Here’s the problem with your kids being fans of teen stars: the stars grow up.
Monday I’m at the grocery story, doing my thing. As I waited to check out, I took my usual glance at the register magazine stands. I chuckled at the tabloid headlines. I rolled my eyes at how often Jen and Angelina still make the covers. And then I was shocked to see, gracing the cover of Cosmopolitan, my girls’ favorite Disney star: Selena Gomez.
That’s right, sweet, wholesome, role-model worthy Selena picked about the trashiest women’s magazine on the market for her coming out party as an adult. There are grocery stores here in Indiana that slap Cosmo behind one of those metal flaps so you can’t read the cover blurbs about having the best orgasms of your life, that month’s sex quiz, or whether your lady parts are normal. It seems a curious choice.
I understand Selena’s Disney days are just about over; she turns 20 this year and Wizards of Waverly Place is no longer shooting new episodes. Her songs are getting more airplay on mainstream radio. She’s moving into more adult roles in films. But really, Cosmo? Aren’t there thousands of other women’s weeklies and monthlies that would have done the trick just as well?
Don’t get me wrong, Selena can do whatever she wants. I’m all for strong, independent women making decisions on their own, for the reasons they find most important. We are raising our daughters with that goal in mind. But Cosmo seems a little, I don’t know, aggressive, ambitious, disappointing even for someone with Selena’s reputation.
I’m just glad the girls weren’t with me, lest they see her picture, read the blurbs for the other features, and begin asking questions. “Dad, what’s a sex tip and why is Selena Gomez talking about them?”
Selena didn’t get a DUI or thrown into rehab. She wasn’t caught stumbling out of clubs late at night. There are much worse things my daughters’ idols could do. But once you’ve seen Alex Russo on the cover of Cosmo, it’s hard to unsee it. So yeah, I guess it’s really my problem, isn’t it?
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