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How Sassy Changed My Life: A Love Letter to the Greatest Teen Magazine of All Time
For a generation of teenage girls, Sassy magazine was nothing short of revolutionary―so much so that its audience, which stretched from tweens to twentysomething women, remains obsessed with it to this day and back issues are sold for hefty sums on the Internet. For its brief but brilliant run from 1988 to 1994, Sassy was the arbiter of all that was hip and cool, inspiring a dogged devotion from its readers while almost single-handedly bringing the idea of girl culture to the mainstream. In the process, Sassy changed the face of teen magazines in the United States, paved the way for the unedited voice of blogs, and influenced the current crop of smart women's zines, such as Bust and Bitch , that currently hold sway.
How Sassy Changed My Life will present for the first time the inside story of the magazine's rise and fall while celebrating its unique vision and lasting impact. Through interviews with the staff, columnists, and favorite personalities we are brought behind the scenes from its launch to its final issue and witness its unique fusion of feminism and femininity, its frank commentary on taboo topics like teen sex and suicide, its battles with advertisers and the religious right, and the ascension of its writers from anonymous staffers to celebrities in their own right.
How Sassy Changed My Life will present for the first time the inside story of the magazine's rise and fall while celebrating its unique vision and lasting impact. Through interviews with the staff, columnists, and favorite personalities we are brought behind the scenes from its launch to its final issue and witness its unique fusion of feminism and femininity, its frank commentary on taboo topics like teen sex and suicide, its battles with advertisers and the religious right, and the ascension of its writers from anonymous staffers to celebrities in their own right.
144 pages, Paperback
First published April 17, 2007
26 people are currently reading
1140 people want to read
About the author
Kara Jesella
1 book18 followersMarisa Meltzer is the co-author of How Sassy Changed My Life. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, New York magazine, Salon, Slate, SPIN, Entertainment Weekly, and People. "
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 158 reviews
February 17, 2010
i don't know that this book would hold together for someone who wasn't a sassy reader in its heyday - it would certainly lose a star, at least. i enjoyed the first two-thirds mostly out of nostalgia (not that i'm complaining; that's some good nostalgia right there), but it didn't seem really lively or insightful in its own right until it got to jane's defection, the petersen sale, and the "diaspora." the brief vignettes about the broken fruit chandelier, and about mary putting money aside to afford an office answering machine, were ten times as memorable as whole chapters from the first half of the book.
it was interesting to read the variety of comments from ex-readers and -staffers, which coalesced around two major points: 1. people had mixed feelings about sassy (i sympathized with the readers who lamented that they'd never felt they were actually cool enough to be reading it), but 2. nonetheless they were enormously influenced by it and still remember it with surprising intensity all these years later.
on a personal level, i found myself getting miffed by something about the book's attitude all the way through, and it wasn't until the last few pages that i was able to put my finger on it: the idea that our adult nostalgia for sassy is about "revisiting the fantasy of a liberated adult life that the magazine promised its teen readers, a life that seems harder to live as the inevitable compromises of adulthood become imminent....[i:]t's about longing for a time when you really believed that you would be able to live Sassy's ethos." like...no, not really. if anything, i've gotten more idealistic in my old age, and have found it easier and easier to disengage from the pop culture world that sassy always kept one foot in. (this is probably why i never cared about bust, lucky, and most of the other sassy-esque publications that followed.)
but i sure wish i hadn't thrown away my entire sassy collection back in the mid-'90s.
it was interesting to read the variety of comments from ex-readers and -staffers, which coalesced around two major points: 1. people had mixed feelings about sassy (i sympathized with the readers who lamented that they'd never felt they were actually cool enough to be reading it), but 2. nonetheless they were enormously influenced by it and still remember it with surprising intensity all these years later.
on a personal level, i found myself getting miffed by something about the book's attitude all the way through, and it wasn't until the last few pages that i was able to put my finger on it: the idea that our adult nostalgia for sassy is about "revisiting the fantasy of a liberated adult life that the magazine promised its teen readers, a life that seems harder to live as the inevitable compromises of adulthood become imminent....[i:]t's about longing for a time when you really believed that you would be able to live Sassy's ethos." like...no, not really. if anything, i've gotten more idealistic in my old age, and have found it easier and easier to disengage from the pop culture world that sassy always kept one foot in. (this is probably why i never cared about bust, lucky, and most of the other sassy-esque publications that followed.)
but i sure wish i hadn't thrown away my entire sassy collection back in the mid-'90s.
December 6, 2007
Perhaps unsurprisingly, I was a Sassy girl. Though I was a wee bit young for the demographic, being only nine or ten when the magazine started publishing and sixteen or so when it stopped, I loved my every issue of Sassy. It spoke to me. It taught me. It understood my freaky teen aged self.
And, according to Kara Jesella and Marisa Meltzer, authors of How Sassy Changed My Life: A Love Letter to the Greatest Teen Magazine of All Time, I was very much not alone. They posit that there are a whole nation of us Sassy girls, including luminaries like Bitch founders Andi Zeisler and Lisa Jervis and Bust creator Debbie Stoller, all of whom credit Sassy as a major influence in their work. And the book, as much as being about Sassy, is about us.
As fair warning, this book is not an intellectual criticism of Sassy or the articles that ran in it. While there is certainly history here (Jesella and Meltzer talked to nearly everyone ever involved with the magazine), there is also a fair amount of nostalgia. And near hero-worship of Sassy's staff, particularly the indomitable Christina Kelly, who served first as Sassy's entertainment editor and then eventually as the managing editor. But the book never claims to be impartial--it says right in the title that it's a love letter--so I think that's OK.
Reading the book got me back into thinking about Sassy, and about how different it was to be a girl outside the mainstream in the late 80s and early 90s compared to now. Before Sassy, and the time period that spurred it (grunge and riot grrrl music, the advent of Generation X, etc.) there had for many years been very little commoditization of being "alternative", especially for girls. Sassy was, the book claims (and I agree), integral to making it hip to be weird by the mid-90s. And although that has certainly turned back on itself by now (emo?), I still think it was culturally positive. It certainly made it easier to be me going through high school.
When I did my undergrad thesis research on Ms. magazine in the 1970s, I was astounded at how much difference a magazine can make, especially to people in the middle of the country and outside cities, and especially before we all had the Internet to easily connect us to like-minded souls all over the place. Reading this book's account of Sassy readers, and remembering my own relationship with the magazine, I got the same feeling. Its major purpose wasn't entertaining me, or educating me, or introducing me to the cool new stuff, it was helping me realize that I wasn't alone.
Now that the Internet serves that purpose for many teens, I wonder if the heyday of magazines is really over? The book implies that it is, pointing out that the 90s zine revolution has been nearly completely replaced by blogs. Stupid as it may be, I'd never made this connection, but I think it's astute. And, again as the book points out, blogs are far more accessible to your average small town girl than zines, which had to be ordered through the postal service if you didn't have a hip local bookstore or coffee shop (which I certainly didn't). Which is good. But I still feel a pretty big pang of sadness to think of girls now not having the monthly mail thrill I got when my Sassy came.
