Every January, Vogue selects ten women to represent the best dressed women of the year. Most years these women are socialites, actresses, and bonafide starlets. This year, however, the list skewed younger — and more scholarly. Of the ten, three are college students and five are in their early 20s. According to Condé Nast, Vogue's median reader is 35.5. So, in the past, the magazine has stuck to older, more sophisticated style icons to appeal to their target reader. It has been a rare occasion for young women to grace the pages of Vogue; most of the time, they leave the tweens, teens, and young twenty-somethings to little sister magazine Teen Vogue.

Now that Teen Vogue's competitors are dropping like flies (rest in peace, ELLEgirl and CosmoGirl, which now lives on only digitally) and young women's magazine options are dwindling, Vogue is in a position to swoop in and charm the socks off readers of all ages. Women like to read about women like themselves. Putting Blake Lively front and center on the best dressed list will appeal to everyone who has ever caught an episode of "Gossip Girl," because she's so darn likable (and Gossip Girl fans span as young as 12 and as old as, well, my mom). Never mind that Blake's street style is a depressing departure from Serena's. Commercially, it was a smart move for Vogue.

Furthermore, featuring the styles of three college students will appeal to readers who like John Galliano as much as they like John Steinbeck. Girls of this demo have rarely, if ever, been featured in Vogue before – maybe they've had their heads too buried in books to go to society events – but there truly is something infinitely more inspirational reading about the wardrobes of college scholars than, say, New York socialites. At a time when there’s too much focus on a great social life, rather than a good education (I'm looking at you, Whitney Port), Vogue steps in and reminds us that smart is stylish.

No one is immune from the pinch of the recession, of course, but teens and college students will continue to have a nice chunk of disposable income. In the effort to save money, middle-age women are curtailing their magazine-reading habits (evidenced by the struggles of Better Homes and Gardens, Ladies' Home Journal, and More) while teens and twentysomethings always will be willing to shell out a few dollars for a quick fix of luxury, glamour, and fancy shoes. If Vogue wants to establish itself as a monthly must-read magazine over competing "college girl" titles like Cosmopolitan (which lost its title as top mag among college students to Time last year), Glamour, and Self, they are doing everything right. Flipping through the pages or even clicking around the website gives a reader a more palpable sense of youth compared to past years. On Vogue's online outlet, Style.com, we see a plaid-wearing hipster in a porkpie hat alongside Calvin Klein models in frayed denim next to BMX racing with a runway model. Nice.

Even this month's "Last Look" page, which often features the most decadent handbags, boots, and jewels imaginable, appeals to the college-age crowd: Dell's 1GB 2 lb laptop, $475, with a Goyard computer pouchette, $830. Just right for that all-nighter in the library.

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