None of the Magazines I Loved Still Exist

By: Gabriela Yareliz

Us 90s girls— we all wanted to be a rom-com journalist when we were kids. I would be lying if I said otherwise. We lived in the golden era of magazines. Magazines shaped me deeply. I spent hours, HOURS, cutting collages and making wall posters and binder covers.

I just thought we would look at some of the magazines that were so iconic in my youth- all print versions defunct.

I think we need a renaissance. The kids are weird these days, and it’s because we have thrown away everything that is golden.

The American Girl Magazine (1992-2019)

It included art work from readers, craft ideas, the Giggle Gang games and excerpts from Amelia’s Notebook (my fav). I still remember this spring issue. I died (and went to heaven) when it arrived.

A classic.

Next, Teen People (1998-2006). This was one that had us all fan girling over the cover shoots. Never forget these iconic covers. The interviews were substantive compared to other teeny bopper magazines. We got the tea.

Cosmo Girl (1999-2008)— the quizzes were everything. These issues would teach you how to stir the pot with your crush. Ha. We felt very grown up reading these. This was the Gossip Girl version of magazines for teens. Toxic but glossy.

Seventeen Magazine (1944-2018)

This was probably my favorite one in my teen years. It had a letter from the Editor-in-Chief Atoosa Rubenstein. (Atoosa was everything!!) I will never forget when I wrote to her by email, and she replied. You don’t forget those things. It meant the world to me. She had a very distinctive writing voice. We had just moved to Florida. If my mom said I could get a mag, this is the one I reached for. I taped that email reply to the wall. God bless, Seventeen. For all of its flaws, it was an anchor for many of us.

Magazines ran the late 90s and early 2000s. Digital is not the same. There was nothing like sniffing those perfume sample pages and taking a scissor to a crisp photograph that you thought needed to be immortalized with a spot on the wall.

It’s not so much that we wanted to be the featured celebrity. No. We wanted to be the editor. Some of us still want to be Jenna Rink.