So, if you are a teen magazine scholar of some sort, this book is probably going to bug you. However, if you're a nostalgic Sassy girl like me, you'll enjoy it. It's a quick easy read and gives a bit of behind-the-scenes dirt that is still exciting after all these years. And it will really make you wish you'd kept all those magazines, because you'll want to read them again and they are really expensive on Ebay.
And, according to Kara Jesella and Marisa Meltzer, authors of How Sassy Changed My Life: A Love Letter to the Greatest Teen Magazine of All Time, I was very much not alone. They posit that there are a whole nation of us Sassy girls, including luminaries like Bitch founders Andi Zeisler and Lisa Jervis and Bust creator Debbie Stoller, all of whom credit Sassy as a major influence in their work. And the book, as much as being about Sassy, is about us.
As fair warning, this book is not an intellectual criticism of Sassy or the articles that ran in it. While there is certainly history here (Jesella and Meltzer talked to nearly everyone ever involved with the magazine), there is also a fair amount of nostalgia. And near hero-worship of Sassy's staff, particularly the indomitable Christina Kelly, who served first as Sassy's entertainment editor and then eventually as the managing editor. But the book never claims to be impartial--it says right in the title that it's a love letter--so I think that's OK.
Reading the book got me back into thinking about Sassy, and about how different it was to be a girl outside the mainstream in the late 80s and early 90s compared to now. Before Sassy, and the time period that spurred it (grunge and riot grrrl music, the advent of Generation X, etc.) there had for many years been very little commoditization of being "alternative", especially for girls. Sassy was, the book claims (and I agree), integral to making it hip to be weird by the mid-90s. And although that has certainly turned back on itself by now (emo?), I still think it was culturally positive. It certainly made it easier to be me going through high school.
When I did my undergrad thesis research on Ms. magazine in the 1970s, I was astounded at how much difference a magazine can make, especially to people in the middle of the country and outside cities, and especially before we all had the Internet to easily connect us to like-minded souls all over the place. Reading this book's account of Sassy readers, and remembering my own relationship with the magazine, I got the same feeling. Its major purpose wasn't entertaining me, or educating me, or introducing me to the cool new stuff, it was helping me realize that I wasn't alone.
Now that the Internet serves that purpose for many teens, I wonder if the heyday of magazines is really over? The book implies that it is, pointing out that the 90s zine revolution has been nearly completely replaced by blogs. Stupid as it may be, I'd never made this connection, but I think it's astute. And, again as the book points out, blogs are far more accessible to your average small town girl than zines, which had to be ordered through the postal service if you didn't have a hip local bookstore or coffee shop (which I certainly didn't). Which is good. But I still feel a pretty big pang of sadness to think of girls now not having the monthly mail thrill I got when my Sassy came.
So, if you are a teen magazine scholar of some sort, this book is probably going to bug you. However, if you're a nostalgic Sassy girl like me, you'll enjoy it. It's a quick easy read and gives a bit of behind-the-scenes dirt that is still exciting after all these years. And it will really make you wish you'd kept all those magazines, because you'll want to read them again and they are really expensive on Ebay.
June 24, 2008
I must say, I was quite impressed with Kara Jasella and Marisa Meltzer’s almost completely objective take on Sassy. True story: I was talking with my husband about how we should have his high school-age JV cheerleader daughter read up on Sassy in a not-so-subtle attempt to steer her on a social course that would potentially be more diversified. Just after that conversation, I read “the dark side” in Chapter 6, “The Sassy Ethos,” which politely chastises the magazine for promoting a type of nonconformity that would ultimately become “a new uniformity.” Hailing baby doll dress- and Doc Marten-wearing zine-makers as the end all be all, Sassy’s writers tended to cast cheerleaders, for instance, as stupid and one-dimensional, regardless of the existence of peppy girls with 4.5 GPAs, who planned to attend prestigious women’s colleges and later run for the senate. (After that little reality check, I couldn’t help but reassess my own selfish agenda for my stepdaughter. Perhaps watching Rory Gilmore grow up is a better option?)
Thanks to a bunch of great insider interviews, the book doesn’t fail to reveal the good, the bad, and the ugly of Sassy’s rise and fall. It tells a story I certainly wasn’t aware of—and it left me longing for my old issues.
Thanks to a bunch of great insider interviews, the book doesn’t fail to reveal the good, the bad, and the ugly of Sassy’s rise and fall. It tells a story I certainly wasn’t aware of—and it left me longing for my old issues.
January 5, 2011
After reading this I'm now searching ebay for old copies of Sassy magazine since we didn't have it in Australia. Apparently the original format was based on Australian teen magazine Dolly which is weird because Sassy was ground-breaking and political and really fucking cool whereas I remember reading Dolly as a kid and it was just the standard teen magazine bullshit.
I really loved this book, most of all the chapters about the riot grrrl movement and zine reviews and the whole Olympia scene, it transported me back to when I was 12 or 13 and first discovered riot grrrl and 3rd wave feminism and all that good stuff. I love reading about early 90s pop culture in general so if you're not really into that stuff you'll probably be bored by it but I personally really enjoyed it.
I really loved this book, most of all the chapters about the riot grrrl movement and zine reviews and the whole Olympia scene, it transported me back to when I was 12 or 13 and first discovered riot grrrl and 3rd wave feminism and all that good stuff. I love reading about early 90s pop culture in general so if you're not really into that stuff you'll probably be bored by it but I personally really enjoyed it.
August 28, 2007
I read this in one sitting while at Borders. The font is HUGE, making it possible to read the entire thing in about 20 minutes.
I was disappointed in the book. As a girl who read Sassy growing up, the title of this book seemed really promising. The "love letter" is basically just a summary of what the magazine was all about and how it compared to other mags like Seventeen. I didn't really find anything that new or interesting in this book. I would have given it one star, but it was such a quick read, that I don't feel I wasted much of my life on it.
I was disappointed in the book. As a girl who read Sassy growing up, the title of this book seemed really promising. The "love letter" is basically just a summary of what the magazine was all about and how it compared to other mags like Seventeen. I didn't really find anything that new or interesting in this book. I would have given it one star, but it was such a quick read, that I don't feel I wasted much of my life on it.
