AOW #7- "touched by an angel"

"touched by an angel" by Alyssa Wasko; edited by Leigh Bellz
Teen Vogue Magazine (November 2011)

This is a credible source because Teen Vogue magazine is a popular, distinguished magazine that has been around for years.

This article was about a young girl whose father died when she was in college. She had always been interested in fashion, and her dad's death inspired her to pursue it further. She started her own company designing scarves with charms on them. The company, Donni Charm, was named after her father's nickname (Donny) and his nickname for her (Charm). Since then, the business has sky-rocketed, to the point where even celebrities are featuring her products.

The context of this piece is in a mostly fashion-related magazine that targets teenage girls. The article is appropriate in this situation because it talks about a teenage girl who takes a complete tragedy in her life and turns it into something positive.

The purpose for this article is to educate readers about this amazing young girl who turned her dreams into reality and overcame such a tragedy. It is also somewhat of an advertisement for her product because the article attracts readers to her product, established its popularity by saying celebrities wear it and showing pictures of those celebrities, and provides information on the product and sales.

The audience that this piece is written for is largely teenage girls. Specifically, it is for teenage girls looking to pursue a career in fashion or trying to overcome an immense tragedy in their lives. It provides tons of support and encouragement and especially hope for these young readers who are in a similar situation.

Some rhetorical elements of this piece are:

• appeal to pathos- The tragic story of her father's death makes the reader feel sympathy toward the aspiring designer and hope that she would make something of herself. It also makes the reader feel so much more joy and respect for her success.
• arrangement- There is a large picture of her wearing one of her designs at the start of the article. At the bottom of the first page, there is a picture of her as a young girl with her father. This page features an introduction and the story of the death of her father, so the pictures are extremely appropriate and add to the tone of the article, especially the photo of her as a kid with her dad. On the next page, there are picture of a few well-known celebrities wearing her designs. This adds to the elements of advertisement in the piece.

The author accomplished their purpose because I was introduced to a brand I was previously unaware of and intrigued to visit the website of the company. The product interested me because it is similar to my style, and her story drew me in even more to want to check it out.