To wonder if anyone else was banned from teenage magazines

[Dylaninthemovies1]

Completely random. But did anyone else’s mum ban them from reading certain magazines as a teenager? I wasn’t allowed to read More, just17, cosmopolitan or Marie Claire. In fairness the reason I wasn’t allowed Marie Claire was that I read an article about FGM when I was 10 and then got home and was a bit hysterical that this was in store for me. My mum had no idea that FGM was a thing until then.

I was only allowed to read shout, smash hits, the NME and melody maker.

Yabu: they weren’t banned in my family
Yanb: yes, they were banned in mine

I never had them taken off me. But my mum was a bit disgusted by More magazine and its dildo reviews/position of the fortnight stuff. She told me to hide them away so my younger brothers didn't see.

A few girls in my class weren't allowed the magazines so I used to lend them out during lunch or study periods. I was a bad influence.

I remember More being quite 'liberal'. I was definitely too young for it. Dare say if my dad ever read it it would have been banned.

They didn't know what I read as I used to buy them and hide them in my school bag with homework. I remember getting caught reading my mum's mags problem pages (sex problems or something) and getting in trouble but I learned a lot from them all.

I was never banned from anything as a kid. Won’t be doing that to my kids either.

I seem to remember some of them were banned.

I think I was allowed Girl Talk, Smash Hits and Shout. I can remember my dad strongly disapproving of magazines. My mum was a bit monte laid back so they probably came to a compromise, but I can remember my dad saying something about girl talk and my mum explaining that it wasn't like the others!

I wasn't banned from reading them however I never got bought them very often!

children's tv however we generally didn't watch when our Dad was home as he didn't want us talking with the America accents! Hilariously it was pretty much the only thing our Dad was bothered about, he was the most relaxed and lovely easy going parent ever!

A few girls in my class weren't allowed the magazines so I used to lend them out during lunch or study period

I used to do that with my mums Jackie Collins novels 😁

My dad was unlikely to pick up any magazine and look at the contents unless it was about fishing, my mum was pretty relaxed until she saw a copy of more and said 'i think this one's a bit much' and I knew when not to push my luck so didn't sell for that one again and in all honesty I thought it was a bit much too! I was about fifteen at the time. She was however fine with me doing at the kitchen table at my gran's house reading chat, take a break and similar, fill of stories of domestic abuse/homicides, serial killers, cheating, child abuse, people pointing at things whilst looking angry or forlorn, probably from the agree of about 11/12. I work in the criminal justice area now having done a law degree but preferring the criminology/psychology type modules and wonder if I've been influenced by early exposure to those magazines!

One if the teenage magazines used to have ‘position if the week’ how bizarre in a magazine aimed at underage girls!

No, my parents didn't really stop me reading anything. They're hoarders so there were all sorts of magazines and books lying round at home. I had a very high 'reading age' as a young child and I remember reading lots of stuff in my dad's Readers' Digests that, in retrospect, was wildly inappropriate! My sister and I were allowed a magazine/comic each delivered, and my parents ordered whichever ones we asked for.

Mum ordered us each a weekly comic from when we were quite little, so we started with Twinkle, moved on to stuff like the Beano and Mandy, then Bluejeans and Smash Hits, possibly Mizz - until at about 14/15, we went from pocket money to an allowance. Occasionally, we'd get a Beano summer special or something as a treat, but usually, if we wanted anything extra, it had to come from our own pocket money.

My mother didn't believe in censoring reading and did believe we should be informed about contraception, so nothing was banned. I wonder if she would have thought differently if it was all we read, but magazines were just a small part of my reading diet - I was an active library member and read pretty much anything which came my way - including Dad's weekly magazine; he got the Farmers Weekly. I was particularly keen on the end section which was more aimed at the whole family than reviewing tractors or new trends in dairying.

No not all I was also allowed to watch Grange Hill and other things that parents tried to ban. They were quite relaxed and I'm the same now with my kids.

@Dylaninthemovies1

I think for many of us of my generation (born 81) these magazines were where we got most of our sex education and knowledge about contraception/ protection against STDs. I had absolutely no sex Ed at school!

I was born in the same year and this was 100% true for me. I started my periods at 11 and the only reason it wasn't a terrible shock was thanks to my friend's Just 17 magazines (clearly her mother had no idea what the content was!)

I was allowed M&J, Bunty, and eventually Mizz, but Sugar and Just 17 were always a hard no.

@whatsleep

One if the teenage magazines used to have ‘position if the week’ how bizarre in a magazine aimed at underage girls!

Was that 'More' magazine? My sister had that one - I think she was about 13/14 when she subscribed to it.

I was banned from reading Jackie when I was 10/11 "because it's for older girls".
But I started my periods at that age and if it wasn't for Jackie I'd have been clueless.
My mum didn't have a talk with me. She left a packet of Dr White's on my bed with their booklet about starting menstruation.