December 24, 2010
When I first saw this book, I thought, "wait, did I write that?" Because Sassy really did change my life, coming along at the exact time when I was becoming dissatisfied with the media available to me as a preteen (1988, to be exact). I have to admit wasn't one of the diehard fans who stayed with the magazine until the end- at a certain point (right around the time the font changed, as I remember) I was starting to move on (I wasn't sure if I was changing or the magazine was changing), but for a while there those women were giving me exactly what I needed in the time when the internet was not around in any useful way, I hadn't discovered zines, and I wasn't quite old enough to get to NYC to find out that there was culture beyond the mainstream. They really did make me feel like I was part of a special club even though I was kind of an outsider in my day-to-day life, and I think it's actually true- everyone who loved this magazine seems to be part of this special club, at least that's one of the things I got out of reading this book- there are lots of random testimonials, many of which sound like they could have come out of my own mouth. And everyone had their own favorite writer, like, I was totally in love with Christina Kelly, who I think was the crowd favorite, but I also had a special place in my heart for Catherine Gysin. My favorite part of reading this book was looking at the photo on the outside of the spines of all the old issues and recognizing them like they were still sitting on my bookshelves (which they are unfortunately not- I have never forgotten about them, how do I get along without them?) I also found it strangely interesting to hear about all the articles I remember reading and rereading from the perspective of the inside and about all the pressures from the corporate sponsors going on at the same time that eventually led to the magazine's demise. The book also talks about the disappointment of Jane Pratt's follow-up magazine, Jane, but how could we not be disappointed when the magazine we all loved was something that maybe shouldn't have existed within the big magazine culture and only did exist for these short sparkling moments when we were young and totally primed for exactly those people to come in and talk to us in exactly that way? What was missing from this book? Well, I wished I could have gotten more tidbits about all the other articles that weren't mentioned but that I can still see in my mind's eye and maybe more about one of my favorite columns, the one about how to make your own clothes, but that might have been tedious and as it was the book was appropriately short and I appreciate that. (Really, they should just republish the whole magazine year-by-year in all it original glossy wonderfulness and then we'd all be happy.) I don't know if this book has anything for people who did not love this magazine but I don't think it was written for those people anyway, so that's not really a shortcoming.
November 9, 2008
this book goes behind the scenes at "sassy" magazine & explains how it got started (it was based on an off-kilter teen magazine for girls in australia), what made it different from the other teen mags of its era, & what happened on that fateful day in early 1995 when girls across the country found a new issue in their mailboxes after a mysterious three-month absence, only to discover the content of "teen" magazine lurking between the covers. i was a "sassy" subscriber in the early 90s, & i feverishly anticipated my new issues every month, obsessively reading & re-reading them cover-to-cover, even though i lived in oak harbor, ohio at the time & surely would have been burnt at the stake if i'd gone to school with kool-aid in my hair, or rocking the cut-off neck of a tutleneck sweater as a hat or something. & i was still a subscriber when peterson publishing (the house behind "teen") bought "sassy" & attempted to dramatically re-format the content to suit advertisers who had bailed on "sassy" for being too forward about sex & the lameness of prom & all that goofy teen girl stuff. & after that devastating first buy-out issue, i cancelled my subscription & nothing was ever the same. after i loaned the infamous kurt & courtney issue to a friend, who left it in the backseat of her boyfriend's dad's car, never to be seen again, my love affair with "sassy" came to a close. & then this book came out & re-ignited the spark a little. it was definitely interesting to read all about the publishing machinations behind the scenes, & how everyone kind of hated jane a little bit, etc etc, but i wish this book would have had a little more substance. it was kind like a magazine itself, with big font & columned pages & lots of gossip-y intrigue. maybe the next book about "sassy" will be better.
December 23, 2008
When I was a teen, I actually hated Sassy..I thought it was the worst of all the teen magazines and this book really brought back why... it was a depressing, nasty read written by the type of girl who was never pretty and resented those who were. This book also reveals that one of the main goals of these writers was to influence girls to be pro-abortion and pro-gay. They also mentioned how they wanted staff & fans to be politically and socially active but ONLY if they were active in left wing organizations....any difference of opinion was not tolerated. They admit to severely bashing Shannen Doherty for being a Republican. Typical "open- minded" liberal. Open to their own point of view...must crush anyone with a differing thought! It was a crappy, self-righteous magazine that's only saving grace was some of the music artists it featured.
April 30, 2007
Back when I was a shy, awkward teenager who didn't fit into my small high school, Sassy magazine was my savior. It was written and edited by smart, outspoken women (and men) who weren't afraid to call themselves feminists. Sassy brought underground culture to small town girls like me who didn't have a cool big sister or older friend to show her the ropes. Sassy was written for the girl who didn't want to go to the prom, or who did, but wore combat boots and a vintage dress. The authors of this book has basically penned a love letter to this short lived, amazing magazine. It covers the very beginnings to the sad demise, to the new wave of Sassy inspired magazines, such as Bust and Bitch (but not so much Jane). Sassy, you still hold a place in my heart, and this book satisfied the 16 yr old in me.
July 9, 2011
I checked this book out after my cousin's boss (male, 50+) made some crack about this magazine. We both mocked his obvious lack of respect for "Sassy" because (duh!) it actually was the "Greatest Teen Magazine of All Time." Knowing the behind the scenes information and the influence the magazine had on current blog writers and zines made our mocking much more delicious.
Also, this book makes me wish I had kept my old issues. Bummer.
Also, this book makes me wish I had kept my old issues. Bummer.
February 17, 2010
It took me a long time to get through this book. I kept putting it down. Now I have to pay late fees! I am getting so bad. I was okay with late fees because it's like, free to use the library you know? So late fees are alright as income-generating for such an awesome service. But now I'm a homeowner and holy crap, I actually DO pay for the library! I saw it on my taxes. So maybe I should get better about late fees and return books on time.
Anyway, about this actual book. It feels good to hold this book, like a really sturdy magazine, but not too heavy to carry around with you. This is, as the title proclaims, a love letter to th greatest teen magazine of all time - which means that every page is dripping with love, admiration, desire, and positivity about the magazine. In the last chapter or two, where the magazine starts to fade and everything falls apart, the authors are more upfront about the major issues with Sassy (Jane Pratt's ego, advertiser problems, representation and perception of race, selling out, etc etc etc etc). But otherwise, this is a complete and total love fest. This is mostly about the rise and fall of the magazine, the major players who made it happen, the conversations and pivotal moments, and a little bit from fans and how it affected their lives, careers, expectations, adulthoods, hometowns, and educations. There could have been more from the fans, honestly, about how Sassy changed their lives. I mean, it is in the title of the book.... but the history was interesting, and the authors do a passably good job of situating Sassy in the particular cultural moment that made it all possible.
