Allowance Surveys to Frozen Pizza Ratings : Magazine Offers Youths ‘Penny Power’

NEW YORK —  “Never wear good clothes when eating tacos.”

“The older I am, the more expensive the clothes are.”

“I’m between sizes and my legs are too short.”

Kids can relate to these statements by their peers, culled from recent issues of Penny Power, a six-times-a-year magazine published by Consumer Reports to help young people become educated consumers.

The magazine has just been expanded from 24 to 32 pages. It will include more color and has widened its target ages from 8 to 12 to 8 to 14.

The topics covered include rating frozen pizzas, peer pressure in picking jeans and advice on how to earn extra money or best wheedle it out of resisting parents.

The August-September issue, for example, tested 38 brands of frozen pizza, offered tips on talking to parents about money and showed how 21 kids put 14 action toys through their paces (only four passed the test). There is advice on how to look good for less money through smart shopping, turning “junk” into cash by having a yard sale and some relevant facts about young people who are overweight and dieting.

In the October-November issue are articles on toy robots, jazzing up old clothes, hair conditioners, hot dogs and hot dog recipes, and holiday help--how kids saved up to buy holiday gifts.

Most of the items tested in Penny Power, from bikes and roller skates to action figures and new books, are rated by panels or surveys of young people. Lab tests are used to find out things such as how much sugar there really is in a granola bar.

Penny Power began publication in 1980. It costs $11.95 a year and goes to 140,000 subscribers.

“We wanted to start giving consumer information and education as soon as possible,” said Penny Power editor Charlotte Baecher. “From the very first issue, Penny Power’s purpose has been to teach kids to be smart consumers.”

The magazine originally was to be targeted at the 6-to-12 age group, but it was soon decided that 8 was a better bottom age limit.

“At the 6-year-old level there isn’t as much consumer activity going,” Baecher said. “Consumerism doesn’t go hand in hand with the reading level--it starts later. We found the age when kids were most interested in money and most able to learn and use information was 8 years old.”

The magazine deals with more than just product ratings. It also delves into problems kids face that in one way or another involve money.

“How to earn money is a very important subject,” Baecher said. “Our readers are too young to get working papers and real jobs, but many of them want to earn money. It’s difficult.

“We’ve run articles on how other kids have done it, surveyed kids on what jobs they had and how they got them, and surveyed kids on what they get paid. The jobs range from baby-sitting to lawn-mowing, taking care of pets, running a drink stand or car wash, or even a business in school like selling macrame.”

A survey on allowances revealed that slightly more than half those polled received an allowance. The youngsters who did not get an allowance received approximately the same amount of money from their parents, but in other ways.

“The chief difference between the kids who got an allowance and those who didn’t was what they did with it,” Baecher said. “The main thing kids with an allowance did was save it. That was further down on the list of kids who did not get an allowance--they spent the money on snacks and other things.”

Two of the magazine’s most popular regular features are the “Opinion Forum for Kids,” in which the youngsters exchange views on important matters in the half-pint world, and “I’ve Got a Question,” in which readers submit questions about personal matters that disturb them.