Web sites for middle school-aged girls

Here are some Web sites that popped up when I searched this demographic in Mashable last night (so, for the most part, some sort of social networking thread is common among them).

1. Scratch:

• programming language for itneractive stories, games, music, art


• combines math and computation skills with design process

(To be quite honest, among all the sites I looked at, this would never have appealed to me as a middle school girl. It had the more sterile, technological - and thus programming feel - to it).

2. GirlSense:

• "community" to create fasions, dress dolls, play games, and send notes


• promotes self-expression, creative, and allows connections to be made

The irony on this Web site: the top advertising banner read as follows, "What type of ex-girlfriend am I" - a button to take a quiz. Wow.

3. Cartoon Doll Emporium:

• # 1 online destination for girls 6-16


• create avatar (code: Second Life) , jobs, virtual currency, games, galleries, music


• "safe haven" from challenges faced by "tweens" (I've discovered this at the "technical name" for this demographic")

In terms of traffic on this page: 4 million "unique visitors," 90 million pages views, 2 billion hits per month). This site was also compared to Zwinky.

4. Webfetti:

• add cursors, glitter, smileys to exisiting Web sites


• MySpace code generator

Nothing overly applicable.

5. DayZLoop:

• self-described "web portal for teen girls"


• "online infotainment TV network covering all areas of a teen girl's life"


• lifestyle, finance, entertainment, society, etc..


• online video mini series, audio shows, podcasts, news articles, discussions, and forums

Of all the sites, probably the closest thing to actually receiving some sort of entertainment or news (althought that might still be a stretch).

Piczo:

• again, the idea of giving teens a place to xpress themselves


• "customizable, personal" web sites with no need for an understanding of coding (add photos, graphics, guest books, etc)


• 12 million monthly unique visitors, 2 billion monthly page views (predominantly teen girls)


• the sample page looked less Facebook and more of MySpace set up ... I think the difference is it seems to be lacking the social networking element


• again, rainbows, glitter, animation ... lots going on

One thing I noticed about all these sites: There was SO much going on! Colors, animations, glitter, avatars, images ...everywhere you turned was a distraction. I didn't even know how to find an "about us" section for a simple explanation of site, nevertheless try to actually use the site. There was a lot of room for distraction - but obviously if they are all simiarl this is something that attracts this demographic. Something to think about, especially with our new "think small" mentality.

I think something Christina mentioned in her post struck me: this is what out's there, this is wha they want, so how do we combine a "news elemen"?