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Gurl.com

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Gurl.com
Gurl 2011 logo.png
Logo (since 2011)
Type of site
Available inEnglish
FoundedMay 1996; 25 years ago (1996-05)
Dissolved2018; 3 years ago (2018)
Headquarters
New York City
,
United States
Country of originUnited States
Founder(s)
  • Rebecca Odes
  • Esther Drill
  • Heather McDonald
ParentDefy Media
URLgurl.com at the Wayback Machine (archived November 30, 2018)
CommercialYes
RegistrationOptional (required for contributions and message board)
LaunchedMay 1996; 25 years ago (1996-05)
Current statusDefunct

Gurl.com (stylized as gURL.com from 1996–2011) was an American website for teenage girls that was online from 1996 to 2018. It was created by Rebecca Odes, Esther Drill, and Heather McDonald as a resource centered on teen advice, body image, female sexuality, and other teen-related concerns. First published as an online zine, it later expanded into an online community. At one point, it provided a free e-mail and web hosting service, known as Gurlmail and Gurlpages respectively.

After Gurl.com's launch, clothing retailer Delia's purchased it in 1997. Gurl.com was later sold to PriMedia in 2001, which was then sold to iVillage in 2003 and later Alloy (later known as Defy Media) in 2009. The website ceased activity after Defy Media's closure in 2018 and now redirects to Seventeen's website.

As one of the first major websites aimed at teenage girls in the United States during the 1990s, Gurl.com was heavily associated with zine culture and third-wave feminism. Unlike teen magazines in the 1990s, Gurl.com was known for its humorous tone, unconventional approach to teen-related topics compared to mainstream media, and contributions from its audience. It won the I.D. Magazine Award for Interactive Media in 1997 and a Webby Award in 1998; in addition, its founders were given the New York Magazine Award in 1997 for their work on the website. Despite this, Gurl.com was met with criticism from conservative and anti-pornography advocates for its sex-positive stance and sex education resources.

The popularity of Gurl.com led the creators to co-author three teen advice books, with the first being Deal With It! A Whole New Approach to Your Body, Brain, and Life as a gURL (1999).

History[]

Gurl.com's logo from 1996 to 2011

Rebecca Odes and Esther Drill, childhood friends from West Orange, New Jersey, conceived the idea managing a magazine, while they were in high school.[1][2][3] Dissatisfied with the teen magazines available to them growing up, they sought to curate alternative media that would properly address the concerns of teenage girls.[2][3] While they were graduate students at the Interactive Telecommunications Program at New York University, they, along with fellow student Heather McDonald, decided to form a female-positive online space aimed at teenagers, as the Internet lacked communities for girls in the 1990s.[1][3] With the intention of creating an uncensored resource for girls, Odes, Drill, and McDonald sought to create features similar to a teen magazine, but also wanted to build a community centered on female interests, with peer advice and opinions from other girls.[4] Gurl.com was then created as Odes, Drill, and McDonald's Master's Thesis project.[4] The name of the website combined the "g" with the acronym "URL."[4] The logo of the website contained a closed fist with painted nails.[4] The website was launched in May 1996.[1]

After Gurl.com's initial launch, the website was included as a member of EstroNet, a web portal designed to drive traffic to independently owned websites created by women.[5] The clothing retailer Delia's approached Odes, Drill, and McDonald with an acquisition offer and purchased the website in December 1997.[3][6]: 152 [7][8] Odes, Drill, and McDonald continued to work on the website with Delia's.[3] Gurl.com was included as a property in Delia's online subsidiary, iTurf, in an attempt to launch an e-commerce market targeting Generation Y.[8][9] While Gurl.com was initially launched as a non-commercial website,[6]: 156–157  following Delia's acquisition, it began selling merchandise from Delia's catalogue beginning in May 1998.[8] In May 2000, Gurl.com sponsored Take Back the Decks: An Evening of Women in Underground Music, an all-female music festival held at Lighthouse Frying Pan in New York.[10] From November 16 to November 21, 2000, Gurl.com held the Movers, Shakers, and Media Makers Film Festival at the Pioneer Theater in East Village, Manhattan, with Kim Peirce, Christine Vachon, and Nancy Savoca as guests.[11]

