When Will Cory Kennedy’s Party End?

Why is Shawn Hubler wasting her writing talent on Cory Kennedy, a misguided, possibly troubled adolescent who is aspiring to become nothing more than a celebrity party girl (“The Secret Life of Cory Kennedy,” Feb. 25)? Why are you putting a “famous for being famous” wannabe on the cover of the magazine? Why are Cory’s parents allowing her to chase this unhealthy notoriety? Are they clueless or are they deliberately exploiting their daughter?

Giving teens who become preoccupied by these shallow pursuits this much journalistic attention makes it more difficult for responsible parents to raise well- adjusted sons and daughters who possess a sound value system. Why should young adults work toward meaningful goals when society rewards this kind of superficial behavior?

Josephine Mondrala

Marina del Rey

Hubler’s article is frightening, disgusting and engrossing. Cory’s lifestyle depended on money, privilege and location. Yet it is accessible vicariously to kids for the price of an Internet connection.

As a middle school teacher, I see children who yearn to live a life beyond their means, and so they turn their attention to the Internet’s new icons. Without understanding that Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan and the like were using Cory’s Internet cachet to increase their own visibility, or that Cory was using them, my students now believe that celebrities will drop in on their town just because.

Diane Peifer

San Bernardino

When I think “style icon” I think Jacqueline Kennedy or Princess Diana, not a teenager in a grandma cardigan, concert T and combat boots. Even the hippest would agree that Cory Kennedy’s mom and dad have done a dreadful job of parenting. I’m not against clubbing, dating a man five years older or hanging out with Paris Hilton. I just don’t believe that these are appropriate activities for a ninth grader.

How can a mom in 2007 have “neither the will nor the computer savvy” to check out her daughter’s online life when strangers are shouting Cory’s name on the streets, or let her daughter pose for a magazine she wasn’t familiar with?

Suzanne Robertson

Tarzana