And because you can't talk about this book without talking about the magazine - Sassy, the magazine, was a sort of private haven in my childhood. I remember my friend Andrea had a subscription before anyone else I knew, and I thought it was a sure sign that she was just a luckier, better, cooler person than I was. My parents would never get me subscription to Sassy (or any other teen mags - not in the budget), but I did walk to the public library after school and spend hours reading old issues of Sassy. My public library had ALL the Sassy issues, and it was AWESOME. I hope they still have that collection. It's worth serious BANK now on E-bay. I felt like Sassy was this little pretentious alienating smugly superior window of coolness in a world I would never really have access to. Even though I eventually moved away from the small rural southern town I grew up in, and I lived in big, cool cities with exciting music scenes, and I saw all the bands and made my own t-shirts decorated with silkscreened designs and sharpies, I cannot live in NY in the late 80s or early 90s. Wrong place, wrong time. But even though Sassy had this smug, annoying, irritating superiority complex and created a great deficit of coolness in my own perception of myself, it was by far the most lucid of all the teenage girl magazines available when I was growing up. It may have made me feel uncool, but at least it didn't make me feel like I was supposed to be stupid, vapid, completely whitewashed and braindead and sucked into a superskinny vortex where all of us girls were either frigid or a slut and everyone was too fat -- which is really how I felt when I read YM or Seventeen or whatever. I felt like a sum of my flaws. But Sassy, even though as the reader you were clearly insignificant and inconsequential next to the ego of Sassy, Sassy at least had interesting girls doing different types of things, and a bad, nose-thumbing attitude that permeated pretty much every aspect of how i manifested my impending adulthood. So, while I can look back and take major issue with a lot of things about Sassy, this is about the love part of our relationship, and for all the good stuff, all the best that Sassy could be and was, thanks.
Anyway, about this actual book. It feels good to hold this book, like a really sturdy magazine, but not too heavy to carry around with you. This is, as the title proclaims, a love letter to th greatest teen magazine of all time - which means that every page is dripping with love, admiration, desire, and positivity about the magazine. In the last chapter or two, where the magazine starts to fade and everything falls apart, the authors are more upfront about the major issues with Sassy (Jane Pratt's ego, advertiser problems, representation and perception of race, selling out, etc etc etc etc). But otherwise, this is a complete and total love fest. This is mostly about the rise and fall of the magazine, the major players who made it happen, the conversations and pivotal moments, and a little bit from fans and how it affected their lives, careers, expectations, adulthoods, hometowns, and educations. There could have been more from the fans, honestly, about how Sassy changed their lives. I mean, it is in the title of the book.... but the history was interesting, and the authors do a passably good job of situating Sassy in the particular cultural moment that made it all possible.
And because you can't talk about this book without talking about the magazine - Sassy, the magazine, was a sort of private haven in my childhood. I remember my friend Andrea had a subscription before anyone else I knew, and I thought it was a sure sign that she was just a luckier, better, cooler person than I was. My parents would never get me subscription to Sassy (or any other teen mags - not in the budget), but I did walk to the public library after school and spend hours reading old issues of Sassy. My public library had ALL the Sassy issues, and it was AWESOME. I hope they still have that collection. It's worth serious BANK now on E-bay. I felt like Sassy was this little pretentious alienating smugly superior window of coolness in a world I would never really have access to. Even though I eventually moved away from the small rural southern town I grew up in, and I lived in big, cool cities with exciting music scenes, and I saw all the bands and made my own t-shirts decorated with silkscreened designs and sharpies, I cannot live in NY in the late 80s or early 90s. Wrong place, wrong time. But even though Sassy had this smug, annoying, irritating superiority complex and created a great deficit of coolness in my own perception of myself, it was by far the most lucid of all the teenage girl magazines available when I was growing up. It may have made me feel uncool, but at least it didn't make me feel like I was supposed to be stupid, vapid, completely whitewashed and braindead and sucked into a superskinny vortex where all of us girls were either frigid or a slut and everyone was too fat -- which is really how I felt when I read YM or Seventeen or whatever. I felt like a sum of my flaws. But Sassy, even though as the reader you were clearly insignificant and inconsequential next to the ego of Sassy, Sassy at least had interesting girls doing different types of things, and a bad, nose-thumbing attitude that permeated pretty much every aspect of how i manifested my impending adulthood. So, while I can look back and take major issue with a lot of things about Sassy, this is about the love part of our relationship, and for all the good stuff, all the best that Sassy could be and was, thanks.
February 18, 2008
So I didn't actually realize at the time that the magazine was that "different" or "revolutionary" than its contemporaries, but I did used to read my younger sister's Sassys once in a while, and although I noticed that they would reference less-than-mainstream topics like riot grrrl or indie bands, for some reason I was under the naive impression that all teen girls' magazines did the same. I might have first heard of Magnapop through the "Cute Band Alert," but can't be sure. One time my bandmate, Mike, made the joke that if we ever got in the magazine, it would be in a new section, retitled "Ugly Band Warning." That was pretty funny. It is kind of shocking to see the bands that were profiled by writer Christina Kelly in that section, including, but not limited to: Guided by Voices, Superchunk, The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Bikini Kill, Blonde Redhead, Chavez, Heavenly, Sloan, Ween and That Dog. Halfway throgh the book, I decided I was in love with Kelly, even though she's now in her 40's, I don't know what she looks like, and three different magazines have tanked with her as editor-in-chief. Ouch. The real kicker for me in this book was the short section about my dear lamented "Dirt," which was the incredible, yet short-lived and obscure brother magazine, which only lasted 6 sporatic issues, and could only be found poly-bagged with certain issues of Sassy and a couple Spiderman comic books. It was the creation of three dudes, including Spike Jonze, who later went on to direct famous videos like "Sabotage" by the Beastie Boys, "Cannonball" by the Breeders, and "Feel the Pain" by Dinosaur Jr., as well as movies such as "Being John Malkovich. "Dirt" totally spoke to the alienated teenage boy in all of us with articles kind of paralleling Sassy's, in that they were about issues facing teens, but aimed at an audience that didn't quite fit in, or whose tastes were less-than-mainstream. One cover story was called "How to Win a Fight." An advice column called "Dear Girl" answered readers' letters and featured a different host each time, including Janeane Garofalo and ex-porn star Traci Lords. One issue was simply a hodgepodge of writing and photos from a massive cross-country road trip the staff undertook together, including a taste-test guide to Canadian candybars, which I reenacted when I visited Toronto years later. An article mentioned Superchunk in passing, without actually saying anything about the band, but because I trusted the writers and thought the name sounded cool, I bought "Foolish" the next day. I started my own brilliant publication in 1996 called "Pat: The Magazine for Guys" (patmagazine.com) that wasn't really influenced by "Dirt" but maybe it was a little bit. I looked on ebay for old copies of Sassy, but they're like $50. Anyway, here's to being nostalgic for a shitty time.
September 12, 2011
This week’s headline? America’s sassiest girls
Why this book? yet more nostalgia
Which book format? remaindered first edition
Primary reading environment? late at night
Any preconceived notions? not a subscriber
Identify most with? reader Lara Zeises
Three-word quote? “triangulate [their audience]”
Goes well with? craving roasted marshmallows(?)
As a former Teen reader, I was prepared to do battle with this book. Yet every time I tried to say “Yeah, but…” the writers beat me to it. And they won me over.
