Seventeen

Beyonce Knowles isn't a teenager anymore, but that didn't stop her from sitting down with Seventeen to chat all about her whirlwind year, which includes her stop by the TRL finale tonight, as well as her upcoming double album. She opened up about her hush-hush wedding to Jay-Z, as well as her competition. Here's more:

• On finally settling down with Jay-Z: "I was 18 when we first met, 19 when we first started dating. There was no rush — no one expected me to run off and get married. I really don’t believe that you will love the same thing when you’re 20 as you do at 30. So that was my rule: Before the age of 25, I would never get married. I feel like you have to get to know yourself, know what you want, spend some time by yourself, and be proud of who you are before you can share that with someone else."
• On what she's learned from her husband: "I guess probably that we’re all human. I don’t care if you’re picture-perfect on every magazine cover, and you’re the most handsome, successful, coolest guy – you still get sad, and you still get your feelings hurt, and you still get confused and vulnerable and nervous and scared. You have to find a person you can make it through the tough times with."
• On competition with other artists: "I feel like I’m my competition. I don’t try to compete with other people. I just try to better myself. I go and watch everything that I’ve done. I have my YouTube days, when I watch every performance, and I listen to my music, and I watch my videos to figure out what I need to do, what I need to fix, and how to become a better singer."

It's rare to get a peek into her relationship with Jay-Z, especially about their vulnerability, but it's part of what keeps her human and able to be her own best motivation.

From Vanity Fair to Seventeen, Blake Lively is racking up her magazine cover girl credits this Summer. We already know that she vented about being compared to Paris Hilton, but in the article she also opens up about her costars' special talents and staying away from the nightlife, all while playing coy about Penn. Here are highlights:

• On getting silly with her co-stars: “Everyone is really funny and has such strange things that they do. Like Leighton does amazing voice impressions, and she can impersonate anyone’s face. Chace does an amazing impression of Scott Stapp from Creed. Ed is always singing. Taylor is just so adorable, I just want to bake her a cupcake. And Penn does these silly dance moves, and he’s very witty and quick, so it’s fun to have sharp banter with him.”
• On why she doesn't hit the NYC hot spots: “I don’t drink, so when you’re going out to a really loud place, where you can’t talk to other people, and people are drinking, you can’t really have a conversation. I just never really found too much joy in it. Especially if there’s something else fun to do, like play Guitar Hero.”
• On how actors fall for each other off-set: “Maybe when they kiss off the set – because it’s definitely not romantic on the set, that’s for sure. When you’re saying these words that people are making you say to one another, nothing about it is real or genuine. So if two people connect outside their characters, then that’s how they get together.”

We know that Miss Blake spends plenty of time working on her off-screen kissing, but we admit we're curious to see what happens with all the on screen romance between Serena and Dan when season two starts up again. In fact, we have quite a few questions for those kids.

Photo courtesy of Cliff Watts

For obvious reasons, I'm not a regular reader of Seventeen, but I'm always psyched to pick up a teen magazine and see stories promoting positive body image. Seventeen is especially great about this, and it's even gone so far as to create a Body Peace Treaty that women of all ages can sign, declaring that they will be more accepting of their bodies.

The pledge, which has been signed by celebs like Miley Cyrus, Hayden Panettiere, Fergie, and Ciara, lists 12 promises women should keep in order to avoid being obsessed with food and weight. To see my favorites from the list, read more

R-Bils covers galore! After the slightly skeevy GQ look and cuter Lucky cover, I think I'm going to say that Rachel Bilson's February Seventeen spread is definitely my favorite. My 12-year-old self feeling all cool reading Seventeen is especially thrilled about it. For the photoshoot Bilson got back to her '80s-baby roots with the look, which I can't help but love. Inside the magazine she got a little bit girly and a little bit candid talking about mom time and boys (yes, even Adam, sigh). Here are highlights:

• On having a mom who is a couples' counselor: “You know, as a kid, you’re not as willing to be open with your mother just because you’re younger and not as mature and you don’t realize that it’s actually a good thing to do. Now that I’m older, I talk to her about anything. But I think she’s a little bit more willing to talk to me about things — where I’m still like, ‘Ugh, Mom! Come on!’”
• On dating costars: “You know, a lot of people don’t like to date people they work with. But I think that you can’t help who you like — it’s as simple as that. When you’re surrounded by people, it just becomes more of a thing: You’re probably gonna like someone you work with or whatever, because you get to spend more time with that person. You get to know that person — you really can’t help it. I don’t think there are any rules.”
• On keeping her relationships private: “With Adam, we tried never to put it in anyone’s face. We never took pictures together, and we never really talked about our relationship until maybe a couple years into it. I think it took a while to talk about it at all. I don’t like to talk about that personal stuff — romantic stuff — it’s just too personal, and a lot of that is so exposed. But you want to keep certain things to yourself. It’s not like I have any secrets: I just choose not to talk about certain things.”

Only a few more weeks until we get to see R-Bils with her boy Hayden in Jumper — I'm so keeping my fingers crossed that it's good. Either way, I gotta believe there's a whole new group of girls just a little too young to remember The OC learning to love Bilson outside of Summer Roberts. To check out her full interview, don't forget to pick up the magazine on newsstands!

Matthew Perry and Zac Efron got to work on the set of their new movie Seventeen in LA on Friday. These two don't really look all that much alike in everyday life, but we can kind of see the connection when looking at their side-by-side jackets and shades. We have to say that while Zac isn't winning many votes as your favorite rising star or best up-and-comer of 2007, we're interested to see how he does in a non-singing role. As for Matthew, we totally support any chance to see an old Friend back on the big screen.

For more of Zac and Matt on the set just read more