Early Noughties teen mag ridiculousness

I remember Mizz magazine used to feature two twin make models who I thought were gorgeous. I’ve just looked them up and they’re called Keith and Derek Brewer. They don’t look like a Keith or Derek.

Zoe Finds Out! I remember that! They lived on an island and she had an affair behind her blind boyfriend’s back. In fact, I think the guy she had an affair with (Lucas?) caused the accident which blinded the boyfriend??!

I did a beer rinse on my hair once after reading about how shiny it makes your hair look in I think (sugar) magazine?

Absolutely brilliant idea for a thread OPoh gosh how I loved Just 17 and all the rest. Funnily enough I was talking to my 12 year old DD today about those mags and how her generation have no interest in them. She can't quite believe that the internet actually Did Not Exist when I was a child LAST CENTURY we had to make do with Smash Hits and co!

Haven't read all of the messages but I read Mizz, Shout, My Guy etc and progressed to More and Just17. I definitely feel that it influenced me very heavily to be sexually active before I was ready. The message I got was that as long as it was consensual and you used contraception, go for it! I had incredibly low self esteem and poor self worth as a teenager and had sex with the first boy who took any interest in me. I did it to get my virginity out of the way and felt very much that 'this is what you do'. I really feel that the magazines played a big part in it. In saying that, they were very informative in terms of the mechanics of sex and getting pregnant and clearly laid out how you couldn't get pregnant from a swimming pool. Those agony haunts must have been wetting themselves at some of the questions they got!

I remember Leslie Ash as a teenager used to do almost all of the fashion modelling in the teen mags of the late 70s/80s. I think she had a twin sister (Debbie Ash??) who also did modelling but only Leslie went into acting.

A girl in my class used to do modelling for the photostories etc. 40 years on she is still amazingly beautiful.

Which magazine realised how much teen girls love a good flow chart or multiple choice quiz and had about 7 of them per issue?

I also remember a free set of tarot cards. What a time to be alive.

I bought Smash Hits well into my University years. The writers were obviously way older than their audience so it had a double-bluff sense of humour running through it.

By that time I’d moved on to reading Cosmopolitan and DM read it once. She put it face-up at the sex advice page, sighed and spoke the immortal words: “Nothing new under the sun, my dear!”.

No idea where SHE got her sex advice in the 1950s....

Snort at the article "Dad removed my naval [sic] stud with pliers." Was that a sailor boyfriend he disapproved of?

@Laggartha I remember Zoe Finds Out! There was a while series of them. I remember the cover blurb was all, like, "Steve likes Amy who's got a crush on Dave who's angry at Lina for stealing from Sara who's sleeping with Danny who's going to be mad when... ZOE FINDS OUT"

Diary of a Crush was so dramatic and brilliant. I think Dylan had to come and rescue Edie from the fancy hotel because Carter tried to spike her drink or rape her or something? I genuinely almost named my daughter Edie after her, they were such a formative experience for me!

Omg I remember Mizz and Shout, I used to get them every week until I was old enough for Sugar and Bliss 😂

She probably looked utterly ridiculous...

Unfortunately not, she looked gorgeous and about 25.

Male model Steve for anyone who wants to remembers how gorgeous he looked. Now I look at that and think he looks like a meh teenage boy.

Anyone remember a teen magazine called Catch? I think it only ran for a few years. I actually got invited by the magazine to a sort of focus group with other teen girls.

Talking of fashion/make overs I recently saw a throw back to Trinny and Susannahs book from the noughties and some of the suggestions they made for wedding/work outfits were quite shocking (and they were aiming at adults!)
I remember they used to make some really mean comments on the tv show - they told one woman her upper arms had enough meat to feed a family of 5 for a week!!

Ooh, has anyone mentioned the book that came free with one of the magazines and each chapter was written in a different style and font depending on which character's point of view. One was blind, so his font was in a computer font. Probably the computer font actually.

I've got it! Zoe Finds Out.

That was one of my best summers ever, I must have been about 15, just before year 11. Great group of friends. I felt so full of energy and hope and happiness.

A girl at school won a makeover and photoshoot. She was a real bitch and bullied lots of us.

She probably looked utterly ridiculous...

Omg I've also just remembered when I tried one of their tips to condition my hair with mayonnaise. Fucking MAYONNAISE!!! my hair was super thick and long at the time. It was NOT pretty! 🤣

I'm only on page 3 of this thread and loving it!

Peppermint foot lotion and marmalade body scrub from the Body Shop. Hair mouse, diffuser attachments and scrunching.
Scrunchies.
Nude lips, clear lip gloss and clear mascara (I remember my mum rolling her eyes at that). I wanted to shop at Boots 17 but could only afford Collection 2000.

Omg I've just remembered that (I think it was..) Shout had a problem page, and whoever got the "period problem" published got sent a goodie bag of pamper things. I was absolutely over the moon to receive said awesome package, after I'd written in with some no doubt made up period problem when I was about 12. I can't remember what was in it, apart from some panty liners, a tampon carry case and that apricot face scrub stuff that took off the top layer of your skin, but I was ecstatic to receive it. I remember calling my best friend up on our old land line, in the hall, to tell her about it 😂

Gosh I loved all those magazines. What an absolute load of bollocks they were. Does the equivalent exist now? I sincerely hope time has moved on!

Does anyone else remember the magazine that would have a panel of boys rating the way various models were dressed? Then there was the magazine that would take pictures of women on the street and critique their dress sense (I am guessing without permission because they looked like Pap shots)
This would have been 80s rather than 90s

Does anyone remember Alice K. I think she was more magazine. I loved her.

I was only thinking about this the other day. I was a teen in the 90s and loved Bliss and Sugar, wasn't allowed More or Just 17, and would read others like Smash Hits at school.

I remember one article for a 14/15 year old or somesuch which showed how could you could dress to meet your boyfriend's parents and then transform it for an evening with your girlfriends by putting on a leather jacket. I think it involved a pencil skirt and one of those top combos of vest and cardigan in the same colour. The whole scenario was way beyond any life I was living.

A girl at school won a makeover and photoshoot. She was a real bitch and bullied lots of us.

I'd love to look at a copy again.