This information may seem frivolous, but it's a hot commodity. Just ask SmartGirl Internette, the online "consumer guide" and ad-free community for teen girls that generated this data. The SmartGirl site doesn't just cater to girls -- it does double duty as a trend-research firm, attempting to capitalize on the demand for market research about the teen demographic.

SmartGirl is one of a growing number of companies aiming to move the trend-research industry online. But because it targets pubescent girls, SmartGirl's activities raise ethical questions.

"Youth trend research is growing, and clearly the Net gives us an even better entry point because so many young people are computer literate," says Diane Bowers, president of the Council for Marketing and Opinion Research, which lobbies to "protect the integrity of marketing" in the face of privacy-protecting legislation. "Online market research is growing by leaps and bounds; it's also growing with a lot of concerns that the limitations of that methodology should be acknowledged."

The offices of SmartGirl Internette, in the SoHo district of Manhattan, are plastered with girlish paraphernalia. Posters of the latest pro-girl Barbie campaign hang on the walls. Dog-eared teen magazines are piled on the coffee table. Above the desk of company founder Isabel Walcott, a photo of girls playing soccer hangs beside a newspaper clipping announcing, "Sleep -- the New Status Symbol."

Walcott, in a black minidress, her blond hair in a perky ponytail, sees her Web site and research as a pro-girl cause. She and her four employees describe the site as an open forum and community for teens to express themselves. "Our girls feel really empowered," she enthuses. "They've told us that. Here's the one place in their lives where what they have to say really does matter; they love the fact that their opinion is getting showcased for the world to see."

SmartGirl isn't much to look at, with girlish motifs of stars, hearts and kisses, glaring spelling errors and a rudimentary design that looks firmly stuck in 1995. But that doesn't seem to matter to the girls who inhabit the site. The pages are filled with commentary from the thousands who visit every day. All of the content, in fact, is written by site members. It consists mostly of reviews of CDs, books and movies (including sweetly sincere deconstructions of the outfits in each scene of "Clueless"); commentary about teenage concerns such as unrequited crushes; relationship advice columns; and bulletin boards heavy with posts about divorce and snobbish high-school cliques. All submissions are unpaid, but are edited and posted by a team of part-time editors and staffers.

Significantly, at least in Walcott's view, there are no ads. If her plan works, there never will be.

Next page | Is SmartGirl a teen community -- or a front for market research?