What's your magazine history?

[Shetlands]

Mumsnet has a wide age range so I was wondering which magazines have featured in your lives at various stages. I don't mean the magazines that you might pick up at the Dentist but which ones you have actually bought regularly. Here's mine:

Early 1960s - Bunty
Late 1960s - Petticoat
1970s - Cosmopolitan
1980s & 1990s - Good Housekeeping, Various House/garden mags
2000s onwards - Country Living, Ideal Home, Private Eye

I don't know anyone under the age of 70 who still buys magazines.

80s to 90s - Smash Hits and Just 17
More (Was it More? I’m sure it was called that). And was there one called Mizz? Or have I imagined it? ETA Heat.

Marie Claire & Elle in the 2000s

Currently whatever magazine I get extorted for in the supermarket. Usually Thomas the Tank Engine.

1980s - Jackie, Smash Hits
1990s onwards - Gardeners World (I aged quite quickly lol)

I don't read mags now (spend too much time on places like mumsnet) 😉

My life in magazine...

Twinkle / The Brownie
Jackie / Patches / Blue Jeans
Smash Hits
More / Mizz / Just Seventeen
Kerrang
Cosmopolitan / Marie Claire / Red (?)
BBC Good Food / Good Housekeeping
Mumsnet

Oh I forgot Jackie and Marie Claire! I used to buy those too.

I still buy house related mags because I love interior design but it's true that the Internet is where I spend more time these days.

Smash hits
Just17
NME

These days I like World of Interiors type ones but I don't ever buy them - too expensive.

Great thread.

I had comics as a child, shared with my brother. Mainly Beano. I think I remember having Jackie magazine too.

Then as a teen, Smash Hits first followed by Mizz and Just 17 and then More and Cosmo and finally Heat in the early 2000s. Oh and Viz a few times too. Nothing for the last 20 or so years though.

@TheBoysAndTheBallet - you have completely misunderstood the question …

Which is a fabulous one!

Stretching right back I may have the earliest names wrong:

Twinkle? (Or maybe only my younger sibling had that.)

Mandy? Possibly Bunty? Boarding school stories and very mean girls.

My parents’ professional subscription mags. Learnt an amazing amount from those.

Nova - delivered with the Sunday papers.

Jackie. ♥️♥️♥️

Various pop magazines from which one tore out posters of David Cassidy to plaster the bedroom walls.

Vogue. From about 14. Always and forever. Now an online sub but it’s far less satisfactory than a printed copy.

Cosmopolitan. From about 15 when another girl smuggled it into the dorm. In my twenties I read The Handmaid’s Tale serialised in it. Can’t remember when I gave it up.

NME - but mainly to impress a boyfriend.

Elle

Tatler (not even ashamed).

Professional membership journal.

Wallpaper

A fantastic style magazine that shone brightly for a short while, then folded. Wish I could recall its name.

House & Garden

Interiors

Hortus

After that the world turned online - and now I probably glance at a hundred magazines / journals every week.

Very occasionally pick up

The Gentlewoman - at a train station before a long journey.

19060 Judy and Bunty
1970 Jackie and 19
1980 Mother and Baby and Good Housekeeping
1990 Various home magazines

now I just buy a packet of Home magazines to go
on holiday. Ideal Home/25 beautiful Homes/ Country life are favourites . Too expensive to buy at any other time

I like looking at pictures 🫤
but I am old

1980s - Look-in

1990s - smash hits, Big!, Sugar, Bliss

2000s - Heat, Closer and Inside Soap

I haven’t bought a magazine in over a decade though, apart from the Christmas TV Times.

Don't buy these days, I like to.look at the free local paper though, but occassionally read a few a friend passes on. She buys woman and woman's own and a psychology magazine.

I'm 56 and have read them for years. I know lots of people under 70 who do!

@PassingStranger the question the thread asks is about one’s history of magazine buying and reading, from childhood if you read magazines then. Not just about what you do now.

Oh wow what a blast from the past some of these are! My favourites were always:

Beano
Bunty
Smash Hits
Just 17
Chat/That's Life/Take a Break

Haven't read magazines in maybe 15 years now, but I was also partial to any magazine that gave away a good free gift in their introductory price as well 😂

Beano/Dandy
My Guy/Jackie/Smash hits

Now the only magazine I buy is the TV guide at Christmas.

80s childhood: Beano, Dandy, Buttons, Look-In

Early 90s Tweenager: BIG, Smash Hits

90s Teenager: NME, Melody Maker, Kerrang!

Adult 2000+: Writing Magazine, Writers' Forum, various writing journals

All my mum's attempts to get me to read Good Housekeeping since I was about 20 have failed.

The dandy
then smash hits, just 17, more
then closer i think its called-had a good puzzle section! And occasionally womens own.
Now just the odd country living/good food/good housekeeping

In order

Beano
Twinkle
Bunty
ZXSpectrum User (a mistaken subscription from my parents)
Jackie (for years)
My mums Woman's Own
Mizz
Just 17
Smash Hits
Viz
Company
Sky (brilliant mag!)
The Face (when I had the money)
Then a heady mix of GQ, F1 Magazine, Cosmopolitan, Vogue, National Geographic, New Scientist and some Take a Break for the laffs

Now.. nothing except my mums Woman's Own and Take a Breaks!

1990s - Girl Talk
2000s - Teen Vogue (US) and Elle Girl (UK and US), sometimes Seventeen (US). Borders was great for US magazines
Late 2000s to 2010s - British Vogue and Tatler

Elle Girl was brilliant

Bunty
Just Seventeen
Smash Hits
NME
Lime Lizard (another music one)
Sight & Sound
Living Etc
The Critic

70s to now - an interesting skim through my interests at different ages!

Oh, and I used to love reading GQ, Esquire and Condé Nast Traveller at my dad’s house, I thought they were the height of jet-set sophistication 😂

Ooh forgot MixMag when trying to appear cool during my student years.

Forgot about Elle! The gateway drug to Vogue and Tatler!

Have just remembered

Diana!

I knew there was something between the Mandy / Bunty era and Jackie. That was it. Probably the most influential of my pre-adolescence magazines.

Also feeling slightly guilty about not mentioning

New Scientist

which, as an undergraduate on the Library Committee, I persuaded my college to subscribe to in the 80s. It’s possible I may have read the odd article …

Debbie
Mandy
Bunty
Jackie
Smash Hits/ Top Ten? Mag with lyrics
Good Housekeeping for many years
People's Friend, my comfort read
Woman's Weekly
The Oldie

Oh, I forgot the gaming magazines during the80s and 90s! For Spectrum and Mega Drive. Can't remember any titles though.