Should gossip magazines be made illegal?

While browsing the overly colourful, rainbow like aisle of magazines my eyes were drawn to a section they usually avoid eye contact with. The section of gossip magazines, coated with bitchy, unnecessarily headlines.

My eyes were drawn to the section due to an image of Kylie Jenner on the slap bang front of Heat magazine. I’ll be the first to admit that I am a lover of Kylie, as a style icon to myself and personally I just quite like Kylie. She seems like your typical 17-year-old girl, having fun with friends, partying and to be honest, I think she seems quite genuine. So to constantly read unnecessarily articles about her lips, boyfriend and how she is ‘growing up too fast’ is quite frustrating. I have never seen an article that focuses on Kylie’s business or success; er hello the 17 year old has a million dollar clothing line? Meanwhile I’m an 18 year old sat at home googling ‘Journalism Apprentices’.

I picked up Heat, tucked it under my arm along with my comfort blanket aka Cosmopolitan, Vogue that I end up using as a coaster and some form of home interior magazines.

I haven’t read a gossip magazine since I was about thirteen years old, the 40 word articles slating celebrities puppy fat hanging over their swimwear has never appealed to me. To me its not real journalism, it’s simply a thinner, tackier and less entertaining version of a Mean Girls burn book. Filled to the prim with articles slating celebrities and their life choices, their weight (poor Cheryl Cole), and this issue in particular was fixated on plastic surgery.

One article that really grinded my gears and I found myself even chewing the inside of my mouth was an article on Kris and Caitlyn Jenner. The article described how a journalist had been watching them (invasion of privacy anyone?) and pretty much the journalist had made up some story of what was going on, even though Kris and Caitlyn were in Caitlyn’s house? So how exactly did the journalist hear their conversation?

I wasted £2 on poor image quality and bullshit stories, £2 that could be well spent on a coffee from Costa. So yes, I will be asking for a refund.

What are your opinions on gossip magazines? I’d love to know!