When Kids Do the Testing

By EMILY MITCHELL

For weeks, all Karen Reid of Oak Ridge, Tenn., heard from her son Scott, she says, was, "Reebok Pumps this, Reebok Pumps that." The fourth-grader wanted her to buy him a pair of the flashy high tops and explaining why she refused to part with $150 for athletic shoes got her nowhere. Then Scott read that the Pump was heavy and can be uncomfortable. End of tug-of-war.

What convinced Scott was an article in Zillions, a consumer report for kids that evaluates everything from peanut butter to video games. The bimonthly magazine (circ. 250,000) is published by the nonprofit Consumers Union, which has been doling out advice to adults in its Consumer Reports for the past 55 years. The difference is that Zillions delivers buying tips with savvy humor and snazzy graphic designs and that the products are tested by an unusual group of experts: the kids themselves. Says Peggy Charren, president of Action for Children's Television: "Zillions figured out how to attract youngsters to information they need and does it with elan."

Zillions, based in Mount Vernon, N.Y., started life in 1980 as a less ambitious magazine called Penny Power but was revamped and renamed last year. Says editor Charlotte Baecher, a onetime high school English teacher: "We realized that the magazine could be doing a lot more." She expanded reviews, advice columns and increased the number of products being tested. The magazine, she says, tells kids, "Look, we know what's going on in your world. We know you've got zillions of pressures, and we're going to help you sort them out."

From the start, Zillions' readers, most of them 10 to 14 years old, were put to work. Any of them are welcome to join the 2,200-strong Z-Team, as the collection of potential product testers is known. Most are asked only to answer surveys about how they spend their money and what they think of various consumer goods. A lucky 100 are chosen to be official testers, who must follow strict rules in their evaluations.

Zillions believes its readers are concerned about the environment. For a story in the April-May issue, a dozen kids visited 24 Burger Kings, Hardee's, McDonald's and Wendy's to order meals and thereby investigate recycling in the fast-food industry. With their food, they reported, came a mound of wasteful packaging, scores of napkins and 55 packets of ketchup. Of all outlets only one had recycling bins.

One of editor Baecher's goals is to help kids become aware of the hard sells and soft sells that are everywhere. A regular feature, "The Sneaky Sell," has reported on hidden ads, called advertorials, that appear in kids' publications purporting to be part of the contents. For the investment-minded youngster, "Money Talk" follows the progress -- or lack thereof -- of earnings from $500 that the magazine put into various accounts last spring. (A mutual fund for stocks has dropped behind money-market and other financial investments.) And if a pal borrows money and does not pay it back, the magazine proposes ways to deal with that too. Tell your friend how you feel is the word from one Z-Team member and "be honest." Straight talk, kid to kid, is what Zillions is all about.

With reporting by Kathryn Jackson Fallon/New York