Teen Dreams -- Their Fav Mags Kiss And Tell!!

BURBANK, Calif. - Hey, gang! Can you imagine how fabulous it would be to work in an office surrounded by giant posters of your favorite dreamboats: Luke Perry and Eddie Furlong and Marky Mark and tons of other total cuties!

And then, to have these talented actors and musicians call you on the phone and reveal to you their favorite foods, or their exact height!

And then, to hang out with them! Just think how cool it would be, standing closerthanthis to Jonathan Brandis in his kitchen, baking a batch of his mom's special chocolate-chip cookies!

Yum!

It could happen if you found a job here in Tinseltown writing for The Big Bopper or Bop, two of the most popular teenzines in the world.

But, hey, perk up! No matter what, you'll always be able to buy the magazines - or a half-dozen others like them - and read all about "THE SECRETS BEHIND EDDIE'S CHARM . . . UNLOCKED AT LAST!" or Leonardo "Growing Pains" DiCaprio's new puppy love (whew! it's only a good-natured Rottweiler named Rocky!) or the lowdown on Bryan Abrams of the pop group Color Me Badd and those eyebrows of his.

He shaves them to accentuate his gorgeous hazel eyes! Did you know that Bop and The Big Bopper - TBB, for short - have been known to sell almost 800,000 copies each month combined? They have! That makes them the two most popular of the teen entertainment magazines, which include Super Teen, Teen Beat and Wow.

The $100 million teen magazine industry also includes beauty- and fashion-focused rags such as Seventeen and Sassy, with articles like "How to Have Great Hair" and "Popularity - What's the Secret?"

But the news for teenzines isn't all good stuff galore. Lately, sales are down. The success of the high school-set TV show "Beverly Hills, 90210," starring those hunks Luke Perry and Jason Priestly, hasn't picked up the slack. And this season's lockerful of youthful new shows has yet to introduce any new faces that set Bopper hearts throbbing in unison.

C'mon, you guys! We need a fabulous new pop star we can all dream about every night!

We think we've found him . . .

Want to meet this mystery man? And learn THE SECRETS BEHIND BOP'S CHARM . . . UNLOCKED AT LAST? Keep reading!

We recently visited a super-interesting staff meeting of the jet-setting journalists who write for Bop and TBB. Not just anyone can sit in on this select circle of six. Before she gave us permission, Julie Laufer, the brown-haired executive editor of both magazines, politely asked us to fax her a request on official newspaper stationery.

"We get kids who pose as reporters just to get in," revealed the energetic 30-year-old. "They want to meet stars."

Readers call, too, trying to pry loose an address or phone number from one of Bop's celebrity-jammed Rolodexes. And they ask for tours of Bop's plush mauve-and-beige sixth-floor suite, which is so perfect it could be a model for Malibu Barbie's Business Office.

One wall is covered with every cover from every single issue of the two magazines. Remember when we could hardly wait for that next picture of Scott Baio or Duran Duran or Rob Lowe?

In this morning's meeting, Julie and her five writers chatted about what adorable faces we'll be seeing on upcoming issues of the magazine. Eddie Furlong, whose movie "Pet Semetary Two" was recently released, definitely ranks as one of the young stars readers just can't get enough of!

There's someone lesser known whom the Bop gang is equally psyched about, though: Jamie Walters.

Jamie Jamie Jamie Jamie!

This 23-year-old plays a musician on the new Fox-TV series "The Heights," showing off pouty good looks that should leave 9-year-old girls gasping! He also sings "How Do You Talk to an Angel," which is zooming up the Top 40 radio charts.

"He has big, warm brown eyes," gushed Laufer. "And nice, full lips."

Oh, no! It turns out Jamie is engaged to actress Drew Barrymore. Don't tell us someone else is kissing those puckered pillows!

"It's something we're keeping an eye on," remarked Laufer, noting that nothing ruins a guy's chances as a Bop cover boy more than marriage.

She doesn't make the stars, or the rules. Bop and TBB merely try to float with the tide of their readers, who swamp the magazines with thousands of letters, more than a few with return address stickers featuring kittens.

So it has been, for a procession of mega-idols that stretches back to Leif Garrett, David Cassidy, Bobby Sherman and The Monkees.

For that we can blow a big kiss to Charles Laufer. A former high-school English and journalism teacher in Southern California, he created 'Teen in 1955 to tempt his students to read more.

Ten years later Laufer published a "one-shot" magazine filled with Beatles photos. It sold 750,000 copies in six days, Laufer says, and the same year he started Tiger Beat.

The mainstay, then as now: "Guys in their 20s singing La La songs to 13-year-old girls," said the 69-year-old Laufer, who sold Tiger Beat and the rest of his magazine empire in 1978 for more than $15 million, and is now developing a newspaper insert for teenagers.

In 1983 Laufer's four children (including daughter Teena, named for 'Teen) started Bop. Big Bopper hit the stands the following year.

The Magazine Publishers of America figures Bop and TBB last year took in almost $9 million in subscription and newsstand sales alone. Additional profits are raked in from merchandise such as the unauthorized biography "Jonathan Brandis: Cuddly, Cozy & Caring," about the blue-eyed actor who starred in the movie "Ladybugs," and was featured in a recent TBB photo spread baking cookies.

Other teenzines run ads for everything from deodorant, for readers too young to develop b.o., to "Beverly Hills, 90210" license plates, for readers too young to drive.

Twelve- to 19-year-olds will spend about $57 billion of their own money this year, according to Teenage Research Unlimited, an Illinois-based marketing firm. To tap into that wealth, several new youth-targeted magazines have started recently, including Black Beat.

The typical Bop or TBB reader is a quiet, plain, Midwestern girl, who still looks forward to turning 13 and to dating, Laufer says.

The typical teenzine heartthrob is a pop singer or actor, brown-haired, brown-eyed, with a nonthreatening handsomeness (round faces are better than angular; boyish better than chiseled).

Married? No way!

Bop's managing editor, Rick Rodgers, explained: "The fantasy is, what if I met him then we went on a date and he asked me to marry him and where would we live and what would we name our kids? The fantasy of meeting, and him introducing his wife, doesn't have the same appeal."

Using up-tempo, aerobic prose, Bop and TBB weave for their readers a security blanket of noncontroversial details about the stars ("Jonathan Brandis loves eating ice cream!" "Mayim Bialik recycles her cans and bottles!").

Pin-up quality color photos are crucial - November's Big Bopper included 29.

"It's probably the most important reason kids buy the books," said Sharon Gintzler, editor of the New York-based Super Teen.

Jokes are out; they're too apt to misfire and leave a reader feeling stupid. Slang is in. And exclamation points are never, ever out of style!

Only about 5 percent of the entertainment magazines' readers are guys, Laufer says. That makes Bop's editor Rodgers exceptional for more than his blond, Bobby Sherman-esque cutes. Rodgers grew up reading fanzines and dreaming of becoming Donny Osmond's best friend.

Most of the other writers here remember a similar feeling. They understand that kids buy the publications in part to cope with a whole new set of complicated emotions.

Holly Smith, a 29-year-old assistant editor, still keeps pictures of David Cassidy on her office wall. When she was a girl, Smith and her pals would practice kissing a poster of the Partridge Family singer.

"What else is your life going to revolve around when you're 10?" asked this dishwater blonde with the adorable good looks of a surf bunny. "It's a nice transition between ponies and real boys."