say that movie changed the impression of themselves," Coble said. "I'm hoping the second movies will do the same."

Though Girl's Life isn't considered a fanzine, other magazines catering to adolescents are catching the ripple effects of the fanzines.

Girl's Life tends to go deeper into more issue-oriented content than fanzines, but recent covers with fanzine favorites such as "High School Musical's" Ashley Tisdale and new Nancy Drew Emma Roberts were best-sellers Bokram said.

"While we're discussing celebrities, we also have articles discussing issues relevant to today's teenagers," Bokram said.

Some issues, especially translating the opposite sex, never change.

"I'm pushing 40 and people ask me 'how do you keep up with the kids?' I say let me tell you something. I don't care if you're 42, 32 or 22 how to tell if a guy likes you is still a mystery. It's all the same thing," Bokram said.

Tween readers won't read about the latest shenanigans of Lindsey or Paris in the pages of Tiger Beat,

"In terms of content we don't deal with mature content like smoking, sex or drugs," Coble said. "Our focus has always been positive content."

Bryant said her readers ultimately determine what goes in the magazine.

"We don't have to draw the line as much as our readers draw it for us," she said. "I think the biggest thing is relatability."

"We have never mentioned Paris Hilton in our magazine and some of our competitors do," Coble said.

Tiger Beat competitor Twist doesn't feature Hilton, but they do feature edgier content. Instead of publishing exclusive pictures of Brad and Angelina's African vacation, Twist's July issue featured shots of Efron and Hudgens' Hawaiian getaway.

Abby, 11, of the YMCA of the Shoals, doesn't have just one favorite fanzine.

"I read them all," she said.

Zanessa is her favorite subject.

Coble sees the allure of fanzines as a young girl's rite of passage.

"There's always been a sort of interest in celebrities," she said. "There's always the passion at that age -- you watch TV and movies and you sort of fall in love."

Jennifer Crossley can be reached at 740-5743 or jennifer.crossley@timesdaily.com