This is a trip down memory lane and a reality check on nostalgia all in one great piece of writing.
I miss the smell of the perfume samples in the magazines though. I think I mostly miss the innocence in thinking one of those magazines articles could change my life.
Hi Elizabeth! Thanks so much for being here and your kind comment! I miss those perfume samples too. Confession: there were two perfume samples in this magazine that weren't opened. One was Gap's Dream and the other was Calgon Morning Glory. I tried to sniff them through the paper, but I couldn't bring myself to tear the seal. Like I had to preserve a little magazine magic!
This was so beautiful. I got a little verklempt at the end 🥹🥹 nostalgia is such an experience. There is some wisdom in there, it’s just often not as on the nose as we think.
This was such a fun read. I was also a magazine girl and subscribed to InStyle for far too long. I loved buying fashion and music magazines when I traveled, even if they were not in English! I was looking for a good fashion magazine the last time I was at an airport and wondered where they had all gone? I don't know which one I picked up but I flipped through it and was not enticed by it at all and ending up buying a travel magazine. We have grown up and our tastes have changed. I still do enjoy a good magazine but it is not as easy to find something that appeals to my tastes now.
You know, I think part of it is we have so many more options now for entertainment. I feel like it was so much easier to get into a magazine article even if it was sub-par because there was not so many other things competing for my attention. There's a lot of factors leading to magazines decline, but looking back I also wonder if the bar was raised and traditional print media didn't continue to meet it.
You have done great work for the community. 👏🏼Buying this magazine from EBay, so brilliant. I’m grateful for your findings! A smart, heartfelt, and fantastic read - as always. xx
In 2011 when I was in art school for graphic design, all we were taught and heard was “print is dead!” Digital is the future! It’s clearly not true as the world over we continue to read and collect books and flip through the pages of magazines. I can only do the glossies in small doses because I’m disenchanted by the aspirational life we get shoved down our throats but 100% I’m reading that magazine cover to cover on a flight so as not to spiral mid air when they pump the brakes and I just know we’re going to plummet out of the sky.
Also, what gives about the grocery store no longer selling fashion mags! I too always end up at BN for my mags. There’s a coffee shop here that sells independents but I can’t justify $30 for a magazine.
When I was a kid I remember loving moms McCall’s because every issue came with a Betsy McCall paper doll. Always obsessed with vintage, it led me to the physical doll and loving vintage clothing (even doll clothes from the 50s-60s were so well made). That magazine is long gone. You might like reading the Anna Wintour bio by Amy (O’dell?). It talks a lot about the creation of old magazines like 17!
Yes to all of this! It's funny, looking back I thought magazines were going to be less problematic compared to social media. My thought was that it was more obvious what was advertisement, it's easier to walk away and more clear that it was not supposed to be your real life. There were many more shades of gray than I recalled and it made this a difficult essay to write - it took me all month to figure out what to say about it!
You're so right on the indie mags too. They are just not the same. I really like the idea of indie mags but I think perhaps I am not highbrow enough to appreciate them - and the price is outrageous.
I also loved paper dolls when I was little. Actually, you bringing that up makes me want to get crafty and see if there are any interesting grown-up versions out there. I ordered that bio based on your rec - it arrived yesterday from Amazon . Thank you for sharing, it sounds like just the type of thing I like . ♡
Oh super, I hope you like it! The Sticker Fashionista paper dolls are fun. I used to have some because I was interested in fashion illustration.
The magazines we grew up with were the height of the patriarchy! With all the paparazzi harassment female celebrities endured? It most definitely trickled down to readership. I often wonder where I got negative views about my body but I know it's just being alive during that time and the residual crap from our mothers' generation. When you go back even further in time to ~50s, it's even worse!! I feel like I once read something about how in the late 1800s- early 1900s women were writing epic articles in magazines. politics. adventure. prose. in ladies home journal or whatever was around. but i guess it was the war that changed all that. "how to stay skinny for your husband!" the same with movies. before the "talkies" women were directors. i'll have to rewatch Geena Davis documentary about women in film.
Reading this felt quite cathartic. There is something special about looking back and realizing that you no longer appreciate or desire something (a world, a smell, a piece of clothing) that used to occupy such a big part of your heart. Like, the kid in you can finally let go of it...
This is wild. I remember that magazine! Those advertisements. I’m such a nostalgia highway 🛣️ girl. Loved this read!
