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fourteenwings2012-04-19 03:42:14

The lawn game is croquet. Funnily enough, Wikipedia has two footnote to the statement that it's a sport.

Reading your description, I am severely bugged by the lack of mention and consideration of money.

Apparently, the Bratz manage to get some nifty office space. I checked online; from what I can gather, Stilesville is supposed to be significant, but not the the extent of New York or Los Angeles, so I'm going to take Chicago as a proxy.

Office space rents in Chicago average around $25/sqft.yr. Let's say the Bratz are just renting 300sq ft. That's $7,500/yr, which equates to $576.92 per month*

I am taking month to mean four weeks rather than calendar month

.

There's seven Bratz, so that works out to $82.42 per month each... I did have this whole rant about how they'd never be able to afford it, but considering how rich and spoiled they all are, that's probably within their means. Better hope their parents don't decide to cut them off.

HOWEVER! These are 16-year-old girls. Can minors even legally rent property? I get that, if a minor has some sort of income, they might be expected to make a contribution, but officially it's the parent/legal guardian who actually pays the rent.

And even if they can rent the place on their own, why should the landlord let them? They don't appear to even have a well-thought-out business plan to bring in the cash, let alone a first issue of the magazine to persuade the landlord that they might actually be able to keep paying. They furthermore lack the connections and social network required to create content (just because you know the big brands doesn't mean they'll pass on information to you), not to mention the practical knowledge of printing, marketing, and distributing a magazine, as well as copyright law. A sensible landlord will reserve her properties for tenants who are actually likely to keep ponying up the rent, so the most likely situation is that they girls' parents are footing the bill so that their daughters can play at being fashion writers. Um, why?

OK, the girls love fashion, and they do seem to be very enthusiastic and driven, which are admirable qualities that are generally worth fostering. But why do they need a huge office? They have their own computers - why not get them to work in one of their bedrooms of garages, starting off small and gradually working their way up to become a successful publication that can in fact draw in the money, which would persuade any sensible landlord to rent them office space.

Also, you mentioned that each of the girls is the editor of some segment of the magazine. Fair enough, but who's in charge of accounts? If you intend your publication to be major enough to require proper office space, you need to turn a profit, and that means someone keeping track of income from sales and advertising vs outgoing rent, payroll, and other expenses. All the girls seem to want to be writing it; have they taken any interest at all in the boring but necessary bureaucratic aspects?

Then there's the matter of photos and interviews. You generally can't publish a model's photo without her permission, and they tend to want money for that. Likewise, the people they might wish to interview are within their rights to demand money for an interview, which is going to push up the operating costs.

This might be assayed by advertising, but they're just getting started; it's going to be some time before they can garner enough circulation that people will pay good money for ads.

Tangent: If Your Thing is so prestigious, why are its offices in a building with a rat problem?

Now, they apparently get an all-expenses-paid trip to London? OK, but somebody has to pay those expenses, and that somebody is going to be Burdine, and she is under no obligation to pay for anything even if the Bratz hadn't stolen the tickets. See, getting expenses paid depends on receipts, and even if it is all expenses paid, the person paying the expenses has complete discretion over what to pay in order to avoid people abusing the system.

So, for example, if you interview somebody over coffee, you might reasonably be expected to be reimbursed for the coffee. However, if you decide to take in some sightseeing while in London, that's coming out of your own pocket.

By the way, prom means something completely different in Britain. The idea of having a big formal dance after secondary school finishes is present, but they call it something else.

Croquet! Thanks, sometimes I can be such an airhead...

Stilesville is supposed to be in California, so it's probably a bit more expensive.

IIRC in the Bratz Rock Angelz video game there's an entire department on the ground floor dedicated to letting these four girls hang out and produce a magazine, so that takes care of most of the actual work. Though will all the costs I wonder just how rich these girls are.