I’d add this classic Siddhartha style quote to the mix in talking with teens that’s particularly relevant too:

“It is not our purpose to become each other; it is to recognize each other, to learn to see the other and honor him for what he is: each the other’s opposite and complement. ”

- Hermann Hesse

Unbeknownst to me, I find my own daughter (15) just saw Eclipse and has joined 26,000 teens in the Facebook grp of “How stupid Twilight fans are gonna look in a few years:
http://www.likeworthy.com/page.ashx?id=778

Simultaneously, my goddaughter visiting yesterday for 4th of July (12, just turned 13) has ‘seen it like, 6 times already’ (ahem, how is that even possible?)

So I think there’s a sociological sliver of willingness to ‘escape’ in fantasy mode and of course the unconditional love/hottie hormonal factor in play…

Personally, I couldn’t sit through it without deconstructing the morality & religious subtext (but hey, my adored teen BF was Mormon many moons ago, so that alters one’s POV) So on a more global snapshot, I’d think the intrigue probably falls into the universal “desire and longing to be desperately loved like that” which, for better or for worse, older teens are already seeing past w/a somewhat cynical lens (at least in these urban environs)

Main message I’d toss out there is that from a media literacy standpoint, the lens changes with the reflection of who’s doing the reviews. (e.g. Girls Leadership Institute founder Rachel Simmons) so I’m kinda of the ‘try not to overthink it’ stance…(not easy for me, trust me on this; my brain has freeze framed w/analysis paralysis many a time!)

Thx for the post Chris…