Teen, though apparently not as bad as Seventeen, trumpeted everything that is evil about mainstream culture. It’s the reason I hate myself.
If I had read Sassy, the story goes, I would have developed personality. I could have been part of something as significant as Woodstock.
Jesella and Meltzer do offer a nice balance: a section about Sassy’s indie cred is immediately followed by a take-down of the way Sassy flaunted its coolness and invited alternative girls to form their own mean cliques.
This is the noxious cloud Sassy left in its wake. It’s why I was apprehensive about this book.
It’s a damn good read though.
I still don’t believe that a magazine can produce a generation of strong, independent-minded women. It’s a magazine; its very life force is groupthink. And advertising dollars.
I know for a fact, though, that at least two Sassy readers became smart, talented writers.
Jesella and Meltzer live the life Sassy promised them, and that’s the lasting legacy of the magazine — at least among the literati.
I was 12 when Sassy was sold and restructured; it was absorbed by Teen two years later. I’m too young to have really gotten Sassy in its heyday.
But the night I finished this book, I lied awake until 3 in the morning, thinking about the homemade music video I directed in middle school. It was set to Beck's Loser and featured my friends wearing bandanas and terrorizing our country club neighborhood.
For a Teen, I guess I did have a little DIY Sassyness about me after all.
Other cultural accompaniments: http://jezebel.com/5602551/on-finding..., http://www.thestylerookie.com/2010/04...,
Grade: A
I leave you with this: “Zits are beauty marks.” —Kurt Cobain
Why this book? yet more nostalgia
Which book format? remaindered first edition
Primary reading environment? late at night
Any preconceived notions? not a subscriber
Identify most with? reader Lara Zeises
Three-word quote? “triangulate [their audience]”
Goes well with? craving roasted marshmallows(?)
As a former Teen reader, I was prepared to do battle with this book. Yet every time I tried to say “Yeah, but…” the writers beat me to it. And they won me over.
Teen, though apparently not as bad as Seventeen, trumpeted everything that is evil about mainstream culture. It’s the reason I hate myself.
If I had read Sassy, the story goes, I would have developed personality. I could have been part of something as significant as Woodstock.
Jesella and Meltzer do offer a nice balance: a section about Sassy’s indie cred is immediately followed by a take-down of the way Sassy flaunted its coolness and invited alternative girls to form their own mean cliques.
This is the noxious cloud Sassy left in its wake. It’s why I was apprehensive about this book.
It’s a damn good read though.
I still don’t believe that a magazine can produce a generation of strong, independent-minded women. It’s a magazine; its very life force is groupthink. And advertising dollars.
I know for a fact, though, that at least two Sassy readers became smart, talented writers.
Jesella and Meltzer live the life Sassy promised them, and that’s the lasting legacy of the magazine — at least among the literati.
I was 12 when Sassy was sold and restructured; it was absorbed by Teen two years later. I’m too young to have really gotten Sassy in its heyday.
But the night I finished this book, I lied awake until 3 in the morning, thinking about the homemade music video I directed in middle school. It was set to Beck's Loser and featured my friends wearing bandanas and terrorizing our country club neighborhood.
For a Teen, I guess I did have a little DIY Sassyness about me after all.
Other cultural accompaniments: http://jezebel.com/5602551/on-finding..., http://www.thestylerookie.com/2010/04...,
Grade: A
I leave you with this: “Zits are beauty marks.” —Kurt Cobain
April 27, 2010
Despite a somewhat misleading title, I really enjoyed this book. To me, it was more of an arm's length, academic treatment of the rise and fall of Sassy magazine than a love letter to the publication. Still, the authors did a great job of painting a picture of how the magazine got off the ground due to just a few handpicked twenty-somethings in the late eighties. I wish the authors would have continued in this vein and gone even deeper into what it was like in the Sassy offices on a daily basis, including featuring excerpts from actual articles and photos of the staffers and magazine covers. That's where the book fails, I think--the authors spend the first several chapters building up the magazine's story and that makes you want to go straight to the source--Sassy itself. Unless you're one of the few people who still has their collection, you're out of luck.
This magazine was really the first to speak to female teens as girls headed toward adulthood instead of just silly teens fawning over boys and makeup. It didn't dumb down the articles, concern itself with covering every single beauty product known to womankind, or shy away from discussing sex. This ultimately led to its demise, which is sad but not surprising.
As a Sassy subscriber for three or four years, I can't go so far as to say that the magazine changed my life, but it did influence me positively. I remember pouring over each issue when it arrived and feeling validated when each month the staffers made it clear that it was cool to be a smart, opinionated, quirky girl--and NOT a cookie-cutter cheerleader. I can only hope that a similar magazine will exist if/when I have a daughter--but I'm not holding my breath. I'm afraid that Sassy was one of a kind.
[Hmmm, so maybe I should start a magazine...:]
This magazine was really the first to speak to female teens as girls headed toward adulthood instead of just silly teens fawning over boys and makeup. It didn't dumb down the articles, concern itself with covering every single beauty product known to womankind, or shy away from discussing sex. This ultimately led to its demise, which is sad but not surprising.
As a Sassy subscriber for three or four years, I can't go so far as to say that the magazine changed my life, but it did influence me positively. I remember pouring over each issue when it arrived and feeling validated when each month the staffers made it clear that it was cool to be a smart, opinionated, quirky girl--and NOT a cookie-cutter cheerleader. I can only hope that a similar magazine will exist if/when I have a daughter--but I'm not holding my breath. I'm afraid that Sassy was one of a kind.
[Hmmm, so maybe I should start a magazine...:]
March 30, 2011
Although I started reading this book over a month ago, it only took me about 2 hours in total to complete. It's a quick read, and it isn't so much a love story as a long Wikipedia article about the history of Sassy. It was a nice trip down memory lane, though. And I am sad that I got rid of my copies long ago.
It was interesting to learn of some of the behind the scene mechanics that built the magazine and brought it down. Most surprising was how Jane Pratt apparently checked out after fives years. I hadn't noticed the difference, but I was in college by then so I probably had moved on, too. I definitely wasn't reading the magazine late '94/'95 when it was bought by the Teen magazine publishers and was completely overhauled. What a shame.
I did a little research and learned that Christina Kelly started a blog last year, Fallen Princess. I will be checking that out. Jane will be launching JanePratt.com in the coming months.
It was interesting to learn of some of the behind the scene mechanics that built the magazine and brought it down. Most surprising was how Jane Pratt apparently checked out after fives years. I hadn't noticed the difference, but I was in college by then so I probably had moved on, too. I definitely wasn't reading the magazine late '94/'95 when it was bought by the Teen magazine publishers and was completely overhauled. What a shame.
I did a little research and learned that Christina Kelly started a blog last year, Fallen Princess. I will be checking that out. Jane will be launching JanePratt.com in the coming months.
