Early Noughties teen mag ridiculousness

Anyone remember sponsored 24 hour fasts? There was always a sponsor form/envelop in these magazines in the early 90’s. It was also around the same time anorexia was starting to be talked too!
I remember doing it with my friends and we were around 12/13! Pretty crazy to think about that now!

I remember gradual tanning lotion being a fairly novel thing and reading about it in a magazine, I was so excited to do PE that week thinking I'd look 'in' with the other girls now I had a 'light, natural glow'. The mag hadn't given any advice for application so I just slapped it on- it was really streaky and I got laughed at. I then spent my lunchtime desperately trying to wash it off in the least-frequented toilet block

I was in J17. Quite a big feature as I won a competition - three pages, a lot of time spent with their editor and a few journalists in advance. Still have a copy floating around and my god it makes me nostalgic.
Got to meet Sara manning, which as a diary of a crush fan was pretty epic.
I loved those magazines.

As an adult with a daughter, I'm actually appalled by what I used to read.

I remember reading one about how to levitate, which was utterly ridiculous! Really, if I remember correctly it was just really giving instructions on how to reach a meditative state.

I used to get all these passed down to me via an older friend and absolutely lapped them up all up. I used to put a tick next to the clothes I wanted on the fashion pages 😂 and hoped my mum wouldn't read the problem page! My favourite bits were the 'models tips' and the makeovers where a group of friends would get a new look and the hairstyles always had the obligatory two strands of loose hair at the front!

I very much remember Minx magazine. It was great. I was sad when it ceased publication.

It had articles you didn’t see anywhere else. Like, what other girls spent their money on. One wrote for the magazine. Apart from obvious stuff like a travelcard (blast from the past: pre Oyster cards) she bought 20 fags a day from the corner shop (“nothing if not consistent”) and often picked up a pack of Birds Eye crispy chicken at the same time. Also she spent £20 on a birthday present for a friend (“she’d better be grateful”).

There was another one in which Polly Vernon talked about having been called ‘posh’ at school, and now she wished that people still thought she was posh. And why having a VPL wasn’t such a bad thing.

The Minx articles felt more honest than in other magazines, which were trying to be aspirational but made you feel as if you weren’t the right sort of girl and should try harder.

The other thing Minx did well was affordable fashion. The other mags I read in my twenties used to drive me insane with their fabulously expensive fashion pages. New Woman for one. They actually had some good articles at one time, but their fashion pages would feature designer stuff and I’d think, this is just wank for the fashion editor who wants to pretend she works at Vogue or Marie Claire and ‘call in’ Gucci dresses that her readers haven’t a hope of buying.

Which was a shame because New Woman had some good writers doing stuff for them.one article was about women in Bristol who were affiliated with Class War and what made them behave as they did. Another was about whether you could meet a boyfriend by calling a load of tradesmen to the house (plumbers, electricians etc) and waiting with your friends, all dressed up to the nines, with a house decorated for a party, and offering them a drink. The description of the men’s reactions was hilarious. Magazines seem very unimaginative now!

I've still never had a milkshake. It's a worry I've got the suction wrong all this time.

You could get wash in-wash out colour too, couldn't you? I think they came in sachets - Shaders and Toners possibly was the name.

Also one in a triangular packet - Harmony, maybe?

I used to use those a lot. possibly more than I used glitter. Which is saying something.

[quote Allington]@CherryValanc yes, it raises so many questions - we really needed the milkshake recipe and diameter of the straw... [/quote]
What if it was a McDonald's milkshake? I think your head wouod turn inside out from the sucking effort!

I had Wella Colour Mousse. It was supposed to be the reddish brown that was fashionable in the 90s, but I applied it to my light blonde hair and it ended up bright red. I still thought I looked cool and daring, sashaying through the park with my tiny little backpack on, until a group of lads started shouting at me that I looked like a match. I was very skinny and pale to be fair.

I also remember being in 6th form in the late 80s/v early 90s and reading in magazines about the importance of skin care and treating your 'T zone' (which seemed to be more of an arrow shape olong the nose and across the cheeks). I bought myself a bodyshop tea tree oil stick and used it on what I assumed was the T zone before bed. That was the day that I discovered I am allergic to tea tree oil- I woke up with bright red stripes on my face like a sort of psychotic version of Adam Ant's make-up. I didn't even have problem skin that needed to be treated.

@millievanille yes the flow charts!!! I always eonder why I was such an insecure teen so upset about spots, no boobs and boys liking me, now maybe I know why!

Anyone remember the colour mousses that had names like "mahogany" and "plum" and just turned your hair purple, along with the collar of your school shirt?

I remember buying the mahogony one! I had naturally red hair and was convinced that the mousse would change this to the much more fashionable reddy brown mahogony colour. It wasn't visible at all in daylight but I found to my cost that under disco lights it gave my head a pink aura (nowadays I would find this quite cool but back then I was mortified).

I used to love Sugar magazine! It was always a little too grown up for me and I remember the old lady at the newsagent questioning it. This has taken me back. I just remember Sugar magazine having a teen sexual abuse write up where people told their anon stories! They must have had a helpline included etc

@CherryValanc yes, it raises so many questions - we really needed the milkshake recipe and diameter of the straw...

Why do I remember this but I forget my children’s middle names?

Because you have your priorities exactly where they should be!

You could get "cleavage enhancing kits" which were little pots of white and black stuff. I guess they were early contouring sets.

I remember advice to brush blusher into your cleavage to make it look deeper. By the time you had on one of the Wonderbras as well, you ended up with a cleavage you could loose a child down.

Haven’t RTFT but I’m loving it so far. I’m deeeep into following 90steenmagazinearchiveuk on Instagram.

I always remember getting a copy of J17 around 1997/98 which came with a free fiction book. The story was clearly written by someone at the magazine as it mentioned it endlessly. In this book a dorky girl goes to sixth form and meets a coooooool guy who wears black and is totally alternative. They go to Paris on a school trip and it is basically Christian Grey but for virgins.
At one point she saunters through Montmarte, stumbles upon a vintage shop and they assistants put her in a beautiful pink dress and she accessories it with silver trainers. Why do I remember this but I forget my children’s middle names? 😅

Another thing I remember is the flowcharts and quizzes in shout always tried to pin you down as having a certain 'type' of style. It always encouraged you to take the quiz and find out which spice girl you were or something, the made out if you were 'baby spice' based on your answers you somehow went home from school, put on a cute pink dress put your hair in pigtails and chatted to your mates while sucking a lollipop, or if you were 'sporty' you spent your time wearing cop tops and doing high kicks. I honestly believed I had to be a certain style and couldn't ever be a combination of them all!

@DrSbaitso I remember those hair mousses!! I loved the plum one!! Would totally use those if they brought them back!

I can’t really remember anything particular from them but I loved reading them at the time. How times have changed aye! Would love to read one now! Things have changed so much. I’m 30 but I have teen sisters 15+ years younger than me. Growing up for them is so much more different than it was back even in the early 2000’s!

Don't recall any cleavage stuff. Though unlikely to have read it as teen Ithought myself akin to ironing board with two aspirin on it.

Oh for that stomach again!!