Womens Magazines of Yesteryear.

I think mum used to have Woman and Woman's Own, as I remember reading them, but didn't buy them, in the 1950's.
Dad had Titbits and Reveille, and looked very like Andy Capp, with his everlasting fag hanging from his bottom lip.
Later I tried the Women's magazines again, but they had changed so much.
Then I had a subscription to Good Housekeeping for ages, but the articles came around and around.
So, I don't buy anything regularly now, just the occasional House Style type thing .

I remember the squares of newspaper and magazines in the outside lavatory as well Flexagon also the huge spiders who lived in there.

Yep, those too, sodapop. Never a place I wanted to linger. I don't know what was worse. Inky bum, Izal scratchy bum or arachnophobia. We finally got an inside lav in 1968.

I have a huge pile of magazines, mainly dating back to the early 80s. I am loathe to throw them out before I've read them again and cut out any recipes.

They are mainly Cosmopolitan, She and Good Housekeeping. I would pick one up whenever I came to the UK.

It is surprising what I remember when I leaf through them, and it is very sad sometimes to see articles about people in their prime who are now no longer with us. (E. g. Villa Black, Diana Rigg, Farrah Fawcett, Paula Yates.

The hair! The make-up! The shoulder pads!

When I was little my mother took Woman which I enjoyed reading (when I'd finished my "June and School Friend" )

Cilla Black, of course. Sorry, typo or predictive text...

(it changed it again - good job I noticed this time!)

I bought ‘Petticoat’ from about 1966, (or my mum bought it for me). It seemed very trendy and hip, ‘Kathy’s Crowd’, all about a young woman living in a flat in London, working in an upmarket office or publishers, going out with her boss, parties, it was like another world to little old me, living in a rural backwater.

I still have all my old copies in the loft, occasionally look through them and feel very nostalgic as I peruse fashion pics of Twiggy in her heyday, and pop groups/film stars, who are now in their 80’s, if not deceased!

Looks like She was the most missed Magazine, I too was a fan.
I don't buy any now just bit I enjoy going to the Hairdressers as they have a good selection, all recently bought. Pleased to say they have restarted buying them post Covid.

I remember reading Marty and Valentine in my early teens, then moving on to pop hits type ones later, desperate to read all about the Beatles and Stones' love life! My mum bought My Weekly, and for some reason, I got a bit hooked on Life And The Wadhams, a weekly fiction story about an ideal family! Polly, Mike and their 3 perfect kids.....

Another She fan here.
When I was little my mother had a pile of magazines (given to her) I expect, which were all short love stories, I don’t know what they were called, or if they were suitable for a child, but I devoured them all.

Might it have been True Story?

Clawdy, I remember My Weekly as well. My mum got it every week and I also read it after I had read my teen magazine. You've brought back some happy memories!

Sara1954

Might it have been True Story?

I think it was but before that I bought Boyfriend with my paper round money.

My mum used to get Woman and Womans Own when I lived at home. My grandma got Woman’s Realm. Mum moved on to the older type ones Woman’s Weekly and My Weekly in later years.
I read a few for free on the Libby App from my local library. Currently I have Woman And Home, Prima, Good Housekeeping and Italia magazines. I used to have Women’s Fitness but lazy me never got round to reading it. I like the online format as if there are any articles or recipes etc that take my fancy I can just screenshot it rather than tear out bits of paper that pile up and can never find a home for.

TerriBull - I couldn’t agree with you more. The Sunday Times Style magazine is the most pretentious load of twaddle I’ve ever seen. Full of the most hideous clothes ever, displayed on models that look like they’ve just come from a Hammer House of Horror film set. All moody expressions or looking like the undead.
And the relationship advice column ! Words fail me.

But I always enjoy looking at it for about a minute before tearing it in half and chucking it in the bin. It makes for a satisfying start to Sunday !

I love interior design magazines but cant justify the expenditure nowadays. ( and my house is a hovel )

I used to buy a lot of magazines till I realised how many books I could buy with the money.
Now I only buy Home Decor magazines, but they seem all much the same these days, fifty shades of white.

Nova and She were my favourite magazines. I don’t think there is anything comparable to them nowadays and I haven’t bought a magazine for years.

I used to like She, but stopped buying mags years ago, after I once counted the percentage of ads - something like 70%! I still look at Homes and Gardens types at the dentist.

Unfortunately my hairdresser only ever seems to have the likes of Hello! I’ve hardly ever even heard of so many of the ‘celebs’ they gush about.

Talking of yesteryear, it was still decades ago, but my mother had for some reason kept a very old Woman’s Realm IIRC, probably from the 1950s - I still remember vividly an ad for Rinso - who else remembers that?

It showed a girl in a party dress that looked incredibly old fashioned even then, with a delighted looking mother standing by - ‘Off to a party in her freshly Rinso-washed frock!’

If you’re a member of your local library check if they do Libby or other ebook services. I can get all the (existing) magazines mentioned plus many more absolutely free. I cancelled all my subscriptions and now browse magazines I would never have considered buying, or had even heard of, for hours.

I loved SHE too.

I used to read Honey and 19 avidly in the late sixties/early seventies, but now I really wonder about them. The relentless pushing - or at least, normalising - of "permissive society" stuff makes me wonder if they were actually run by a cabal of dirty old men whose primary goal was to get young girls into bed.

You might like to know about a book written about magazines in the 20th century. It is a personal memoir, probably of more interest to media students and social historians as so much has changed since the millennium.

My mother read Woman’s Own, Woman’s Realm and Woman’s Weekly.

When I was very small there was also Woman's Illustrated.

All magazines went into the practice waiting-room when we had read them.

As far as I remember, questions to whoever edited the personal letter-box were answered privately if they touched on sexual habits, violence in the home or other such problems, or a summary of the answer was printed but not the reader's letter.

My mother didn't buy magazines, but as army life was very sociable I often accompanied my parents to all kinds of camp social events and clubs, where I would read anything I could get my hands on, Woman, Woman's Own, Readers Digest.

When I bought my own magazines, it was first Honey, then Vanity Fair and another magazine similar to VF, whose name I have forgotten, later on I can remember buying a magazine called Working Woman and later Options, that was the last women's magazine I bought. I got into house magazines much the same time as I started buying magazines and they have been my real love, so since I stopped buying Options that is more or less what I have stuck to.

I regularly stick to three nowadays, Platinum, Woman & Home, and Good Housekeeping. Boring, I suppose!

I used to love Family Circle Magazine - It was only sold through a supermarket. I think I used to get it from Sainsburys. I even had a small article published in it under the "Events that changed my life" section!

I subscribe to readly has a vast choice of every magazine and the added bonus of sharing the membership with 4 people. My husband has his motorbikes, my oldest grandson his odd ones and my girls their food celeb. My husband laughs ever Tuesday morning when I go through them all and renamed it trash mag day