Any magazines like this?

Factual Questions
1

There are literary mags and science mags for adults. And there are also literary (more or less) mags and science mags for kids.

Are there any literary or science mags for teens? There’s a 14 y.o. that I’d like to give something on that order. Both of her parents are university faculty, and she is showing a like inclination (not terribly nerdy, but very bright). I refuse to even consider giving her a subscription to any of the kinds of teen magazines you see in the store.

This is for a U.S. resident. Can anyone help me, pretty please?

2

Why not go with Popular Mechanics or Popular Science? Since they’re written for the general reader, they should be fine for a bright teen.

3

When I read the OP I thought the same thing. Those mags are full of interesting stuff that will pique your curiosity. They are fun to read. My college age son who is a science major used to love Pop Mechanics.

4

[urlhttp://www.cricketmag.com/ProductDetail.asp?pid=11]Cicada might be a place to start for a literary magazine.

There’s also Read Magazin, an obviously superior place since they reprinted a story of mine.

Also, magazines like Analog, Fantasy and Science Fiction, and Realms of Fantasy might also appeal to a bright preteen.

5

I used to read DISCOVER (DISCOVERY?) years back. But that was beyond teen level, tho not WAY beyond.

6

Popular Science. I can’t read that one anymore. They’ve been promising me a flying car since grade school. It’s on the cover dammit! I’m 36! I want my flying car!

7

You can try Seed. It’s a science magazine without all those distracting words. IOW, it does serious science, but it’s mostly pictures. It should pique a teen’s curiosity without being 99% hype and nonsense like Popular Mechanics/Science.

8

You mean this one?

Flying Car

9

You mean the flying car that doesn’t exist?

Prediction: you will never be able to buy one.

10

Cicada, from the publishers of Cricket, is for teens. They have a science magazine called “Click”, but it is for younger kids.

Night Sky, from the publishers of Sky & Telescope, is an entry-level astronomy magazine for kids and beginning adults.

National Geographic also has a kids’ magazine, but it is also aimed at the preteen audience.

11

Just my 2 cents on the NatGeo kids magazine - it stinks.
If you subscribed to Nickelodeon’s Kid magazine you’d be hard-pressed to tell the two apart. I was royally disappointed in NGS for this magazine; we cancelled our son’s subscription after 3 issues.

12

Hmm. At that age I was happily reading New Scientist, because it was lying around the school library untouched. Mind you, the same goes for Private Eye :slight_smile:

13

I read Discover magazine when I was a nerdy teenager. It was pretty new at that time. I think it’s still around, isn’t it? I haven’t read it for a long time, but back then it was full of easily-digestible popular science.

14

Discover is an outstanding magazine and they strive to make real science accessible to reasonably bright people. No one is an expert on all the types of things they cover and they do a good job of making it interesting and understandable. It should be Ok for a bright 14 year old.

I have always “enjoyed” Popular Science and Popular Mechanics but they are like the Weekly World News of science journalism.

15

I think Discover or New Scientist (on a slightly higher level) or maybe even Scientific American (on a still higher level) would be O.K. for a bright 14-year-old. I think she might find Popular Science or Popular Mechanics slightly silly. I don’t know of any mainstream literary magazine that would be good for her, but if she enjoys science fiction, get one of the monthly science fiction magazines and if she likes mysteries, get one of the monthly mystery magazines.

16

Frankly, anything written for a general audience should already be at the level of any teenager who’d be interested in the topic. If it’s a teen uninterested or incapable of reading he or she wouldn’t be interested anyway.

I read Discover, Science and Psychology Today as a kid, and my girlfriend’s 15 year old daughter love love loves New Scientist.

17

Discover is still around but it was just bought by Bob Guccione Jr. and its future looks to be pretty shaky. The articles haven’t changed much, but its obviously being printed on a fraction of the budget of the old magazine and its ad pages are a similarly small fraction. I wouldn’t subscribe now.

18

Thanks to everybody who tried. I guess I should have started off by saying what mags I read myself. :smack:

I subscribe to Pop Mech, and read Pop Sci when I get the opportunity, but this is for a 14 y.o. girl. She isn’t into motorcycles, or Jay Leno’s car collection, or home carpentry or car repair. And that’s before you get to the multitude of salacious ads in the back! Her mother would be furious.

And Pop Sci isn’t a whole lot better from that perspective. Her parents are both political scientists, so there’s no exposure to the grubbier side of science. And they try to shelter her and her little sister as much as possible (no, don’t laugh at me; I’m aware that some pretty strange stuff happens in schools today).

Analog, et al, are a bit pricey; I’ve been thinking that I may have to give that one up; it’s getting too expensive to give to myself! Let alone anyone else - especially a kid who has a half-dozen honorary (and childless) aunt & uncle couples who spend big $$$ on her presents. Fortunately, she understands I’se po’ folks.

Friar Ted’s suggestion is more on-track, I think, except I agree with him that it’s geared a bit high for a 14-er who hasn’t yet had HS chemistry or physics. And I am also a subscriber to Discover, thought about it, and decided not. (I also get Scientific American, Newsweek and Economist {subscribing to it was an experiment, also unlikely to be renewed; entirely too expen$ive}).

I will take a look at Cicada, Read and Seed. Thanks to those who suggested them.

Maybe between the three, one will look like it fits her, more or less. And will check out F&SF, to see what their prices are these days. I know that Analog and Asimov’s are out of the question, Analog being too serious and way above her head on too many of the science articles, and Asimov’s “merely” too expensive.

In the final analysis, I think I’d better ask her mother. She may be inclining more to history or literature, and not at all interested in science beyond what she has to learn to get the grades to go to college. If it’s history, I shouldn’t have a problem finding something she’ll enjoy.

19

I strongly second Seed. Check out the website (full of articles from the magazine) and see if she likely enjoy the magazine.

Specifically, I like Seed because it focuses on the social, personal, and political aspects of science, as opposed to being about technology, which is something distinct from science, or merely a recitation of what’s new in a given field. It’s something like what Scientific American would be like if SciAm weren’t dumbed down.

20

tygerbryght writes:

> . . . a bit pricey . . .

Just how low is your budget? I’ve checked, and one-year initial subscriptions to the magazines we’ve mentioned in this thread are in the range of $20 to $35. That strikes me as a reasonable amount of money to spend for a birthday present for the daughter of friends. If you can’t afford that, I’ve got to wonder (the same way that I wonder about Straight Dopers who say that they can’t afford the $14.95 a year for a SDMB subscription) just how you can afford a computer. If your budget for a present is less than that amount, you should have mentioned it before we started mentioning magazines.