I'm about 10 years older, and we had tons of Sex Ed, which I think was partly because it was the height of the AIDS epidemic when we were young teens, and also because we were a girls only school, and they knew there would be some girls getting pregnant each year, whatever they did, so they at least tried to reduce the numbers to 1 or 2 rather than 3 or 4. But magazines made me realise sex wasn't all condoms and doom.

More was banned ... was allowed to read Sugar and Bliss and Cosmo Girl . Also something called Blush that can’t have lasted that long ... and Teen Now .

I got a Mizz subscription several times from my aunty so there can’t have been many worries about that one.

Sugar especially was very informative and l remember one with a diagram of a vulva - up until that age I had no idea what my bits were for !! I wish now that I’d kept some of the magazines, there seems to be nothing like them nowadays ... even as ‘recent’ as 2003 looking back they feel so outdated - I rememebr articles telling you to always carry pound coins for the phone box !!

Ah, memories.
I used to love those magazines. My mum was fine with them, which was strange as the thought of me actually having a boyfriend was horrifying for her. 😁
She needn’t have worried as I was stuck in a single sex school. I didn’t know any boys. We just used to gaze at them as they walked past at lunch time from the next door boys’ school.
I graduated onto New Woman and Cosmopolitan and More at about 15 and my mum was fine with that too. However, I remember hiding a ‘100 sexual positions supplement’ that came with Cosmo one month. It was innocent by today’s standards, I.e. no anal! It had one where there were two bars, like in the gymnastics on TV, but lower down (obviously!). She was draped over the bars, and he was standing up. It looked very adventurous, if a tad uncomfortable.
I remember thinking, ‘well, if anyone ever wants to have sex with me, I’m definitely going to try that.’
I’ve not done it, well not yet.

I was born mid-70s and we had education on periods both in the last year of juniors and at secondary. We were supposed to have 'sex education' at secondary when I was 14 but the teacher refused to do it (he told us this) because the class was full of people who'd just take the piss. By this time lots of pupils regularly boasted about their sexual relationships and we had a couple of girls who got pregnant in the third year so I can see why the teacher thought it was pointless. What my parents hadn't told me I'd learned from books/magazines/TV/friends and by the time I was ten I was fairly savvy.

Anyone remember 'Bitch' magazine?!

I don't think it ran for that long, but I remember buying it after school a few times when I was about 14 (early 90s), then one day being told quite sternly by the shop assistant that I was too young. So that was that.

It just made me laugh, was all tongue in cheek and a bit feisty.

My parents utterly disapproved of all teen magazines so I never once (overtly) bought any. But like anyone and everyone else, I always read my friends' copies, so a ban was totally pointless!

My mother wholeheartedly objected to teen girl magazines. We had Bunty and Judy when we were younger and then No.1 and Smash Hits when we were teenagers.
She was very liberal when it came to books though. My sister and I were avid readers and we had free run of the library and she never objected to anything we read.
I am surprised at younger teens having Cosmo though. I always thought it was quite expensive and aimed at 20 somethings who were working and had disposable income.

My mum was ok with Mizz but banned Sugar (I think this is what it was called). I just got them behind her back anyway.

I'm surprised at no sex education in the 90s. Was that influenced by Section 28?

Ha, my husband's school did Human Reproduction for the top science set and Animal Reproduction with the lower sets. He told me this quite blithely, obviously considering that "we were the ones who could be trusted not to take the piss" was all the rationale this needed...

(Even then, it's not true. I distinctly remember saying "Mr Jones, are we going to do any practicals on this topic?" )

We didn't have magazines delivered at all - got Twinkle and Bunty passed on from another family - and then when I was about twelve the vicar's daughter next door handed over about 5 years' worth of Jackie and we read them all at once. I remember my (7 years older) oldest sister saying "I used to think Jackie was really explicit and permissive, but now I realise it spends every issue saying be nice to your friends, do your homework and don't let your boyfriend go too far!"

Spent the next few years spending half my money on Jackie, Patches, Blue Jeans and (when it came out) Just 17. Bought My Guy once: managed to work out that "he was my first serious boyfriend" meant "he was the person I first had sex with" and decided it was far ahead of me (they'd all left school too, so it was completely unlike my life).

My mother was very much "fourteen is far too young for boyfriends" but I think she decided it wasn't worth trying to ban this stuff. (Also, they'd come from the vicarage...) She did stop (?15yo?) me reading Jilly Cooper's Imogen, and agreed with the librarian that a 13yo should not be reading a biography of Byron.

I looked at More and Sugar in my twenties, and was mildly horrified.

My mum was pretty liberal, she bought me 'For Women' a sex magazine aimed at women when I was 16 as she wanted me to learn that sex is special with someone you love, she thought I was old enough to look at pictures of naked men.
We also shared MandJ when I was younger.