My favourites series - Magazines

I’ve always been a bookworm, but my love of reading hasn’t just been restricted to books alone. I’m the kind of person who will read anything – the back of the cereal packet, articles in the newspaper, stories on the internet and, of course, glossy magazines. I seriously love magazines, and have been reading them since I was a young child.

I remember when I was little; my Mum would occasionally buy us a magazine as a treat. In those days it would be things like Postman Pat or Playdays, and they’d always come with a free plastic toy of some description! As I grew up my magazine choices matured with me, and my favourites became girly choices such as Girl Talk and Mizz. I would spend hours pouring over the pages of cute animals, cringey stories and rather tame problem pages. My room was plastered with posters of baby animals and pop stars like 5ive, Boyzone and S Club 7.

This continued until my teenage years started looming ahead of me, and cute animals and cheesy pop stars began to lose their appeal. My peer group started talking about boys, make-up and shopping, and so my magazine choices adapted to our new interests. At this point, I turned to magazines like Sugar, Shout, J-17 and Sneak, which boasted articles about ‘relationships,’ celebrity gossip, make-up tips and fashion news. I think it was probably around this time that the magazines I was reading started to mention things about sex and adult relationships, albeit in a very sensitive and restricted way, but even so it would have been one of my first encounters of such topics.

Throughout my first few years at senior school I continued to read these glossies, and I remember many an occasion when my friends and I would all huddle round an issue, chatting away about the latest clothes or boy band. However, we were quickly maturing and soon, boy bands and teen make-up tips didn’t suffice, so, I again went looking for new magazines to try. This was the time I came across monthlies like Glamour, Cosmopolitan and Company, and weeklies like Look, Closer and More. They were full of more grown-up versions of the problem page, real-life stories and fashion and beauty tips, and I remember feeling really mature reading them!

So, I guess that pretty much brings me up to the present day. These days, I tend to buy more monthlies, as I find weeklies don’t often give me the variety I’m after. That being said, I will still treat myself to a copy of Look or Grazia now and again! I’m still a Glamour and Cosmopolitan reader, but have widened my choices to other ladies magazines like Elle, Good Housekeeping, Woman & Home and Red. I feel that, at 25, I have my toe dipped in both my old teenage self and my future mature woman self. Glossies like Glamour and Cosmo satisfy my younger self, whereas Good Housekeeping and Red make me feel like a mature lady, while I read about kitchen appliances, baking and money matters.

I honestly don’t know what I’d do if it wasn’t for magazines. I’ll read them anywhere – at the breakfast table, curled up on the sofa or on a long train journey. The great thing about them now is that a lot of them are also available in digital form, so you can have all your favourites downloaded onto one small device. That being said, I would still pick a physical magazine over a digital copy any day. I just love the feeling of picking up a new copy and flicking through the pages!

Have you always been a fan of magazines, or have they never really interested you? Which ones did you read when you were younger, and what are your favourites now?

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