Parental Guidance

As its subtitle subtly proclaims, Parents is "America's #1 Family Magazine." Aimed at a breast-feeding, diaper-changing, stroller-pushing audience, this guide to raising children hasn't historically been a hot item among college students. Not yet, at least.

But students who check out the March issue before visiting moms and dads snatch it up this weekend will discover the riveting writing is in some ways better suited for young people.

With a section on readers' embarrassing moments and an interactive quiz, Parents is hard to distinguish from Seventeen or YM. Of course, these confessions feature parental blunders, not teen tribulations. Rather than tales of untimely menstruation, Parents spotlights more mature bloopers. In Parents' "I Can't Believe I Did That" section this month, a blushing mother admits to dosing off and leaving her baby in the automatic swing for four hours on the high speed setting. Likewise, "reader quizzes" bypass classic teen quandaries of "Does He Like You?" for more mature, soul-searchers like the "Family Stress Test." The familiar, junior-friendly style of Parents magazine gently ushers readers from adolescence to parenthood.

No wonder Parents is #1. As for this magazine's dismal appeal among college students--it's probably a good thing undergrads don't subscribe. Simplifying the parental world with alluring adolescent terms, Parents may make even the youngest readers want to conceive.