The Magazine Habit

I have been a huge fan of magazines ever since I was 11 years old and my mom bought me my first copy of ‘Teen. Do they even make that magazine anymore? I have no idea.

After I got hooked on ‘Teen, I then progressed to Seventeen and YM (remember when they changed it, so that it would stand for “Young & Modern” instead of “Young Miss”?) and Sassy. Remember Sassy?

I used to sequester myself in my bedroom (shutting out my poor little sister) and read magazines for hours on weekends and in the summertime. I would read the same issues over and over again, even after I had my own subscriptions. To this day, I can still remember the names of some of the girls in ‘Teen’s Great Model Search and some of the models who had their start in Seventeen. I remember when Angie Harmon won the Seventeen model search and when Jennifer Connelly was one of their models. A few years back, I saw Andrea Robinson on that TV show “Doc” with Billy Ray Cyrus, and I felt like I knew her personally—I’d seen her picture hundreds of times in ‘Teen when I was young.

I remember how I always thought those model search contestants seemed so much older than I was. I was 11, 12, 13. They were 16 and 17. So old! Now I realize, of course, that they were practically babies! (This is the perspective one gets when one becomes a mother and hits one’s 30s.)

[Ooh, look! I found this picture of me reading Sassy at my aunt and uncle's house in Sacramento. It was summer of 1989, and my favorite cousin, Jenny, and I were hanging out in her room, reading magazines and talking about BOYS!]

Eventually I went off to college, and my brother burned all my magazines in the burn barrel with the rest of the household garbage. But not before I had a chance to tear out some of my favorite pictures and articles. I still have those. Mostly, I kept the fiction stories from ‘Teen. Those were the kinds of stories I wanted to write someday—they always featured a heroine with a big crush, and they always featured a happy ending wherein the heroine finally got the guy she wanted. . .the very thing I longed for in my own life.

I’m still a magazine junkie. But now I’ve progressed from magazines for teenage girls to magazines for grown-up women trying to keep house and raise families. My tastes and values have changed over time, and I’ve dumped any subscriptions that don’t fit in with who I’m becoming.

And though I continually strive to embrace life rather than whittle it away by reading, I know I will probably never be able to entirely drop my magazine habit.

I saved all my old Victoria’s (and am thrilled that it is being published again); but most magazines I recycle, save for whatever recipes, gardening tips, or cool decorating ideas I want to rip out and (ostensibly) refer to later. And occasionally I’ll find a really special article or story that bears sharing with a friend or reading again some day, and so I’ll save that as well.

But here’s the thing: I am a busy wife and mother. I don’t have time anymore to sit on my bed and read magazines for hours. I sneak in my mag-time at the kitchen table, while I eat breakfast or feed the kids lunch; in the bathroom; or at McDonald’s, when we take the boys there for lunch and let them run around in the Playland for a while.

So I’m a bit behind on my magazine reading. As my subscriptions arrive in the mail, I put them in a basket near my nightstand, in chronological order. I try to alternate my reading—one new issue, then one old issue. Sometimes I might have a two or three going at once.

Right now I’m going through the December issues of Martha Stewart Living and Country Home.

But I wonder: Aside from a few poor souls in the waiting rooms at medical offices and oil change places, am I the only one who is currently reading the July issue of Better Homes and Gardens?

On the bright side, at least I have a head start on decorating my house for the 4th next year!