This was a tough week for me, web-review wise. I decided to scan a demographic that I rarely talk about here, and it has to do with teen girls’ websites. Believe me when I say there are a lot of them. These are the flashy, ad-driven and marketing-savvy splashy sites that you’ll know are backed with corporate megabucks. Teen girls are a moneylicious opportunity for these Madison-Avenue type websites. After you’ve surfed awhile, you find it easy to tell the difference between these and your more original, grass-roots- type websites. Let’s start with the sites that are part of the “sugar” group:

Fabsugar (www.fabsugar.com). If your teen daughter is heavily influenced by what celebrities are wearing, then chances are she already has this website bookmarked. I can best describe this website by comparing it to a glossy magazine such as Teen or possibly Glamour, if the college-age women are attracted to it. Here is where the gullible might fall victim to those purported “must-haves.” Wooden sole shoes are big, and the taller the better. Handbags are getting smaller. Hint: pack away yesterday’s fashions. They’ll be back in vogue within five to ten years.

Savy Sugar (www.savysugar.com). I was expecting to find all kinds of money-management tools here, but it’s the same run-of-the-mill stuff you’ve been hearing from Suzie Orman, only condensed into smaller reading bytes. Stick to bankrate.com for the nitty gritty.

Belle Sugar (www.bellesugar.com). If you’re going to have Fab Sugar, you need to compliment it with this beauty site. Barbie would love it. In fact, the more I read the “Sugars” the more I thought of Barbie. The big feature here (when I read it) was about the pros and cons of eyeliner: how thick should a lady apply it? Personally, I am glad I am way past that stage of my life.

Fit Sugar (www.fitsugar.com). I hope you haven’t overloaded on the sweet stuff yet. Could you expect less from the Sugar franchise if they didn’t include a site devoted to diet and exercise? Of course not. Was I surprised that they had a link to sparkpeople.com? Not really. Spark People is the latesd hot website devoted to fitness. I am guessing that its popularity came from the buzz from Facebook users. I am beginning to think that there are two worlds—Facebook and the Others. If you are in the latter category, which includes me, then you are so out of the loop that you’ll never again be with-it.

The Daily Beast (www.thedailybeast.com). Finally, not a Sugar! This is a news and feature site that (I’m guessing) television and radio news shows scan to get the latest hot topics to talk about on-air. If you don’t watch much television or listen to the radio, you are still in luck, because you’ll get enough information here to feel confident talking around the water cooler.

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