Following the dot-com bubble burst in 2000, Delia's sold or closed down all of their Internet properties in 2000, with the exception of Gurl.com.[6]: 152  In May 2001, PriMedia, the parent company of Seventeen, acquired Gurl.com for an undisclosed amount in an attempt to build on teen-centered properties.[6]: 152 [12]: 33 [13][14] In August 2003, iVillage acquired Gurl.com, with Drill and McDonald joining staff.[12]: 33 [15][16] In 2005, Gurl.com opened its first mobile store powered by M-Qube, selling ringtones and wallpapers for mobile phones.[17] In 2009, Alloy (later known as Defy Media) acquired Gurl.com as part of their strategy to build a digital entertainment hub aimed at teenagers and young adults.[18][19] Alloy later relaunched Gurl.com in 2011 with a new logo,[20] containing a cursive font with the "u" shaped as a heart.[3] The website ceased activity after 2018 with the closure of Defy Media.[21][22] It now redirects to Seventeen's website.[23]

Content[]

Zine[]

Girl Stories by Lauren Weinstein (pictured 2007) was serialized on Gurl.com.

Gurl.com drew inspirations from teen magazines and its initial launch used a zine format.[4][6]: 154 [24] The website's intended demographic was girls 13 years old or older.[24] Unlike other online communities aimed at young women, Gurl.com had an edgier appearance,[6]: 154  using a frank and nonjudgmental approach to address topics such as dating, health, and beauty.[6]: 152  In addition, Gurl.com directly addressed topics such as female sexuality, which was often overlooked in traditional media aimed at teenagers in the 1990s.[3] Early content parodied and satirized mainstream teen magazines.[2][6]: 152  The website initially used drawings of women instead of photos to emphasize body positivity and to avoid body image concerns.[4]

As Odes, Drill, and McDonald created the website with the understanding that girls prefer being creators over consumers, the website allows contributions from its users, such as comics, poems, and opinions on current events.[6]: 154  As such, they limited contributions from celebrities, as the website was intended to be a counterpoint against aspirational fantasy.[3] Content on the website was organized based on topics, with regular sections named "Deal With It" (daily life), "Looks Aren't Everything" (fashion and beauty), "Stop, Look, and Listen" (shopping), "Where Do I Go From Here?" (career), "Movers, Shakers, and Media Makers" (celebrities and other women in media), and sports.[6]: 154 [25] "The Boob Files" had first-person essays written about breasts.[6]: 152  The website also had an advice column run by McDonald, titled "Help Me, Heather."[1][26]

One of Gurl.com's notable contributions was its comics section, which included serializations such as Those Sucky Emotions and Mizbehavior, both initially listed in the "Deal With It" topic.[6]: 154  Other notable comics include Girl Stories by Lauren Weinstein;[27] Fifteen Revolutions and Rachel the Great & Tuna by Rachel Nabors;[28] and Girls in Love and I Heart Sex by Martina Fugazzotto.[29]

While Gurl.com could be accessed without an account, registration was required in order to submit content and participate in the chat room and message board,[4][6]: 154  enforced in order to protect its community.[4] Registration was free, with a strong suggestion for users to create a non-identifying alias for anonymity purposes.[4][12]: 45 

Features[]

Gurl.com had a message board where users could interact with each other and exchange advice,[1][30] known as the "Shout-out Boards."[31]: 791  It also had an online avatar-based text chat room server, known as the Gurl Palace, accessible through the computer program The Palace.[1][30] In addition to its messaging features, Gurl.com had online games.[2] Early game content satirized beauty standards,[2] such as "Hairy Gurl."[32] Later games stuck to Gurl.com's concept of acknowledging girls as creators instead of consumers, such as "Make Your Own Rock Band", "Make Your Own Reality TV Show", and "Try the Prom Dress Selector."[4][6]: 154  It also had personality quizzes, with one well-documented personality quiz being "Paper Doll Psychology", where users could dress a paper doll and receive an assessment on their personality based on their clothing choices.[2][6]: 152 

