Sandra's comments

People Magazine's treatment of kids was bothering me even before I got a call from People wanting names of people they could interview. At first I tried to just discuss concerns and realities with the editor who had called me. She wasn't very open to hearing my opinion. I was freshly frustrated from an article in Elle Girl that did a deeply mediocre job after taking hours of my time and Holly's, Gail and Brenna's, and Roya Sorooshian's.

While I was agitating about it all, People ran two short articles on kids. Not unschooled kids, just kids who did remarkable things. And in each instance they inserted a belittling put-down. It seems from all these articles that the idea of journalistic "balance" involves setting someone up and then cutting them down. It frustrated me.

Why couldn't the good works be praised without "If anyone can teach Patrick to clean his room..." and "But when is she going to finish her homework"?