I mean compared to the other girls like Gaga, Rih, Bey, and Brit why does she have so much more appeal to the kids?

They all love her for the most part. And when I say kids I'm talking 8-13 and the like.

Because kids are the future and Katy is the future of pop music

She's beautiful, fun, and often goes for youthful appearances in her music videos. Kids buy music more than adults. No shame in pandering to that market imho, sales are sales.

I mean she's the least overtly sexual or inappropriate of them all. It's not that she's not sexual, it's just that she has enough plain kid-friendly songs to accommodate their tastes.

She's the Female MJ after all

Inoffensive, relatable, simple lyrics.

Children won't understand things like "comparisons are easily done once you've had a taste of perfection" or "oh, no! Did I get too close? On, did I almost see what's really on the inside?"

This

this lol

Futuristic Chanteuse

Caught the edit

But they took her seriously enough to keep Roar at #1 for 15 weeks.

Same reason why adults love her. Mass appeal. She isn't overtly sexual and her songs and public persona don't alienate groups of people.

Her songs are childish/kiddy enough that they are like rhyming lullabies and easy enough for kids to follow. It's nothing shady, it's just easier for kids to sing a Katy Perry song like Roar than a song by Beyoncé like Partition.

Because she is a kid at heart

Because it's fun and catchy. It's also light in the sense that it's not overloaded with meaning and easy to understand and interpret (which isn't a bad thing).

Rihanna falls in the same category tbh, a lot of people don't realize how far her music reaches. I see kids singing her music all the time.

Her songs are bubblegum pop, kids love that stuff

The best public for any musician is kids, because if you get them to like you when young they will support you their whole lives as they will always be reminded of their childhood when they hear about you, so they are the best public to captivate in order to ensure longevity and long term financial gains.

She isn't selling sex

She's the least sexually overt and she's colorful (literally).

I question why pop stars would trade mass appeal to do the whole oversexed thing (which has mass appeal too, but it's a smaller mass appeal).

No lies spotted.

Same reason little kids love Lady Gaga and any other musician.

I doubt there's many little kids that use Gaga. (Gay and/or bullied) Teenagers, sure.

That said, it's different. It's comparing Madonna in the 1980s (closer to Katy in terms of not over sexualizing her image) to Madonna in the 1990s (kind of where Miley, Rihanna and Gaga were within a year or two of their blown up career in terms of selling sex). Little kids (and teenagers) were in love with Madonna in the 1980s (and their parents probably liked her too). In the 1990s (early), I can't imagine there was any parent that would let their kid listen to Madonna and that can become an issue. It changes your base a little.