 A distinctive element of "Tiger Beat" is its covers, which feature cut-and-paste collaged photos – primarily head shots – of current teen idols.For the first twelve issues, Thaxton's face appeared at the top corner of the cover (at first the magazine was entitled "Lloyd Thaxton's Tiger Beat"), and he also contributed a column.Post-2016, the magazine started using solo celebrities on their covers to target celeb-obsessed Gen Z-ers.