During Delia's acquisition from 1997 to 2001, Gurl.com provided an e-mail service through Gurlmail.com and web hosting Gurlpages.com,[33] both free services owned by Lycos.[1][30][34] Many users used Gurlpages to host zines,[24] one example being about female sexuality.[30] Others used Gurlpages to host their creative works, such as poetry, and rants about their daily lives.[24] Websites hosted on Gurlpages were part of Gurl.com's network and allowed users to easily connect with one another.[24]

Publications[]

Following the success of Gurl.com, Odes, Drill, and McDonald received a book deal through a partnership with Scholastic.[33][35] They published a series of teen advice books based on the editorial content on the website and also included conversations found on Gurl.com's message board.[4]

Odes, Drill, and McDonald's first book, Deal With It! A Whole New Approach to Your Body, Brain, and Life as a gURL, was first in announced in 1998,[33][36] later releasing on September 1, 1999.[1][4] The book offered advice on puberty, queer identities, sex, eating disorders, drug use, and mental health, with a list of resources on each topic.[37][38] In addition, to promote the book, Odes, Drill, and McDonald launched an accompanying website, DealWithIt.com, including an online version of the resources.[39] Deal With It! was received favorably, with most reviewers praising the book as a valuable resource about sexual health as well as its tone and presentation; however, some critics advised the book should be read by older audiences and cautioned that parents may not find some of the content appropriate.[37][39][32] Deal With It! was listed at #82 on the American Library Association's Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books from 2000 to 2009,[40] with several organizations challenging the book due to its LGBT-friendly and sex-positive content.[41][42] Deal With It! became a national bestseller,[43] selling 100,000 copies in the United States by January 2000,[44] and it was awarded the I.D. Magazine Award in the Graphics category in July 2000.[45]

Deal With It! was then followed up with The Looks Book: A Whole New Approach to Beauty, Body Image, and Style on October 1, 2002,[4][43] which examined beauty standards throughout the ages,[6]: 152  Publishers Weekly described the artwork as "whimsical" and stated that the book was both intelligent and humorous, suggesting that it presented a message of empowerment.[43]

The final book, Where Do I Go from Here?: Getting a Life After High School, was released in 2004.[46] The book discussed topics such as entering adulthood, managing finances, alternatives to college, and other social issues in college life, such as incompatible roommates, date rape, and binge drinking.[46] Britta Hays from Tampa Bay Times praised the book for profiling options after high school without bias.[46] Harry Wessel from The Orlando Sentinel described the book as one that would help teenagers make good choices about their future and that, despite its branding, its advice was also applicable to men.[47]

Analysis[]

Critical reception[]

Gurl.com was praised for being a positive community on topics such as female sexuality, queer identity, and body positivity, as well as its inclusion of peer advice from teenage girls.[3][48] David Colker from The Los Angeles Times gave Gurl.com an A+, describing the website has having "intelligence, irreverent humor, great design sense, and wild imaginations" while maintaining a sense of the "real world" instead of fantasy.[26] Karen Jones from the same publication describes Gurl.com as "honest" and using "appropriate humor", but did not recommend the website to younger girls.[25] Janelle Brown from Salon.com noted that the accessibility of sex education online has prepared young girls and also allowed them their own sexual agency.[49] Eric Brereton from Common Sense Media praised Gurl.com for having valuable information health issues and for fostering creativity in young girls but also stated that questionable language and photos are present on the website.[50] Similarly, Alexandria Symonds from The Cut noted that Gurl.com's earlier stance of using drawings of women not only aided body positivity, but also helped communicate information positively to people of different races.[3] In 1999, the website had approximately 800,000 visitors per month.[32] In 2001, approximately 40% of girls who regularly used the Internet in the United States visited the website.[51]

Despite the acclaim, Gurl.com was met with criticisms over its sex-positive stance from conservative groups. In 1999, anti-pornography advocates cited concerns that young girls discussing and having accessibility to sex information would lead to an increase in underage sexual activity and be harmful to their development.[49] Abstinence advocate Coleen Kelly Mast argued that Gurl.com gave a one-sided view over human sexuality, claiming that the information would not help to "satisfaction in marriage."[32] Carol Platt Liebau named Gurl.com as part of her criticisms against the United States' "sex-obsessed" culture, criticizing the website for excluding religious and moral discussions about sex as well as how it has contributed to "shaming" of teenage girls who chose to be abstinent.[52] Miriam Grossman included Gurl.com and Deal With It! in her criticisms of sex education, calling the website "offensive material" for including information such as BDSM and sex positions.[53]: 5  She also criticized Gurl.com for claiming that gender is culturally assigned, rather than biological.[53]: 166–167 

