iisn't it a wonder that any of us brought up on Bunty and Jackie turned out vaguely feminist.

[hatwoman]

free in the Guardian on Saturday and today. I'm still in shock. The pathetic look that we should use at the disco to bring out the protective instincts in boys; and the story today of the deeply misguided Mrs Ponsonby who wanted to turn her little girl into a boy. on the one hand it's no wonder that I felt deeply inadequate for not having a boyfriend aged 12 but on the other hand I guess I turned out ok in the end...

Oh God I loved Honey, I was obsessed with it, and bereft when it crashed about a year after I started reading it . It's about the only magazine I've ever read that was actually good at selling you clothes in a practical way rather than the rubbish you mostly get - 'from a selection' 'just seen', all that sh*t. Just take a picture of the bloody dress and tell me how much it is FGS.

In the 70s I picked up School Friend annuals from the 50sin jumble sales, which I liked a lot - actually in a lot of cases they weren't as drippy as you might think - I remember the fab Diana And Debbie Are Dieticians and A Career For Christine with fondness. Prob would be worth a fortune now if my mum hadn't chucked the lot in 1986.

I remember Pink and Fab208 too, they were my favourites after I stopped reading Jackie.

I think fab208 had the best stories in and I can' t remember why I liked pink, might have been the posters or something.
I have vivid memories of my couisin and I singing along to the lyrics for "I will survive" which were printed in one of the magazines.

I was a Mandy - Jackie - Fab 208 girl. But I always got Bunty and Diana annuals. I have now recreated my entire collection of annuals (after 5 years and thanks to Ebay). Fab memories!

From Mandy, Valda was my favourite, the mysterious girl that was rejuvenated by a hot coal or something.

Was Pink the femmo one? It sounds vaguely familiar...

A hot coal! excellent! they claimed it was the Crystal Of Life but now you mention it it just looked like a tippexed coal

twobysea, my Mum was inspired to dig out one of my old Twinkle annuals in response to the Guardian reprinting Bunty. dd (6) loved it. She's been reading it ever since! Bunty was unbelievably bad wasn't it? The only good thing in it were the quizzes/teasers. dd and I spent a happy half hour or so doing them!

Oh I LOVED Twinkle! Nurse Nancy was fab.
I think my favourite mag of all time was Look In - a poster in the middle every week and song lyrics too!

You can't go back. I bought some 80's era Just 17s off ebay, thinking back how cool and funny they were. Actually, they were shit. I can't look at some of the fashion pages - it is like a car crash.

Does anybody remember a short lived mag called Minx, from the early 90's? I loved that mag, it had exactly the right attitude and was pitched perfectly at my 20-sommething self.

I loved Bella the gymnast too, she had a bit of an Attitude, which was sadly rare in a lot of the girly comic strips...

I have a few Girl annuals from the 30s, and Jintys from the early 80s. Was reading DH a 'careers' feature which covered actress, hairdresser, beautician, cook, teacher, nurse, model and fashion designer.
DH said,'Well, what do you expect from the 30s?' Er, no, Jinty, 1979!

I honestly don't remember why I liked Pink. A lot of the topics were irrelevant to me, though I always read them ! So I am guessing it was more of the music angle.

Vulpusina the feminist comic was Shocking Pink.
My comic/magazine history: Jack and Jill; Beano/Beezer/Dandy; Judy; Jackie; Just 17; Cosmopolitan; Spare Rib; Diva. Now often Waitrose Food Illustrated

Was Bunty the one that had a story about a ballerina who managed to cover up the fact that she was blind? Even if she fell off the stage no-one guessed!

I remember Bella the gymnast and the Four Marys but not much else. I moved on to Horse and Pony .

Shocking Pink! Of course. Thanks

Ah. Fond memories. this blog lists it

Someone should really digitise all this old stuff.

I would read anything and everything in my teens.

Such nostalgia - I got Bunty and then Jackie and then Just 17 and Mizz - my sister got the Beano. Bunty was delivered to my dad's each week and I would get it when I went round there for one day every weekend, as my parents were divorced. I also read my sister's Beano for quite a while.

I won a short story competition in Mizz later on. Then I bought Cosmopolitan, Company, Red, Marie Claire etc for years, but only get very occasional copies now - I still succumb to music and baby magazines occasionally though.

MorrisZapp, I read Just 17 when it first came out and I think it was quite good then, it went really downhill later. The original editorial policy included not taking advertising for diet products, I think, and the agony aunt column was trying to be a bit more realistic about the problems faced by young teenagers. I think for a while Just 17 and Mizz were real alternatives to Bunty/Jackie etc. I also prefer those girls' comics to the preteen magazines that came later such as Sugar (yuk). I do remember Minx and it was quite fun.

I also read Spare Rib and Shocking Pink, and some books aimed at giving teenagers a feminist consciousness. One of the Shocking Pink collective died in her early 40s of cancer a year or so ago, and I found a novel by her in the library in which the heroine manages to recover from heroin addiction while continuing with voluntary work on a feminist magazine collective. Presumably the mag part was autobiographical, I don't know if the drug bit was too.

I don't remember Fab in comic/magazine form but had at least one of their annuals though can't remember the details.

SolidGoldBrass, it might be worth asking on your local Freecycle or something if anyone still has copies they don't want before they get the recycling collected.