CONSUMER MAGAZINE HELPS KIDS USE MONEY WISELY

How to subscribe

Individual subscriptions to Zillions are $16 per year. Write to Zillions, P.O. Box 54861, Boulder, Colo., 80322-4861. School subscriptions are $4.95 per year, with a minimum of 10 orders to one address. Write to Zillions, P.O. Box 3760, Jefferson City, Mo. 65102. The magazine is also available on newsstands.

Zillions tells young consumers how to avoid rip-offs and choose products that are good buys.

Kids today have more money to spend on items for themselves than ever before. In fact, American kids spent more than $6 billion in 1989, according to a Texas A & M University study. Toys, games and crafts accounted for $1.9 billion of money spent by children ages 4 to 12.

In other words, kids are consumers, too. But are they educated consumers?

Zillions: Consumer Reports for Kids, formerly known as Penny Power, tries to give kids the information they need to use their money wisely.

Children's Express recently spoke to Jeanne Kiefer, managing editor of Zillions, about the magazine.

"Our magazine is put out by the organization that also puts out Consumer Reports, the magazine for adults about buying things and money and that sort of thing," said Kiefer.

The organization, Consumers Union, has been around since 1936, but kids didn't have their own publication at first, said Kiefer.

"Back in the 1970s, the idea came up that there should be a consumer-education magazine for kids with a lot of the same material in it, only kids would be interested in it.

"Kids are always telling us they are tired of getting ripped off. It does seem to happen . . . For a kid, you don't have a whole lot of money and it is particularly frustrating," said Kiefer.

What do kids say?

"They don't want to read what an adult said about it. They want to read about what other kids say about it."

Zillions has a team of 100 testers _ kids around the country _ who review the product and tell Zillions what they think of the product. The results are published in the magazine.

Kids do the testing

"The most popular topics that we do are often about products. Our top story every year is the story we do in our December/January issue called the toy test.

"We take 10 toys or games that are going to be heavily advertised at Christmas. We have 25 kids test out and rate them," said Kiefer.

She said if you want to become a tester, you should look in the April/May issue for a contest form in which you have to answer a question. This year's question was: "What new article would you like to see in Zillions and why?"

Every year the magazine's staff selects 100 kids _ 50 girls and 50 boys _ of various ages to be on a new team.