How to use this Page

Today's Ypulse Youth Advisory Board post comes from our resident film and TV guru Alyx Steadman. After Anastasia's analysis of the Miley controversy, we figured it would be interesting to  hear what a real teen thought of the "Teen Choice... Read the rest of this post

Yesterday I chatted with a reporter from the L.A. Times about the Miley Cyrus pole dancing controversy after this Sunday's Teen Choice Awards. My comments didn't make it into the article, so I figured I would write a post with my thoughts. I'm not... Read the rest of this post

Little love for 'Beth Cooper' (from Salon, day pass required. Movie Critic Stephanie Zacharek calls it an "almost-there" teen comedy. Also Miley catches heat for another risque photo shoot) (Salon.com, day pass required) - Textbooks 2.0 (Kindle... Read the rest of this post

Professor M. Gigi Durham's acclaimed study of the media sexualization of young girls will be available in a new paperback edition next week. The Lolita Effect includes a fascinating new introduction from the author in which he discusses the Miley Cyrus/Vanity Fair fiasco that occurred just as The Lolita Effect rolled off the presses and into bookstores.

'Stretch Armstrong' movie (the first film under Hasbro and Universal's six-year deal will be released in 2011. Also, casting is underway for a Zac Efron/Vanessa Hudgens-less HSM4 And, nostalgic icons abound at the Licensing Expo) (UPI)... Read the rest of this post

Today's Youth Advisory Board post is from Caroline Marques, one of the Jonas Brothers' more casual fans who caught their new Disney show the other day and wanted to share her thoughts. Remember, you can communicate directly with any member of the... Read the rest of this post

Below is another reflection on the life of a publicist from Michelle Rafferty. Rafferty has been a Publicity Assistant at Oxford University Press since September 2008. Prior to Oxford she interned at Norton Publishing and taught 9th & 10th grade Literature. Every Friday she is chronicling her adventures in publishing and New York City, so be sure to visit again next week.  Follow Michelle on twitter here.  Follow the OUPblog here.

This week the founders of Twitter defended the decreed “viral craze du jour” with responses ranging from tweeting yourself out of natural disasters (see Maureen Dowd’s grilling session) to mending relations between the United States and Iraq (see Jack Dorsey on CNN). It’s a good thing I finally decided to take this social networking craze seriously. I signed up for Twitter about two months ago, but I could never really make myself commit. I came up with a few forced posts, but the whole time I was thinking “I really don’t have the time for this” and “there isn’t enough room” and “what the heck is RT?” I had trouble making myself stay on the thing for more than five minutes. Then I found Perez Hilton.

It began Tuesday morning. I was haphazardly scrolling through my tweets when I noticed that The Today Show tweeted Matt Lauer’s interview with Miss California Carrie Prejean and Perez Hilton. I wanted to know what Hilton thought of all of this, so I went to his Twitter profile and began scrolling through his posts, which essentially gave me a play-by play of his reactions as the Miss America debate swept America. Throughout the day I continued to return to his profile while I pestered Oxford’s fearless blog leader Becca for tweeting tips (how do you retweet? How do you cram a URL into 140 characters? And what does the “@” mean?) By the end of the day I was reading Heidi Montag and Miley Cyrus’s opinions on Perez and Jesus (in case you are wondering, they support both).

After work I came down from my Twitter high and had the same sense of regret I felt in college after spending two hours on Facebook instead of working on a paper that was due the next day. Shel Silverstein’s poem “Jimmy Jet and His TV Set” came to mind: He watched till is eyes were frozen wide,/And his bottom grew into his chair./And his chin turned into a tuning dial,/And antennae grew out of his hair. Silverstein is no doubt rolling in his grave.

I also had a strong sense of déjà vu—hadn’t I seen this on the cover of US Weekly before? I realized that Twitter was doing what blogs had started years before: transform the static, speculative, and photo shopped tabloid duals into real time virtual wars. Although I would argue that this event is a whole lot more complex and substantive than the never ending Jen and Angelina showdown, it is similarly PR driven: in her Today Show interview Prejean admits she wouldn’t have had the opportunity to sit next to Lauer if this all hadn’t happened; Perez comments on how good he looks on Larry King; and is it really a coincidence that notorious celebrity feuder Donald Trump is involved? There are serious issues at hand, but all of these players also have images to uphold, promote, and protect.

I know I shouldn’t be admitting that the Miss USA pageant debate is what finally got me into Twitter, but when I analogize it to the Young Adult novel argument, it don’t think it seems so bad: people who support YA Literature think of it as a stepping stone, a hook for young leaders, Stephanie Meyer will lead them Bram Stoker. In the same way I have moved from “Celebrity Twitter” to “Muck Rack”—an amalgamation of tweets from the most influential members of the news media. This week I’ve learned that I can use Twitter to find out what editors, journalists and bloggers are writing and thinking about (the aforementioned “Muck Rack” makes this especially easy). And while Twitter seems to be the latest and greatest way to get the news, it also shows promise for being the book publicist’s best new tool. I can use tweets to figure out who might want to cover a particular book or interview a certain author. This type of information is especially useful for newbies like myself who are still trying to learn names and personalities in the media industry. Twitter can also be another element of the publicity campaign—I can tweet our Oxford author reviews, interviews, and events—and in a best case scenario get some retweets (that is, after I get some followers). If I make an effort to limit my time on Twitter (no “Twitter head”!), I think it could be something that actually makes me more productive at work.

