MXGonline.com

The sticker on the tollbooth just outside Chicago seemed promising. Well-designed, but with an independent flair. "MXGonline," said Jim, always on the lookout for exciting new content. "'Built for girls.' We should check that out."

This review, then, is a small, plaintive warning to you not to make the same mistake.

The one thing that can be said for MXGonline is that it displays a willingness to buck trends. At a time when Seventeen and even CosmoGirl wouldn't think of going an issue without mentioning eating disorders, sexually transmitted diseases, family violence or drugs, it remains determinedly focused on the timeless issues that teenage girls will face long after this new realism is exposed for the flash in the pan it is: boys, clothes and Napster.

Of course, Seventeen and CosmoGirl are magazines. MXG is a little different. According to a recent Industry Standard article, it publishes a print "magalog," a free-flowing new form that forces us to rethink hoary old constructs like "journalistic ethics" and "advertising as separate from content." Their online approach is similar. (You might wonder why MXG has decided to link to an article that describes them as "betting on fluff," but, hey, publicity is publicity.)

Similar how? Well, magazines have mastheads. MXGonline has a list of staff in such departments as sales, press relations, business development and marketing. Magazines have bylines, unless they're The Economist, which this is decidedly not. MXGonline has mostly anonymous content. Magazines have ads and articles. MXGonline has ads.

But, you say, there's a heading called "Articles" in the "Mind, Body, Soul" section, a heading that even happens to have one article listed under it. What about that? Well, that, I respond, is a tricky attempt to make you think you're looking at a magazine. This article, which appears to be a new-teenage-realism piece dealing with self-mutilation, is not much more than an ad for "Secret Cutting, a USA network original movie." That section also contains an advice column written by Dr. Drew Pinsky, the psychiatrist renowned for looking on benignly or tsk-tsking gently while his "Loveline" co-host Adam Carolla makes sexist remarks.

Most of the other links that appear to be articles turn out to be ads disguised thinly or not at all, or posts from their message boards. MXGonline does feature an online version of their print magazine, but most of the articles aren't linked to from the site, so you'll have to go to a newsstand for such features as "Religion: Ask God" and, appallingly enough, "Fashion Math: All the math you'll need this summer."

Right! So much for girl power. Even the fashion articles in magazines for teen girls have begun to take on a progressive tone lately. MXGonline, however, isn't about to fall for that short-lived fad. While looking through my thirteen-year-old sister's copy of Seventeen recently, I was pleasantly surprised to find a how-to-pick-a-swimsuit article featuring models of significantly different body types. MXGonline contains a similar article, but it shows all superskinny models. Oh, and it's not really an article either; it's mostly a collection of links to an online swimsuit catalog. The thong-skimpy text manages to misspell "bosom." While MXG's slogan is "Built by girls for girls," its CEO is male. This isn't entirely a shock.

If you look to MXGonline to find out "what's hot and what's not," you'll get a revealing little look into why this isn't Ms. for teenagers, or even Chickclick. Liz, the "Mind, Body, and Soul" editor, recommends a few girl-positive books, including Girls Who Rocked the World: Heroines from Sacagawea to Sheryl Swoopes and Any Girl Can Rule the World. She closes with eighth-grade-English-class favorite poem "The Road Not Taken." All of this inspirational stuff is, of course, in the context of Liz's imminent departure from MXG. MXG isn't looking for girl-positive or inspirational, even in the lowest-common-denominator sense. And that has made all the difference.

— Julia Lipman (julia@flakmag.com)