July 8, 2016
I was born after Sassy's original run ended, but I've always heard about its mythical presence. I didn't really know what this book was gonna be about, but I figured as a 90's alt culture aficionado, it was right up my alley. Needless to say, it satisfied my interests. The 90's marked a time when interests began to get broken up into extreme small subcultures due to the advent of cable TV and the Internet and this book explains why that mindset can't really work out too well anymore. As someone who has had many of my interests fizzle out or flop after a few years, such as Degrassi or Teennick or reading about MTV's decline, this book taught me that life -and pop culture- moves on and it's more important to be a creator than a consumer. I liked how it was nostalgic but didn't shy over their messy moments, like having an overly white perspective or mob mentality against the mainstream.
May 4, 2007
I did not learn anything from this book. Reading a book written by people who read the same magazine as you when you were little is, well, not pointless, but not real point-ful either.
I am just freaked out by nostalgia and attempts to justify it. Yes, this magazine did actually change my life, and I can see how someone who became a writer would want to document that fact. And yes I was really excited to get it in the mail from Amanda. And yes I probably am a writer (to the extent that I am... what, a blog is writing?) because of this magazine. But the book is a show, not a tell. And it's written by someone just like me, which is the worst thing I could force myself to read! (Is this true? Did I crave this when I was young?)It's like listening to a Weezer tribute album by bands with names like Cio Cio San. Empowerment is great in general but it certainly leads to a glut!
I am just freaked out by nostalgia and attempts to justify it. Yes, this magazine did actually change my life, and I can see how someone who became a writer would want to document that fact. And yes I was really excited to get it in the mail from Amanda. And yes I probably am a writer (to the extent that I am... what, a blog is writing?) because of this magazine. But the book is a show, not a tell. And it's written by someone just like me, which is the worst thing I could force myself to read! (Is this true? Did I crave this when I was young?)It's like listening to a Weezer tribute album by bands with names like Cio Cio San. Empowerment is great in general but it certainly leads to a glut!
August 26, 2008
When I started reading this book, I actually got a little teary remembering how much I loved Sassy in High School. It completely tapped into my angsty teenage self. I don't doubt I ended up a feminist at least in part due to the unapologetic feminism of Sassy.
On the down side, it was depressing to read about the magazine's collapse. I remember getting the NEW Sassy and hating it, but knowing the details doesn't make me feel better about it.
I really want a book that combines all the great issues of Sassy so I can reread them now. Unfortunately, mom mom threw away the big stack I kept in my closet when they moved. I wish they were available. I am off to google them and see if anyone has scanned copies onto the internet.
On the down side, it was depressing to read about the magazine's collapse. I remember getting the NEW Sassy and hating it, but knowing the details doesn't make me feel better about it.
I really want a book that combines all the great issues of Sassy so I can reread them now. Unfortunately, mom mom threw away the big stack I kept in my closet when they moved. I wish they were available. I am off to google them and see if anyone has scanned copies onto the internet.
September 1, 2007
This book was great fun! I loved Sassy magazine as a teenager and was so sad when its publication was halted. It was the magazine for anyone who felt like they didn't "fit" as a young person. The book chronicles the history of the magazine from its start as a spinoff from an Australian publication to its demise at the hands of corporate idiots. I would definitely recommend this book to ANY individual who enjoyed Sassy as a young adult.
June 13, 2007
I wanted this to be better than it was. Probably should have been shorter. I mean, I love Sassy, Jane and the rest but you can only congratulate yourself for so many pages before it just gets obnoxious.
That said, anyone who related to Sassy will love their own personal trip down memory lane that this book inevitably induces.
That said, anyone who related to Sassy will love their own personal trip down memory lane that this book inevitably induces.
September 5, 2015
Interviews with Sassy writers were my favorite aspect of this, but really this book aimed a direct target at me and my interests. I was a Sassy reader who was in Jane Pratt and co.'s demographic (early teenager) and not an adult reader, but all the reader anecdotes presented here hit home. I think I've written the blog post a couple years ago about how Sassy changed my life.
January 18, 2010
"'At some point, the typical Sassy girl became a smugly superior alterna-chick,' says [Lara:] Zeises...'I was never actually cool enough to read Sassy. I listened to show tunes and wore leggings until my freshman year in college. But I was smart and funny and subversive in my own way.'"
September 29, 2024
Reading this was a good old punch in the gut. I LOVED Sassy magazine. I started getting it in 1991 and didn’t stop until it ended in 1996. As Frank would say, “Regrets, I have a few…” and one of them is not keeping my Sassy magazine collection. I never threw out an issue. I cut many of them up, to put awesome quotes on my walls, but they never got thrown out, until I guess one day they did 😭🤷🏻♀️ I don’t remember ever coming to the decision to get rid of them, but they’re not in my parents’ attic, which means they’re not around anymore. Somewhere here I have a photocopied piece of paper with certain issues listed. This was how you could order back issues - you’d just sends away for them. When I find that I’ll attach a photo. This book, while written in 2007 felt like it could have been written by me. Sassy was such a huge part of my adolescence. I thrived on the music articles, and the advice columns. I loved how it didn’t tell me what I needed to do or don’t do to “get the guy”. It made me feel like it was perfectly ok for me to be me, whoever I was at the time. Funny enough, one of the former writers, Christina Kelly, lives around the corner from us. Her husband (who is also a writer) buys Girl Scout cookies from our daughter every year, and they’re the first house we go to on Halloween for trick or treating. I’ve never told her how important her writing was to me. I’ve just felt weird about it. After reading this book I just want to go knock on her door and thank her for helping me survive high school. But that’s probably a bit too much 😂 If you were a fan of Sassy, this book is for you. If you weren’t - it’s not going to do it for you, it’s just not. It’ll make you feel like you missed out on something über important (because you did 😬), but you won’t enjoy it as much as you would if you were a Sassy girl or boy. I loved how the format of the book made it look and feel like a magazine.
November 23, 2025
This short non-fiction book describes the brief but influential run of teen magazine Sassy from 1988-1994. The book describes how the magazine was created, the people who worked on it, and its unique vibe and impact distinct from other magazines like Seventeen and YM, plus its quicker than deserved end.
As a Gen-Xer, I was a huge fan of the magazine and it’s fun, snarky, independent, feminist style. I can’t recall the exact duration but I was a subscriber either for the whole run of the magazine or for most of it. And though back then I usually cut up my magazines to make giant collages, my Sassy magazines were left pristine and saved. Indeed I need to find out if they’re still in the closet of my parents’ house!
This book actually came out back in 2007 but I never got my hands on it to read it. But I had added it at some point as a “notify me” on Libby, so when I got a notice that one of my libraries had added it to their collection, I immediately borrowed it! And I’m so glad I did - it was a really nostalgic trip back in time - to the magazine, its writers who were celebrated for their individual viewpoints, and the pop culture they covered - but also to my own teenage self at the time.
