Remember Sassy magazine? I do. I subscribed. I had no idea how revolutionary it was until it was no longer around and I missed it. It was the first and only magazine in my teen experience that wasn’t about iridescent taffeta prom dresses with three-foot ruffles, celebrity crushes, and interminable ad spreads featuring porny Lolitas shilling for “Love’s Baby Soft.” After reading an issue I felt unquestionable smarter, even if I didn’t quite get the fascination with Evan Dando and the Lemonheads.
Sassy bit the big one when it was absorbed into Teen magazine, which, really, is like the Death Star aborbing the entire rebellion fleet and belching into space afterward. Back issues are still on eBay, some at exceptional markup.
Following Sassy, more than a few alternative and dare I say realistic magazines for women have survived, including Bust and Bitch, a magazine which I totally love (for obvious reasons).
A few months back, Candy and I were contacted by a writer, Kathleen Shaw, who was working on an article for a new publication for young women, and who asked if we’d like to talk about our website. Never ones to turn down an opportunity to talk, Candy and I emailed back and forth with her, and hello, Smart Bitches appears in the Rebel Girls section (oh, you have no idea how much I enjoy that – thank you!) of Sadie Magazine.
Sadie is a feminist mixture of reviews, creative writing, do it yourself tips, recipes, and profiles of women in uncommon situations which, for example, examine the experiences of women in the process of changing genders, or the growing fame of women rappers in Cuba.
I’m enormously flattered to be in the premiere issue, to say nothing of being called “badass.” For our site to be included in a new magazine that seeks to “tackle fun and substantive issues in a market that regards women as recipients of ad campaigns” is an ass-smacking honor. While the site has a number of technical and stylistic glitches to smooth out, I had a good old time stealing an hour to read about Vadis Turner’s art made from everyday girlhood objects. And though I’m not sure the need for a Sassy-esque magazine still exists, particularly in light of the internet and it’s ability to connect any two people with like interests, the founders have distinguished themselves through content that features women I’d otherwise know nothing about. Finding the Sweet n’Low prom dress alone made my day.
You guys signed a book deal? Didja tell us and I missed it, or have you been keeping secrets?
God, I was SO ANGRY when my Sassy didn’t show up for a few months and then I got Teen magazine in the mail. Teen! It was like a slap in the face after the kind of magazine with a multi-issue arc about whether or not shaving tips were encouraging girls to actually shave their armpits or if the advice was merely for the girls who wanted to shave. I still use the info they imparted: shave pits in all four directions. It totally works.
This Sadie looks pretty cool.
I totally remember Sassy! It came out when I was eleven and my best friend subscribed to it. We were quirky. I think I love Smart Bitches because you guys remind me of her. Of us. Of my youth! Sob.
Congrats on the Sadie article.
I loved Sassy Magazine. I even sent them some of my really bad poetry though they never published it. My own teenaged daughter snarks at Teen Vogue and such when we are standing in the grocery store aisle. Glad to see the Sassy spirit continues!
LOVED Sassy. It was always in our bathroom magazine rack; even my bf was addicted. If I try, I can visually remember an issue with Kurt adn Courtney on the cover, announcing that they were going to have a baby.
I am old.
she51 <—not yet!
I feel so ancient when people remember things from their teen years, talk about how old it makes them feel – and I was in my mid-20s or even 30s when the event happened.
There are probably kids now who think they’re getting old because they remember Princess Diana dying.
Oh Charlene! I totally understand this one…by many people’s standards I am still young; however, my students got me the other day. Having a momentary brain lapse, I said, “Are y’all sure you don’t remember this court case, it was settled in ‘98, and you guys were in high school, right?” At which point they all looked at me, and someone said, “Uh. No. We were in, like, 3rd grade.”
And then my brain screamed.
I LOVED Sassy! I subscribed after getting the very first issue in a grocery store.
I love you guys, too. Big, HUGE congratulations on the article and the book.
Didn’t the first issue have an REM single in it? On floppy vinyl?
Sassy is/was awesome! And cmon, I love the internet like nobody’s business, but when I want to sit around reading a bunch of light/short/serious/funny/interesting/well-written things, magazines like that are way more reliable than hitting every blog I like to read hoping that enough of them will have new posts to keep me going while I eat dinner or whatever!
Congrats on the book deal! Like Cat, I must have missed the news, unless Sadie let the secret slip. And congratulations on being asked to appear in Sadie’s premiere issue.
What’s up with the code today, guys? That image just murdered my RSS feeds.
omg – I subscribed to Sassy, too! and was equally pissed when I got the fake mag in the mail. and I remember at least one or two floppy vinyls in there.
BTW… Congrat’s Smart B’s!!
If white is innocence
And red is not
Then pink must be somewhere in between
God, I hated those Love’s Baby Soft ads. And don’t get me started on Verve Body Spray.
#1 I LUV You bitches!!!
#2 You’ve been linked.
You’ve been linked HERE.
My bad.
OMG!!! I too was a SASSY girl. I thought I was the only one and hence the reason that the magazine went under.
I kept every issue in my bathroom until they became almost unreadable… good times.
I wanted to give my daughter an option we had something other than being girly pink or goth black.
I miss being SASSY ~A
Remember the issues where they’d let the teens be the writers and editors? I always applied. Never got in, but that’s probably where some of my journalism bug came from.
God I loved Jane Pratt and the rest of her staff. I still have most of the issues. Sassy was the one magazine I could never bring myself to throw away.
Oh wow, I had forgotten about Sassy. I loved that magazine. Wish I’d kept them.
Congrats on the book deal!
“And though I’m not sure the need for a Sassy-esque magazine still exists, particularly in light of the internet and it’s ability to connect any two people with like interests…”
I never read Sassy, and I’m not a teenager so I don’t know if they even read magazines anymore or it they’re all too busy texting each other LOLcats or whatever it is the kids are doing these days, but I totally disagree with this. Magazines are awesome, and I’d like to see better magazines for teenage girls. I was the antithesis of everything Seventeen stands for, but I devoured it every month. If I had known about something better, I would have gotten that instead.
More good magazines for young bitches, dang it!
Congrats on the book, Bitches!
I looooooved Sassy with a fiercness. I still have old issues that I refuse to give up, despite the husband’s eye-rolling every time we move. And while I admit to also being confused by the Dando devotion, at least they weren’t idolizing whomever was the hot pop singer of the time (I don’t know, I was way into grunge and avoided everything else then).
There’s actually a book about Sassy that came out last year, it was good enough that I admit to some tearing-up action while reading it: http://www.amazon.com/How-Sassy-Changed-My-Life/dp/0571211852
captcha: eight98: No, I was 18 in 1998, and thus prime Sassy target.
I too, loved my Sassy Magazine. I was the only person I knew who read them. I recently cleaned out my attic and threw away EVERY issue ever printed. Now I could kick myself.
Jen
I adored Sassy. I was one of the “older” readers, being that I was 18 in ‘89. It seems, according to the book Jessica linked to, there were heaps of readers in their 20’s, so now I don’t feel so odd admitting I read it.
Oh, Evan Dando…yuuummmmmm..
I really need to order that book…if only it was paperback..ah well..
I subscribed to Sassy for two or three years – it was a huge part of my teenage years. None of my friends read it, so I felt all revolutionary and stuff. I was in love with Keanu Reeves, so I felt a special kinship with Jane. 😀 I’ve thrown out nearly everything from those days, but I still have all my old issues of Sassy. I read the Junk Food Taste-Off whenever I need a laugh.
I adored Sassy. I had that floppy REM vinyl thing—was that really the very first issue?