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Teenage big spenders have suddenly become the buzz sector, as girl power returns with the launch of three new magazines into this very fickle and elusive market.

In spite of the general drop in this sector in the last ABC figures, the National Magazine Company, HEML (a joint venture between Emap and Hachette) and BBC Worldwide each believes it has come up with a winning formula that will buck the trend and attract a new source of ad revenue.

Cosmo Girl, announced last week, will be a 'younger sister' to Cosmopolitan and aims to eventually lead readers on to the UK's top-selling women's title. Elle Girl, likewise, is nurturing young, aspiring fashionistas who, hopefully, will move on to Elle when their earning power increases in their late teens. The BBC's as-yet-unnamed Project G is cashing in on its showbiz strengths with a youthful Hello!-style format.

While Cosmo and Elle are planning spring launches for their monthlies, the Beeb's new kid arrives on the block in mid October and will appear fortnightly.

None of the magazines has revealed a cover price at this stage and this could be crucial to success.

Wage-earning women can afford two or three magazines a month, but schoolgirls, even those with pocket money and part-time jobs, have limited funds and will have to choose between the titles.

Given the millions that will be going into promoting the new titles, Sugar, the current teenage favourite (selling 416,000), could well feel threatened. The magazine maintains, however, that the competitive activity will stir up interest among young girls and extend the whole market. Alfie Lewis, the associate publisher of teenage titles at BBC Worldwide, agrees. 'When there's activity in the teenage market, this age group is prepared to multi-purchase,' he says. But how far the newcomers can extend advertisers' budgets is critical to their survival and the growth of the sector.

Per Newman, the managing director of Estee Lauder's UK companies, says: 'There is no way you can participate in all the magazines. There are new titles launching all the time and we wouldn't drop a long-standing relationship with a magazine overnight just to accommodate a new product.'

Despite the apparent fickleness of teen magazines' ABC figures, Newman maintains that they have a potential to build loyalty in the long term, and says that Lauder's Clinique and Tommy (Tommy Hilfiger) ranges are regular advertisers in the medium in the US.

Suzanne Grover, the publisher of Elle, says: 'There has been an explosion of titles for the teen market in the States and a whole host of new advertisers going into this market, especially from the premium end, and that hasn't been translated yet into the UK.'

Peter Thomson, the deputy managing director of CDP Media, highlights the new sort of products - computers, software, banks, relevant online companies - that are likely to be interested.

Procter & Gamble, Unilever and L'Oreal are among the biggest advertisers in teen mags, and Duncan Edwards, the deputy managing director of NatMags, says his company has already shown them and other Cosmo advertisers some of Cosmo Girl's content. The launch is prompted by the success of a US version last year, which has already been repeated in the Czech Republic and Turkey and is part of a plan by US parent Hearst to roll out worldwide.

'Cosmo seeks to help and inspire women to be the best they can be and that's exactly the attitude we're taking for teenage girls,' Edwards says.

'Teens today understand the importance of having a rounded life, which I think previous generations had no notion of. They are also very aware of the competitive nature of today's adult world.'

Media experts appreciate the strength of the Cosmo brand but question whether a 12- to 17-year-old target readership is too broad to satisfy.

'A 14-year-old is now much closer to 18 than 12,' Thomson says. Laura James, the head of press at New PHD, points out: 'This marketplace is very difficult because you don't know what is going to be popular from month to month. If the magazine is not absolutely relevant, I can't see them being regular purchasers.'

Marie Oldham of Media Planning, a former head of development at BBC Worldwide, feels that Cosmo Girl is facing a bigger challenge than Elle Girl and Project G. 'Cosmo, with its more general lifestyle content, is dropping down into a market that is already well served,' she says.

Most agree, however, that the competing titles' success depends on the editors' input. So Cosmo Girl's Claire Baylis (ex-Sugar and IPC), Elle editor Fiona McIntosh and the BBC's Jeremy Mark are on their starting blocks. Given the odds, they would probably rather be competing in the Olympics.