..to feel a failure compared to the women in my magazine?

[rufussmum]

Just read my usual middle-aged mum's monthly Woman and Home. All the women featured in it either 'live their adventure' and sail away to Greece on new yacht or have started their own 'consultancy/fashion' website with their best friend. Not one poor, unemployed single parent in sight. And don't get me started on the house makeover features. Are these people normal? If so I'm worse off than I thought.

[openerofjars]

New Scientist is good.

I find reading women's magazines these days a bit like eating a whole bag of Haribo in one go: I feel kind of sickly and unfulfilled at the same time.

So yeah, nerdsville all the way for me from now on.

[TunipTheVegedude]

Never buy women's magazines. They make you feel shit because they are designed to do exactly that.

I do find I feel young and glamorous if I buy patchwork and quilting magazines, by the way.

[miggy]

Anyone remember that article they used to do every month in good housekeeping, dressing someone for their lifestyle. They would go dog walking in an outfit costing hundreds of pounds and obv dry clean only. Thing is even though you knew it was crapola, still made you feel hopelessly inferior and badly dressed.

[sarahseashell]

read a book or new scientist/economist/Q

[amothersplaceisinthewrong]

For some reason I put the latest Woman and Home in my shopping trolly as a trailer on the cover about hair caught my eye (turned out to be very boring).

I am 53 so presumably the target market for such a magazine. But I found it dull and not a patch on Good Housekeeping.

The women aren't real though, I have never thought they really were. All airbrushed and slimmed down too.

[K8Middleton]

I just find those real life posho stories really, really dull. Who cares that Arabella Fortesque-Chomley-Pryce has a new kitchen? Or that her husband's bankrolling her new cupcake business is doing marvellously? I just do not give a shit.

Stop buying the rubbish.

Oh and Jo Malone I like your perfumes but I do not give a stuff about your new house which you keep banging on about. You are sounding very Woman & Home and it's tedious.

[flipchart]

This is why I but Traill,Mountain Bike UK and sight and sound.
These are y interests and they are more real than the aspirational bullshit some magazines peddle.

[joanofarchitrave]

[thermalsinapril]

I'm going to buy some of the suggested alternatives on this thread (keep the ideas coming please!)

[GrendelsMum]

ThermalsInApril - Oh Comely! is rather barking (rather than Oscar and Lucinda and their four adorable children have got a new kitchen, it's all Freddo and Knox have gone to live in a shed), but it's a good counterpoint to Intelligent Life and could't make anyone feel inferior.

[highwindows]

I think lifestyle/style blogs are now a lot better than magazines, and tend to read those now when i feel like a bit of escapism/inspiration.

I agree about magazines only making you feel bad. I always remember the line in the Baz Luhrman song "do not read beauty magazines, they will only make you feel ugly" which resonated so much with me when I first heard it.

[hopkinette]

Oh Comely! is the most hilarious load of shit I've ever seen.

[quesadilla]

I guarantee that 80 per cent of the people with "fashion consultancies" are just people who post stuff on blogs when they are bored and pissed.

[Scarletohello]

Read Mumsnet instead. Read about all the women going through terrible relationships and count your blessings... Mn is awesome and is written by and for real women with no agenda or need to sell stuff...

[CocacolaMum]

I don't buy magazines. They are shit. If I want to read the inconsequential opinions of people with an over inflated sense of themselves I will go online :P

[musicposy]

I sometimes read psychologies which is slightly more informative than the rest and has less fashion/ gossip etc which I am not interested in at all.
However, DD2, who is very into science, takes Astronomy Now which is interesting (if a little samey ) Recently I bought her New Scientist and it was a revelation! I've been wasting my money on misogynistic crap telling me what brand of make up to buy when there are intelligent and thought-provoking articles out there!
Change your magazine. I occasionally buy Your Dog or Cook Vegetarian (I'm not veggie) or Camping and Caravanning (don't own a caravan) or even one of those android app mags. But I will no longer read the kind of stuff that leaves me feeling like an ugly old person with a skanky house and boring, poorly paid job.

[Willdoitinaminute]

Most successful and fulfilled women don't spend precious time bragging about their lives .Time is precious not things.

[Willdoitinaminute]

Sorry bit off topic now. I am listening to new ipod playlist very distracting. I didn't refresh before posting.
Meant that i no longer waste time and money on magazines for women. Tend to read my DH's Classic Bike gives us something to talk about. Also I like the science and nature publications.

[MummyTheresAfireBeeOnYourHead]

Agree with lots on here. I just bought red magazine and read it cover to cover....there were one or two articles I liked but one in particular all about highly successful career women....(all may I add in careers I would never have chosen anyway) and I felt totally deflated when I felt I couldn't identify with the women in the magazine I had bought., I have two degrees and a profession but am a sahm mum at moment, which I adore, I will mostly likely return to my profession or something related when all dc at school, I am happy with this big gap and any sideways move and fall in salary...my choice and all that and bang on perfect for my set up re childcare/family dh job blah blah..but what the heck magazine to read? Think new scientist is tempting, used to read for uni, shouldn't have stopped.....is weird this really struck a cord with me other day op thanks for posting. I feel better! Prob read far too much MN though!!

[Snazzynewyear]

If I may quote 'Sunscreen': 'Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make you feel ugly'. This applies to all women's magazines, it's just that the type of ugly you feel will vary.

[Willdoitinaminute]

I regularly buy New Scientist. There is a good section at the back where someone asks a question for people to answer in the following issue.Its a bit like the Radio 2 Drive time homework question. I also listen to more radio now. Radio 4 extra and Radio 4. I'm definitely becoming middle aged.

[MummyTheresAfireBeeOnYourHead]

willdoit!! I have also started listening to more radio lately, inc radio 4, mind you i have always liked it, my mum loves it and I can remember just pottering about with her with it on in kitchen, the shipping forecast!! Love love that. We still try and do it now but it's not quite so tranquil with my dcs rampaging about! She reads GH but says its not right for me!! Also reads red....she buys a lot of house/home magazines, I think like grand designs?! I love dipping into those, amazing ideas and personally interests me but I guess it could be anything else, horse magazines, pets, craft ones, the science ones etc, anything but 'women's' mags for me from now on.

[Bogeyface]

For the cost of a couple of magazines you could buy a book that will give you a much happier feeling. If you have a second hand book stall near you, as I do in our town market, you can buy a bagful of books for less than a tenner!

The last time I read a magazine was when (then) DH bought me some when I was in hospital with appendicitis. I told him to bring me Cosmo/Marie Claire types, the Independent and the Sun (I heart Dear Deirdre!).

He bought all of the above and a copy of Take a Break which he said he bought for the headline "My husbands brain exploded during sex". I read that first, and it didnt, was very disappointed!

[BennettsBiscuit]

Magazines are all so dreary these days. When I was at school a Marie Claire would last me a week, lots of interesting stories about all kinds of different things and only a few pages of fashion and beauty - I used to buy Vogue too as a counterpoint! (shallow and love clothes). Even Elle used to have pretty heavyweight articles in there alongside the fashion spreads.

Now everything is pages and pages of STUFF TO BUY and as said above, all this crap about cupcakes and shit. I want my kids to aspire to be theatre directors or microbiologists or astronauts, not to marry a stockbroker and sell overpriced baby socks made of organic rabbit hair or similar from their basement kitchens.

I quite liked New Woman until that went bust, I found it had a friendly tone to it but my favourite magazines ever are Smash Hits and Jackie.