Helping teens resist the call of the mall

Like many young people, a Florida teenager named Stephanie spent the summer working. Although she found the job at her father's hardware store "boring," the pay was "pretty good." On the last day, she received what she describes as a "monster check."

But instead of going to the bank, Stephanie headed to the mall to make a single, costly purchase: "amazing new Gucci sunglasses." As she explains, "Every time I wear them I still think they were worth my whole summer."

Stephanie tells her story in the September issue of Teen magazine in a full-page feature headlined "How I spent my summer savings." Six other girls describe similar tales of fiscal abandon when they heeded the siren call of the mall.

Nicole, from Washington State, used "every last penny" of her summer savings for a "killer" bikini and "the most awesome Kate Spade purse." Heather, in Ohio, had saved for a digital camera and scanner for her computer. But on her way to the computer store, she says, "I blew every last cent on an awesome full-length leather jacket." Lisa, a Californian, used earnings she had earmarked for her college fund to buy a pair of leather pants.

Only three of the seven felt any regret for their splurges.

Many teenagers do save money, of course. But the young women's cavalier attitudes offer a cautionary tale about the hazards of living in a consumer culture.

Boys can overspend, too. But they do not face the same constant temptations that bombard girls.

Flip through the pages of teen magazines, and the messages are relentless: "Shop. Buy. Spend." In more than a year's worth of Teen and Seventeen magazines covering 2000 and 2001, articles encouraging financial responsibility are almost nonexistent. Amid the three B's that form a mainstay of the magazines' coverage - beauty, bodies, boys - a fourth B, budgeting, is almost nowhere to be found.

Leaders of women's groups talk earnestly about "empowering" young women, showing them that all things are possible. But empowerment quickly vanishes if one is shackled to debt, in bondage to creditors at an early age.

In the past 20 years, the number of women filing alone for bankruptcy has risen at a much faster rate than for men filing alone or for married couples, according to Elizabeth Warren, a professor of law at Harvard University.

These women, Professor Warren explains in a telephone interview, "are not the economic fringes of America. They're middle-class women in terrible trouble. They're carrying too much debt, and then they get hit with something else" - perhaps losing a job or healthcare benefits.

"This is sobering news for women, and young women don't have a clue what's going on," Warren says. "Women need to understand how dangerous debt is, and how important saving is. A woman who does not have money of her own is walking a high wire with no net."

If I were the editor of a magazine for young women, I would insist that every issue - no exceptions - must contain one feature, however short, on finances. The tone could be breezy and chatty. Subjects could include ways to save part of every paycheck, tricks credit-card companies use to lure new customers, and what credit cards really cost.

With millions of readers, these magazines could play a role in helping to educate young women about financial responsibility. They could buttress the messages parents must give at home. Brave editors could even run a feature called "How I avoided temptation and saved my summer earnings."

In time, teens like Stephanie, Heather, and Nicole might have more to show for a summer of work than "amazing" sunglasses, an "awesome" jacket, and a "killer" bikini. That would count as one giant step toward empowerment.