There does seem to be some cognitive dissonance going on among Twitter users. We laugh at the satirical YouTube shorts and the absurdity of the word “Twitter” and all its variations; I had to mock shame when passing up on a lunch with co-workers after my Twitter rampage ate up all of my morning work time.   So, until Twitter starts getting us out of earthquake rubble and initiating world peace, it looks I will need some sort of justification for my tweeting. Luckily it has become my newest job requirement.

Say what you will about her role model worthiness, but Miley Cyrus's unabashed honesty makes her a hilariously entertaining cover girl for this month's Teen Vogue. The girl does not have a filter. She has a take-him or leave-him attitude towards... Read the rest of this post

'WhyReef' nurtures virtual sea life (the educational online coral reef world for kids/teens, launched by Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History in preexisting virtual world Whyville, racked up 40k visits in its first 10 days) (Virtual World... Read the rest of this post

Tweens' tamer style (takes a cue from the wholesome on-screen look of Miley Cyrus and the"HSM" cast. Plus EW asks whether the JoBros need to grow, i.e. rethink their upcoming Disney show, to keep their fanbase interested) (Los Angeles Times, reg.... Read the rest of this post

Friday Night Lights may be renewed (for two more seasons. Fingers crossed. Nick says Kids can no longer choose Chris Brown and Gawker has the memo.) (Entertainment Weekly) - D23 (new site for Disney-files. Plus Idolator on Miley's memoir. And the... Read the rest of this post

Drawing is Thinking by Milton Glaser is reviewed in the new issue of the Sacramento Book Review: "If you don’t recognize the name of Milton Glaser, you defi itely would recognize some of his commercial work—probably the most widely known one is the I love NY logo. Drawing is Thinking is a collection of his art, none captioned or explained, just there to be experienced. The introductory interview between Glaser and Peter Mayer explores some of Glaser’s thought process and his belief that “art is aform of meditation for both maker and witness.” For the viewers of Drawing is Thinking, there are many hours of reflection ahead. The art ranges from black-and-white pencil and ink work to full color completed designs. There are several pieces that are shown in stages, from sketch to fi ished work. Usually, when you have a collection of an artist’s work, there is extensive commentary about each piece; here, you are left to ponder the what Glaser was thinking as he drew them. And, that is the point. Interesting, thoughtful, and, as he says, meditative."

Girl Scouts and Windows launch online safety site (written by and for teens, LMK: Life Online aims to empower girls to teach their peers about managing a digital identity) - Common Sense Media Awards (honors standouts in  Kids' Media who have... Read the rest of this post

M. Gigi Durham, author of The Lolita Effect: The Media Sexualization of Young Girls and What We Can Do About It, talks to Katharine Miezkowski of Salon.com about the "many ways that young girls' sexuality is shaped and exploited by a marketplace where younger is better and the line between child porn and art gets ever blurrier." In a wide-ranging interview (podcast is available on Salon), Professor Durham comments on the marketing of grown-up sexuality to little girls, the Miley Cyrus fiasco, and ways parents can open up the conversation with their daughters about images of girlhood sexuality.

1) Thirteen Reasons Why by my favorite cross-dressing dance partner, Disco Merman Jay Asher. It arrived in my mailbox on Saturday morning and I finished it Sunday afternoon. I probably would have finished it earlier except that one of the other things I'm loving, the_webmeister was visiting from Boston for the weekend.
It's really wonderful when you read a book by someone who you adore as a person and you finish the last word and sigh, "Wow," because their book is just as awesome as they are. When you're two thirds of the way through the book and part of you wants to finish because you're desperate to know what happens but another part of you doesn't want it to end because you are so involved with these characters. You know the feeling. Jay's book reminds us of how our smallest interactions with others can have a profound affect - both for the negative and the good. So Jay - you done good.

2) My daughter decided to crack open the fantastic kids cookbook I bought her for Chanukah two years ago, and she made these yummy chocolate crossaints AND between her and The Webmeister they rustled up "Smoked Gouda and caramelized onion quesadillas", which were also scrummy, despite the slight "learn by doing" gaff of putting a tablespoon of vinegar into the caramelized onions instead of a teaspoon. The best part was that I just sat on the sofa engrossed in Jay's book while all this was going on, emerging only to taste the delicious results.

3) I've been interviewed! Check me out on Barbara Bietz's blog. (Nice alliteration there, Barbara!) It was really fun :-)

4) Even though temperatures in the 70's make it feel distinctly unseasonable, the leaves are turning and it's gorgeous.

5) It's my first Halloween in on a street where people actually go to trick or treat. (At my old house we had a total of 1 trick-or-treater in the 8 years we lived there.) My kids are really into it, and if I must be truthful, which of course I must with my dear blog readers, so am I.

I'm going to be be something writing related for Halloween. You'll have to wait and see.

Funny story though:

I was in Party City yesterday buying that fake spider web stuff for the bushes outside the house and the guy at the cashier was dressed as Little Red Riding Hood, but with boobs.

I asked him if the boobs came with the costume and the cashier next to him said, "No, they're his." Hmmm. O-kay.

So as part of the checkout he asks for my phone number and when we walked away, my daughter (whom I'll remind you is 11) said, "I'm not sure I would give my phone number to a guy dressed in women's clothing."

I'm not sure how wild old me ended up with such a sensible, practically puritanical daughter.

6) The Netflix movies I watched last night: Best in Show, Christopher Guest's hilarious send-up of the dog show culture and a real surprise that I'd not even heard of prior to the Netflix recommendation, Greenfingers, starring the scrumptious Clive Owen.

7) When you've been trying to deal with a problem with your book and you're somewhere not thinking about your book and the solution pops into your head.

Speaking of which, I must get a) write my column and b) get on with said book!