Fiction in teenage and young women's magazines

[TheAverageJoanne]

Anyone know why it declined in general? When did Cosmopolitan stop publishing stories?

I used to read Cosmo etc in the 90s/early 2000s.
I have no memory of there being fiction.

That's what I was thinking too! But maybe it's just my memory 😆

I've got my mother's Cosmo collection from the early 70s, 1972-76. Loads of fiction from people like Fay Weldon and so on. You'd be hard pressed to find anything like that now except in the mags for older women like People's Friend and Bella.

I’m fairly certain I first read The Handmaid’s Tale serialised in Cosmopolitan.

Do young people read fiction any more? Aren’t they more focused on their own stories on SM?

Good point! I guess they think they're more interesting!!

Why do we think fiction declined? I reckon mid 90s. I read Jackie in its last two years of existence along with Smash Hits and they were still around then.

As the parent of a 17 year old and Aunt to a couple of 20 somethings I can say reading is alive and well.
They don't always read physical books (my daughter likes to listen on Spotify) and kindles are often a preferred method but they definitely love their books.

I don't think it has.
In fact there's much more available now via mainstream methods than when I was young.
For example graphic novels were sold in dark musty shops in my day. Now they are sold all over.

I'm thinking about it being included in magazines, which for teenagers don't really exist anymore.

Yes all the physical magazines are mostly long gone.
Printed media like weekly/monthly magazines are on their last legs.
The Take a Break style ones are still churning out (why 🤔... they're terrible) and My Weekly etc for the mature generation.
Printed media is too slow.
If a celebrity does something interesting then it can be online in minutes - instead of it being printed in a magazine to be read about a week later when it's "old news" so some of the few remaining magazines are available online and get their readers that way.
My daughter (age 17) reads a huge amount of novels in all sorts of genres.
She finds out about the books and authors via various online ways. TikTok, Discord, You Tube, Reddit etc.
She will discuss books with people from all over the world via online forums.
Magazines have definitely become not so popular - but I think fiction is still going strong.