Kara Jesella

Reading this was weird nostalgia upon nostalgia in an off-putting way. It was interesting to learn the backstory of Sassy since I had just turned twelve when I started reading it in 1989, and I read it until my senior year of high school when it was sold and turned wretched. It did make me feel like I was right in feeling like the crew would have looked down on me for not being cool enough, and that was sad to realize. Also reading this in 2021 when it was published in 2007 is also odd; magazines are pretty much dead as are the two blogs they mention. Oh well, if nothing else, I truly do believe that I’m a feminist because of Sassy.… (lisätietoja)

Oh man... one of the saddest moments in my life was when I learned that my parents had done a little spring cleaning and decided to send all my Sassy magazines out to recycling! When I first learned about this book's existence I immediately went to the bookstore - since they didn't have it on the shelves I special ordered it on the spot. It was worth the wait.

The back story and discussion of the Sassy world behind the scenes was fascinating. Some of the publishing drama (that contributed to the downfall of the magazine) I had read about after the fact - and it was nice to have a more in depth look at it here. The chapter concerning the waning days of the magazine helped to bring the closure I hadn't previously realized I needed... if you were one of the subscribers who had received the scab mags at the end then you probably know what I mean here.

Sassy was a very cool magazine in its day, and nothing on the market for teens quite compares with it today. In retrospect this makes me angry - why should advertisers be allowed to dictate content? Why do we (generally speaking) consume drivel that is both patronizing and hateful towards its audience?

On the surface it may seem like this book is for Sassy fans only, but I'd recommend it for anyone. If for nothing else the content within should make one wonder how such a crazy tale of publishing restrictions could have possibly existed in the 90s? And then perhaps one may wonder if the kind of advertiser driven censorship that was part of Sassy's downfall might not just be limited to mid-90s teen girl media content?… (lisätietoja)

In 120 pages, this book manages to articulate all the reasons I loved this magazine, and all the reasons I eventually hated it (primarily staff turnover and the sale to a company that didn't give a rodent's behind about what made it great in the first place). Without going into great detail about every little staff squabble and behind-the-scenes politicking, How Sassy Changed My Life talks about the different personalities on the staff, how they came together, and how they eventually fell apart, and it does it all without even assigning blame. (Well, maybe there's a little blame, but it's mostly on advertisers and publishing conglomerates--in other words, entities instead of individuals.) I want to sit down with a stack of my old back issues (sadly, recycled nearly a decade ago).

It's almost an aside at the end of the book, but I was completely unsurprised to learn that both Bust and Bitch magazines were founded by grown-up fans of Sassy, as a Sassy for our 20- and 30-something demographic.… (lisätietoja)