As a Gen-Xer, I was a huge fan of the magazine and it’s fun, snarky, independent, feminist style. I can’t recall the exact duration but I was a subscriber either for the whole run of the magazine or for most of it. And though back then I usually cut up my magazines to make giant collages, my Sassy magazines were left pristine and saved. Indeed I need to find out if they’re still in the closet of my parents’ house!
This book actually came out back in 2007 but I never got my hands on it to read it. But I had added it at some point as a “notify me” on Libby, so when I got a notice that one of my libraries had added it to their collection, I immediately borrowed it! And I’m so glad I did - it was a really nostalgic trip back in time - to the magazine, its writers who were celebrated for their individual viewpoints, and the pop culture they covered - but also to my own teenage self at the time.
November 23, 2023
Reminded me of what I loved and eventually disliked about Sassy, but it was cool to read about how it all started and eventually ended.
March 13, 2015
I am still to this day miffed that my carefully-preserved-in-a-paper-bag collection of teen magazines is lost to the trash forever. (Sure I could have moved them to my Chicago apartment--sorry Mom--no hate.) It's the Sassy magazines I wish most to have back. I also credit Sassy for having read The Virgin Suicides at fifteen.
My first experience reading a Sassy magazine in the early '90s, and right away it was notably different. Their sassiest teen girl was round-faced with a pixie cut and a nose ring. Their pull out band poster was an off-focus shot of Pearl Jam. Reading it felt risky and like a late night talkfest with a cool older sister (which I did not have).
I also acutely remember the lapse in publication (after the magazine was sold, which most readers did not know), and the questioning why Sassy suddenly became lame, and then the editorial response chiding readers for expressing distress over what became of their favorite magazine; something akin to "your beloved Jane [Pratt the editor] is gone, now get over it!" This book even reprinted the response, which instantly took me back to when I read it for the first time sitting by my bedroom closet, feeling like I was just slapped in the face.
Not to say Sassy was 100% on point. I at times felt it was a little too cool for its own good--absolutely a precursor to the somewhat eye-rolling hipster lifestyle of the 2000s. Sometimes it was politically divisive when it could have been truly open-minded. But the worst was when Sassy got catty. A truly feminist magazine now would likely not belittle young women for playing airheads on a teen show, or rip apart young women's looks as not deserving a hot actor's attention. Sassy was in uncharted waters, and after reading this, the inconsistency makes sense given the staff was mostly inexperienced early 20 something writers who were scrapping it in NYC in a very different climate than now.
I give this book credit for exposing faults where necessary. The lack of racial diversity within staffing is noted, including a specific incident where their first person of color writer was sent on a social experiment errand to actively pursue discrimination, resulting in her tearfully returning to the office, and instead writing an editorial about being undervalued as a professional. After reading further about Jane Pratt, I respect her as a visionary for helming Sassy's early years, but by god she is not someone I would want to spend much time with. May your legacy be forever preserved in those early pages.
The book gets it right when it says Sassy was a product of its time, coinciding with third wave feminism, the grunge and burgeoning indie rock movements. I rode that line between not identifying with a lot of what larger teen culture offered, but also not desiring to be a total misfit. In the 90s, misfits became its own attainable label. Sassy afforded enough material for girls who didn't quite fit any of those things to at least see pieces of themselves in the pages. No one else was doing what they were doing, and about 80% of it worked.
My first experience reading a Sassy magazine in the early '90s, and right away it was notably different. Their sassiest teen girl was round-faced with a pixie cut and a nose ring. Their pull out band poster was an off-focus shot of Pearl Jam. Reading it felt risky and like a late night talkfest with a cool older sister (which I did not have).
I also acutely remember the lapse in publication (after the magazine was sold, which most readers did not know), and the questioning why Sassy suddenly became lame, and then the editorial response chiding readers for expressing distress over what became of their favorite magazine; something akin to "your beloved Jane [Pratt the editor] is gone, now get over it!" This book even reprinted the response, which instantly took me back to when I read it for the first time sitting by my bedroom closet, feeling like I was just slapped in the face.
Not to say Sassy was 100% on point. I at times felt it was a little too cool for its own good--absolutely a precursor to the somewhat eye-rolling hipster lifestyle of the 2000s. Sometimes it was politically divisive when it could have been truly open-minded. But the worst was when Sassy got catty. A truly feminist magazine now would likely not belittle young women for playing airheads on a teen show, or rip apart young women's looks as not deserving a hot actor's attention. Sassy was in uncharted waters, and after reading this, the inconsistency makes sense given the staff was mostly inexperienced early 20 something writers who were scrapping it in NYC in a very different climate than now.
I give this book credit for exposing faults where necessary. The lack of racial diversity within staffing is noted, including a specific incident where their first person of color writer was sent on a social experiment errand to actively pursue discrimination, resulting in her tearfully returning to the office, and instead writing an editorial about being undervalued as a professional. After reading further about Jane Pratt, I respect her as a visionary for helming Sassy's early years, but by god she is not someone I would want to spend much time with. May your legacy be forever preserved in those early pages.
The book gets it right when it says Sassy was a product of its time, coinciding with third wave feminism, the grunge and burgeoning indie rock movements. I rode that line between not identifying with a lot of what larger teen culture offered, but also not desiring to be a total misfit. In the 90s, misfits became its own attainable label. Sassy afforded enough material for girls who didn't quite fit any of those things to at least see pieces of themselves in the pages. No one else was doing what they were doing, and about 80% of it worked.
October 22, 2009
There were reasons this didn't get 5 stars, and I'll get them out of the way quickly: the format was uncessary; the cost prohibitive (19 bucks at a bookstore, I got mine used from Abe); the storytelling scattered and dumbed-down at times. Of these things, the willy-nilly dipping in and out of subject matter, and the very loose organization of the book, frustrated me the most. It meant that moments were mentioned and then re-mentioned, leaving me feeling like the book's sense of time was confusing to its authors, and like I wasn't moving forward in a linear fashion. The only other critique I'd offer up was that it wasn't as critical as it could have been -- but that's a lame thing to say, given that the book's intent was not to be an academic critique, but as the title states, "A Love Letter".
