Just17 magazine and Rufus the model

[Gahdammit]

Random bored Wednesday afternoon work discussion...

Just17 magazine used to regularly feature a model called Rufus. One person had his picture all over her wall. Another person thought he was odd looking.

We need to settle who was right! 🤣 (From a teenage girl point of view, not an adult woman perving over a topless young model! Otherwise eww!)

Who was Rufus?
Is he still a model?
Was he poster worthy or odd looking?

Personally I had no opinion on him. If he wasn't David Duchovny, I wasn't interested. 😂

YABU - I fancied him
YANBU - Nah, I'd skip those pages

I'd have been "a tea cup? Mate, I need a sports direct mug!" even if a shot glass would have done the job. 😂

Me and my dad had the same trainers. They were the brand Head.

Head bags bought from Macro in primary school! With little padlocks with even tinier keys! The locks got banned in school because teachers got fed up of having to ask if anyone had a spare key because a pupil couldn't get in their bag again. 🤣

My trainers were ankle ones with a pink embroidered flower on the side. The soles were so thin, I could feel the gravel. Definitely granny trainers.

Oh gawd that sounds like something Boris Johnson would call his child. Instant turnoff.

@littleburn @curtaintwitcher78 Ahh I remember Nick Fisher from his agony uncle days. Was it my imagination or did he have a greasy perm? I’m sad to hear he’s died now.

I had a fuchsia Head bag with purple trim. I thought I was so much better than everyone with the pastel ones for about a week and then remembered i was still a dork.
Speaking of merch, I still have a Just Seventeen compact mirror somewhere. I got it free with the magazine and lent it to my mum for a night out, then forgot all about it. Turns out the crazy old mare still had it 30 years on and gave it back to me a couple of years back!

He might have at one point. I remember him having Nigel Havers hair.
Yes, very sad. These people parented us in a way. Them and Judy Blume.

I grew up on Judy Blume and have a real soft spot for her work. I’m sure my parents would have been horrified if they’d read what she’d written, though!
Have you read Summer Sisters? I read it recently and it’s the first book I’ve read of hers that was not written for children. I strongly recommend it. It made me want to go to Martha’s Vineyard.
Sorry, I’m detailing the thread now. All this talk is making me nostalgic!

I am loving this! I definitely remember Roger, fancied him. Does anyone remember the female model Susan? She was so pretty, short dark hair. I wanted to look like her!

I am also going down a nostalgia rabbit hole! I am terminally nostalgic.
I have read Summer Sisters but I do have a signed copy of In the Unlikely Event. Every time I am about to read it I realise I'm about to fly somewhere and chicken out because of the subject matter.

I think I remember Cassius! Long dark curly hair if I remember rightly, and olive skin.

I’ve worked with Malcolm/Cassius. He’s an actor now, and we were in a play together a few years back.

He’s still a mesmerisingly good-looking man (although a lot shorter than you’d expect a male model to be) and I spent a lot of rehearsals gazing at him and wondering why he looked oddly familiar…

Eventually another cast member referred to him as “Mr J17” and it suddenly clicked. Unfortunately, we were in the theatre bar at the time, and I’d had a few wines, so I blurted out: “oh my god, you’re THAT Malcolm! I used to practice snogging on your posters!!”

He actually went bright red, bless him. Nice fella. Obsessed with crisps.

I remember getting the first copy of J17 which was free with Smash Hits as it was an offshoot from there. My older brother got SH delivered but of course I read it too. I don't remember it being quite as cheesy as these later covers show, but I'm going back over 40 years now so my memory may not be the sharpest.

I still have a J17 wide tooth comb ! It's perfect for combing through conditioner still !

Well jell!

I have that too somewhere...

I love this thread! I definitely fancied Malcolm, although really anyone with long dark hair would do back then.

I also remember a beautiful model called Kate Groombridge - not sure if she was J17 or the others, but I remember she was also on the M&S bra packs and I thought she was so stunning and wanted to be her so much. I found her randomly on Instagram recently - she's still modelling and still gorgeous!

Always tickled me that it was called Just Seventeen when it was chiefly read by twelve and thirteen year olds while seventeen year olds read Cosmo. 😅

And More magazine.

Yeah, that was after my time, though. #old 👵

James Layton! Not sure if he was J17 or a different mag but he was definitely one of my faves

There was also an agony aunt called Maroushka Monro, I think (can't remember what mag she worked for, but it was one of the teen ones). I've just googled her and there is a journalist of that name, who has written a book on beating anorexia, so that all sounds about right for an agony aunt...but this Maroushka was born in 1947, so she would have been in her 40s when I was reading her advice. Her photo definitely showed somebody much younger (so appearing as more of a big sister figure than a mum/aunty type) but in real life, you probably would need a certain level of maturity and life experience to be an agony aunt.

I also got that first issue with Smash Hits!

Somewhere I have the free badges…

Jane Goldman, Jonathan Ross’ wife, was a writer for them when she was 17ish, it was all clubbing, drinking, and older boyfriends - I was not a mature-looking 17yo and was slightly jealous that she had this amazing social life while I was stuck in my small town!

Is this Rufus at the back? I can't remember what he looked like

What the hell was this picture posted in? It’s hilarious. 😆