I'm so happy you enjoyed it! It was really fun revisiting. Nostalgia girls unite!
This is a trip down memory lane and a reality check on nostalgia all in one great piece of writing.
I miss the smell of the perfume samples in the magazines though. I think I mostly miss the innocence in thinking one of those magazines articles could change my life.
Hi Elizabeth! Thanks so much for being here and your kind comment! I miss those perfume samples too. Confession: there were two perfume samples in this magazine that weren't opened. One was Gap's Dream and the other was Calgon Morning Glory. I tried to sniff them through the paper, but I couldn't bring myself to tear the seal. Like I had to preserve a little magazine magic!
aw cute
This was so beautiful. I got a little verklempt at the end 🥹🥹 nostalgia is such an experience. There is some wisdom in there, it’s just often not as on the nose as we think.
You get me <3
This was such a fun read. I was also a magazine girl and subscribed to InStyle for far too long. I loved buying fashion and music magazines when I traveled, even if they were not in English! I was looking for a good fashion magazine the last time I was at an airport and wondered where they had all gone? I don't know which one I picked up but I flipped through it and was not enticed by it at all and ending up buying a travel magazine. We have grown up and our tastes have changed. I still do enjoy a good magazine but it is not as easy to find something that appeals to my tastes now.
You know, I think part of it is we have so many more options now for entertainment. I feel like it was so much easier to get into a magazine article even if it was sub-par because there was not so many other things competing for my attention. There's a lot of factors leading to magazines decline, but looking back I also wonder if the bar was raised and traditional print media didn't continue to meet it.
You have done great work for the community. 👏🏼Buying this magazine from EBay, so brilliant. I’m grateful for your findings! A smart, heartfelt, and fantastic read - as always. xx
This means so much, especially coming from you, Lauren! Thank you!
In 2011 when I was in art school for graphic design, all we were taught and heard was “print is dead!” Digital is the future! It’s clearly not true as the world over we continue to read and collect books and flip through the pages of magazines. I can only do the glossies in small doses because I’m disenchanted by the aspirational life we get shoved down our throats but 100% I’m reading that magazine cover to cover on a flight so as not to spiral mid air when they pump the brakes and I just know we’re going to plummet out of the sky.
Also, what gives about the grocery store no longer selling fashion mags! I too always end up at BN for my mags. There’s a coffee shop here that sells independents but I can’t justify $30 for a magazine.
When I was a kid I remember loving moms McCall’s because every issue came with a Betsy McCall paper doll. Always obsessed with vintage, it led me to the physical doll and loving vintage clothing (even doll clothes from the 50s-60s were so well made). That magazine is long gone. You might like reading the Anna Wintour bio by Amy (O’dell?). It talks a lot about the creation of old magazines like 17!
Yes to all of this! It's funny, looking back I thought magazines were going to be less problematic compared to social media. My thought was that it was more obvious what was advertisement, it's easier to walk away and more clear that it was not supposed to be your real life. There were many more shades of gray than I recalled and it made this a difficult essay to write - it took me all month to figure out what to say about it!
You're so right on the indie mags too. They are just not the same. I really like the idea of indie mags but I think perhaps I am not highbrow enough to appreciate them - and the price is outrageous.
I also loved paper dolls when I was little. Actually, you bringing that up makes me want to get crafty and see if there are any interesting grown-up versions out there. I ordered that bio based on your rec - it arrived yesterday from Amazon . Thank you for sharing, it sounds like just the type of thing I like . ♡
Oh super, I hope you like it! The Sticker Fashionista paper dolls are fun. I used to have some because I was interested in fashion illustration.
The magazines we grew up with were the height of the patriarchy! With all the paparazzi harassment female celebrities endured? It most definitely trickled down to readership. I often wonder where I got negative views about my body but I know it's just being alive during that time and the residual crap from our mothers' generation. When you go back even further in time to ~50s, it's even worse!! I feel like I once read something about how in the late 1800s- early 1900s women were writing epic articles in magazines. politics. adventure. prose. in ladies home journal or whatever was around. but i guess it was the war that changed all that. "how to stay skinny for your husband!" the same with movies. before the "talkies" women were directors. i'll have to rewatch Geena Davis documentary about women in film.
Reading this felt quite cathartic. There is something special about looking back and realizing that you no longer appreciate or desire something (a world, a smell, a piece of clothing) that used to occupy such a big part of your heart. Like, the kid in you can finally let go of it...
You are such a gifted writer.
♡