Among other criticisms, parents and scholars have expressed concern over Gurl.com collecting information from its users and disclosing them to third-party advertisers to study consumer habits.[6]: 157 [24][51] In 2001, Alyssa Rayman-Read wrote in The American Prospect about her concerns over how advertisers and marketers may have acquired personal data from young girls through Gurl.com's online personality quizzes.[51] In 2015, the Canadian Broadcasting Company included Gurl.com among 1,494 websites and mobile apps that were privacy concerns, as it allowed children to unknowingly list too much information about themselves.[54] In addition, Anita Hamilton from Time surveyed several female high school students in Manhattan, New York, and out of the four teen websites shown to them, the students liked Gurl.com the least, citing its "cluttered" design as partly the reason.[55]

Awards[]

Year Award Category Nominees Result
1997 I.D. Magazine Annual Design Review for Interactive Media N/A Gurl.com Won[56][57]
New York Magazine Award N/A Esther Drill, Heather McDonald, and Rebecca Odes Won[58]
1998 Webby Awards Living Gurl.com Won[59]

Use in academia[]

Gurl.com has been used in studies about online behaviors and sexual identities of teenage girls. In a study conducted by Media Metrix and Jupiter Communications in 2000, there was a 125% growth of girls aged 12–17 years old using the Internet, which was partially credited to Gurl.com.[60] In a study done by professors Barbara Duncan and Kevin Leander in the same year, they noted that because Gurl.com already had an established network, girls who hosted their website at Gurlpages could easily connect with one another and receive feedback on their work.[24] In 2005, scholar Sharon Mazzarella noted that Gurl.com was among some of the websites that helped girls be creative and empowered, though it was later overshadowed by moral panic surrounding their vulnerability online.[12]: 141 

Scholars Ashley D. Grisso and David Weiss noted that many users on Gurl.com's message board often discussed their interest in sex, usually respectfully as per an established norm on the website.[12]: 45  In spite of this, many discussions about sex on the website were related to male pleasure.[12]: 45  In addition, some users were quick to shame others who disapproved of premarital sex or discussed their sex lives in detail, creating a paradox on constructed norms and downplaying individual sexual agency.[12]: 36, 41, 45  A study published in the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication in 2006 found Gurl.com to be the best example of a female-centric website that encouraged critical thinking skills in young girls through their discussions on current events.[31]: 791–792 

Gurl.com has also been used as an example of the commercialization of the Internet, as well as recognizing young women from Generation Y as a viable marketing demographic. It was named as one of the websites associated with the growth of websites owned by teenage girls, creating a potential advertising market worth $150 billion USD in 2000.[61] Duncan and Leander discovered that Gurl.com created spaces of both "resistance and conformity", as people who had websites on Gurlpages both expressed themselves in creative writing yet also listed personal information identifying their demographics and consumer habits.[24] Scholar Leslie Regan Shade used Gurl.com as an example of commodification and commercialization of a community in the 1990s, where women were being recognized as a marketing demographic for e-commerce.[6]: 157  Similar to Duncan and Leander, she also commented that while Gurl.com has a disclaimer stating that their views do not represent their advertisers, the website may be "packaged for a homogeneous idyllic audience commodity", which contrasts the "utopian sentiments" of an online community.[6]: 157  Gurl.com was used as an example of stealth marketing in teaching media literacy about advertising.[62]: 77 

Legacy[]

Gurl.com is known for being one of the first major websites aimed at teenage girls in the United States during the 1990s.[51][63] In addition, it was known for its association and contributions to third-wave feminism and zine culture in the 1990s.[48][64][65] Gurl.com's honest and frank discussions about teen issues have inspired teen magazines and other female-centered websites to adopt a similar approach.[3] Its branding is also tied to Generation Y identity.[66]

See also[]

References[]

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