Early Noughties teen mag ridiculousness

They were shit, but I do remember them being very firm on not having sex before you were 16, or if you weren't sure you wanted to.

I think it was sugar or girl talk

I'm glad someone mentioned "My Guy". That was the one that sprang to my mind first but I couldn't remember the title.
The photo stories were great and opened up a whole new world to me. I went to a private girls' school and the people in My Guy all seemed to go to comps (which seemed very exotic and scary to me) and hang around on street corners snogging each other. All in stonewashed denim and with big hair.

I had to sneak My Guy into the house as I didn't want my Mum finding out I was reading it. I sneaked Jackie in too - there was a girl in my school who used to appear from time to time in photo stories or as a model in articles.
I never dared bring Just 17 in as my Mum had already told me it was "disgusting" but we shared it around at school so I got to read it anyway.

I remember all the cringey photo stories although some of the more cheapy ones had cartoonish ones rather than photos. I think there was one called the Valley Girls.

70s and 80s in my case. 'Jackie', 'Oh Boy', 'My Guy', a few others. I don't remember specific tips, but there was a lot about pop stars and swooning over the latest one. In the earlier ones, the most popular ones were Donny Osmond and David Cassidy; a little later, Michael Jackson. Then there were all the confessional ones. In 'Jackie', they tended to be about messing up relationships - e.g. 'My Jealousy Killed His Love!' In the more recent ones, they tended to be more melodramatic. One was about how the narrator, out of jealousy, encouraged her friend's excessive dieting and 'made' her anorexic. The friend ended up in hospital, weighing five stone, and in danger of death. Another narrator, also out of jealousy, took advantage of the temporary lack of a qualified English teacher in an obviously failing school to feed her friend wrong information when revising. As a result, the friend just misses her grades for Cambridge, seen as her only chance of escaping her impoverished neighbourhood, and ends up taking her own life! Even at the time, this seemed extreme and unlikely to me, especially as someone who just missed grades for Oxbridge would presumably still have what's now called an insurance offer, and the chance of a successful university career. In yet another story, the girl hides the train ticket of the handsome young man in her railway carriage, so that he will have to spend time with her when waiting for the next train. As a result, he is too late to get to the bedside of his dying mother! Victorian moral tales had nothing on some of these stories!

A story in one of the earlier magazines - I think 'Tammy' - provided my friend and me with a catch-phrase we used for years. It was about a girl whose friend turns out to be a pop star's sister, and included the line: 'You don't mean to say that this gorgeous chunk of male is your brother!' We found this hysterically funny, and forever after, would talk about 'gorgeous chunks of male'.

I remember company. And there was another one which stopped so I switched to Cosmo. Felt very grown up getting my copies every Thursday evening on the way back from school/college at the corner shop.
If I felt super sophisticated I’d go and purchase them from Morrison’s in town on Saturday mornings with a bar of galaxy caramel and a glittery eyeshadow from boots on the way home

I vividly remember buying Just 17 at the local newsagent and being terrified the man behind the counter would tell my mum I wasn’t even that young, I was about 15 and at that time I was regularly getting sold booze in the offy!

That's hilarious!
I sent in an "embarrassing story", think I got £50 for it. That used to be my favourite page!

I think it was probably in Hi or Jackie there were always letters in the made up problems section about girls feeling left out because they were 14 and hadnt started their period yet. All their friends had and what could they do.
I remember at the time thinking why you would want to start your period and in all my teen years I never had a convo with my friends about periods!!

I used to love readung these mags. I wasn't a ten until the naughties but remember reading Tammy girl then sugar/just 17 and later cosmo.

I wonder if they still make mags like that now?

What was the one which had ‘Sex position of the month’ or similar? Was it More magazine? It was too old for us but I remember on a Girls Guides trip one of the girls snuck one in in her bag and we stayed up all night pouring over it and trying to work out what it all meant!

One piece of sage advice I remember from that particular tome- ‘Use conditioner in your public hair, to keep your man lingering there’

I used to buy Shout! religiously. I remember being very sad that we didn't have a Tammy Girl in our town. All the Cathy letters seemed to be from 16yos asking if they should have sex with their boyfriend. One that stuck out was a reader whose boyfriend had told her it was harmful for him to get an erection and not have sex What a chancer!

I did follow the makeup tips. White eyeliner on the lower eyelid was a great look...

Dancing to Steps, that is awful. Bad karaoke at its very worst.

Cosmo was fucking weird though and full of tips like sucking an ice cube before you give a blowjob or doing it with your mouth full of champagne.

haha yes I remember that one! why try to gild the lily like that? No one trialled that idea before they wrote it down.

I was a teenager in the 90s. One particular article I remember was about how to look good when sunbathing on the beach. Their top tip was to dig a recess in the sand to put your bum and thighs in so the fat doesn’t get squashed out to the sides and therefore you look thinner

Lol. I was a 90s teenager and I remember that scrunch drying your hair was big (literally!!) at that time. It involved mousse, drying your hair upside down, and a diffuser attachment for your hair dryer. My DM had curly hair already and there was no way she was going to shell out for a diffuser for the hair dryer. I remember trying multiple times without the diffuser...I just ended up with disgusting crunchy hair!
And every get ready for summer article involved body shop peppermint foot lotion!

Yes, my mum found my stack of More mags and was absolutely horrified, though she needn't have been. Like PP I didn't become sexually active for some years after I has built that stash. But being armed with aaaaaall that sex knowledge was quite useful really when the time came.

I remember being told that you had to make something your signature that a boy wouldn't forget. Like a 'pillar box red lipstick' or a beret. Word for word. Amazing.

I don't remember anything inappropriate about them at the time! Loved them! Can't remember anything too specific that was in them though. Except that there was a problem page once where someone apparently wrote in saying "People call me fried egg 'cos my breasts are too small" complete with sadface stock photo of girl examining too-small breasts in mirror, which sent my sister and I into hysterics whenever we read it so we cut it out and kept it in a box!

Actually looking back fried egg is probably a totally made up insult. No actual teenager would have come up with that. So I don't feel guilty for laughing :o

Cosmo was fucking weird though and full of tips like sucking an ice cube before you give a blowjob or doing it with your mouth full of champagne. Don't do that. Alcohol on mucous membranes isn't a pleasurable sensation.

Yes 🤣

Rinse your hair with cold water to make it shine
Wear a pop of colour close to your face
Your eyebrows are sisters, not twins
Cucumber on eyes
Oatmeal on face
Live yoghurt on your vulva for thrush
Which jeans to wear for your body type
Which swimming costume/bikini to wear for your body type
Hair styles to suit your face shape
Men always notice your hands
Your hair is your crowing glory

What a load of shite.

Was More the one with 'sex position of the week' where it would have a drawing of a couple locked in some improbable karma sutra style embrace, usually doing handstands or upside down?