So, that said, I loved every fucking minute of reading this. It made me feel privileged and special to have been in that peculiar 8-or-so-year age range bracket that connected with Sassy. For me, it was middle school, and reading this was like taking a skip down memory lane. It mentioned so many articles and columns and reviews and features that I'd read and forgotten; as soon as the authors would mention the name of one I'd realize that not only did I know the exact article or interview or whatever they were referencing, but that it had impacted me and the way that I think, and I'd venture to say that's not just true for my middle school self, but now, my (semi) adult self. But. I could go on and on about my personal feelings and relationship to Sassy; how much it meant to me and where I first got it and why it was so fantastically different from anything else out there. I won't though, because I think it's important to mention the places that these authors succeed other than in connecting personally with their readers through the sense of oh-my-god-i-loved-Sassy-too!-ness. They interview all but one of the regular staff writers, and chronicle out how the magazine churned out interns that went on to do really awesome shit after their Sassy time. They also got into something I'd never really understood before about the magazine, at least not on a serious level, which was the infighting between the staff. That part was fascinating to me. As were the bits about how things played out at the various publishing companies that had stake in Sassy's fate -- I sort of knew what happened, but this does a pretty good job of getting the whole story. Also touched on, though not a bunch, were Sassy's failures, and how the magazine effectively created it's own standards of cool, replicating a high school environment and serving to alienate girls itself.
Though it didn't always work organizationally, it was extremely interesting to read, and I'd highly recommend it for anyone who has Sassy nostalgia lurking beneath their skin.
So, that said, I loved every fucking minute of reading this. It made me feel privileged and special to have been in that peculiar 8-or-so-year age range bracket that connected with Sassy. For me, it was middle school, and reading this was like taking a skip down memory lane. It mentioned so many articles and columns and reviews and features that I'd read and forgotten; as soon as the authors would mention the name of one I'd realize that not only did I know the exact article or interview or whatever they were referencing, but that it had impacted me and the way that I think, and I'd venture to say that's not just true for my middle school self, but now, my (semi) adult self. But. I could go on and on about my personal feelings and relationship to Sassy; how much it meant to me and where I first got it and why it was so fantastically different from anything else out there. I won't though, because I think it's important to mention the places that these authors succeed other than in connecting personally with their readers through the sense of oh-my-god-i-loved-Sassy-too!-ness. They interview all but one of the regular staff writers, and chronicle out how the magazine churned out interns that went on to do really awesome shit after their Sassy time. They also got into something I'd never really understood before about the magazine, at least not on a serious level, which was the infighting between the staff. That part was fascinating to me. As were the bits about how things played out at the various publishing companies that had stake in Sassy's fate -- I sort of knew what happened, but this does a pretty good job of getting the whole story. Also touched on, though not a bunch, were Sassy's failures, and how the magazine effectively created it's own standards of cool, replicating a high school environment and serving to alienate girls itself.
Though it didn't always work organizationally, it was extremely interesting to read, and I'd highly recommend it for anyone who has Sassy nostalgia lurking beneath their skin.
October 9, 2009
It's funny - the subtitle of the book is "A Love Letter to the Greatest Teen Magazine of All Time" and yet I still spent the first three chapters rolling my eyes at how gushy the authors were. Sometimes I be so stupid!
This book delivers exactly what it promises: A flagrantly nostalgic ode to a magazine and a staff that showed up at exactly the right moment, then said exactly the right things, to exactly the right people. It was fun to indulge for awhile...I can remember looking up to not only the writers, actresses and musicians that they featured but the girls that they anointed in volume after volume as what we should aspire to be through the 'sassiest girl in America' contests and the hometown features.
I also remember that none of them looked like me and that it wasn't just my lack of a local thrift or coffee shop that often left me feeling even back then that the lifestyle the magazine touted was out of reach. That would be my one major criticism of "How Sassy Changed My Life". I know the purpose of the book was to celebrate everything that made the authors love the magazine, not necessarily to present a fair and balanced analysis of what it was or wasn't. But the fact that they only gave passing attention (mostly in the later chapters) to the magazine's blatant lack of race and class diversity THEN (worse still) spent just as much time defending this shortcoming, lifting up and applauding the rare and fleeting attempts in the magazine's history to address this shortcoming...well, it kind of just brought me back to the eye-rolling.
Overall, it was a good read (thanks, Edwina!) I'm definitely on a mission to find some back issues and some pictures of the staff then and now (was Niell really as hot as they claim? did Christina's hitmaker style stand the test of time? ) I'm also grateful, though, that the interwebs provides girls of today with more options for finding publications that actually speak to them - their whole selves - as opposed to what I'm realizing Sassy provided us at the time: the best we could hope for given the circumstances.
This book delivers exactly what it promises: A flagrantly nostalgic ode to a magazine and a staff that showed up at exactly the right moment, then said exactly the right things, to exactly the right people. It was fun to indulge for awhile...I can remember looking up to not only the writers, actresses and musicians that they featured but the girls that they anointed in volume after volume as what we should aspire to be through the 'sassiest girl in America' contests and the hometown features.
I also remember that none of them looked like me and that it wasn't just my lack of a local thrift or coffee shop that often left me feeling even back then that the lifestyle the magazine touted was out of reach. That would be my one major criticism of "How Sassy Changed My Life". I know the purpose of the book was to celebrate everything that made the authors love the magazine, not necessarily to present a fair and balanced analysis of what it was or wasn't. But the fact that they only gave passing attention (mostly in the later chapters) to the magazine's blatant lack of race and class diversity THEN (worse still) spent just as much time defending this shortcoming, lifting up and applauding the rare and fleeting attempts in the magazine's history to address this shortcoming...well, it kind of just brought me back to the eye-rolling.
Overall, it was a good read (thanks, Edwina!) I'm definitely on a mission to find some back issues and some pictures of the staff then and now (was Niell really as hot as they claim? did Christina's hitmaker style stand the test of time? ) I'm also grateful, though, that the interwebs provides girls of today with more options for finding publications that actually speak to them - their whole selves - as opposed to what I'm realizing Sassy provided us at the time: the best we could hope for given the circumstances.
December 13, 2017
A pure joy every page
January 6, 2015
This is definitely exactly what it promises to be in the subtitle ("A Love Letter to the Greatest Teen Magazine of All Time"). I was a HUGE fan of Sassy in my teen years and hit it right at its heyday, so I can relate to the fervor that these fans express toward this wonderful but ill-fated magazine. The book shares some enlightening insider scoops on the rise and fall of Sassy, along with some great nostalgic references to favorite columns and declarations of love from past readers. It is well-researched, brought back many memories, and gave me new perspectives about the magazine that I thought I remembered well. However, there are times that the groupie-tone of the authors is a bit alienating. I was an avid reader of the magazine. Yet, I don't remember every single staffer by her/his first name and signature column tone (It's been ~20 years! I've had two kids since then!). However, the expectation of this book seems to be that, if I really loved Sassy, I would remember all of these things. The we're in/you're out tone was a bit abrasive. I also found the assertion that the independence promoted by Sassy was a "fantasy" (repeated again and again in the book). That pursuit of independence may well have evolved somewhat in the lives of the women who ascribed to Sassy feminism, but it is most certainly not a fantasy. It is a goal that we work toward every day and try to teach our daughters and friends to do the same. It is all about developing the confidence to be true to yourself and chase after happiness on your own terms - if that's a fantasy, well, that's too depressing for me to deal with right now.
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