How Did Sassy Change Your Life?

We want to hear from you! How did Sassy change YOUR life? Check out the featured comments -- then tell us your story below in the comment section.

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I feel guilty saying this, but I can't actually recall which issue of Sassy was my first. I know I was in sixth grade, and I think it was the winter, so I'm guessing early 1989. A friend's mom had gone to Hawaii and, in the airport on the way back, had seen Sassy and picked up a copy for her. I guess Sassy didn't have much of a spellbinding effect on her, because she left the issue at my house. I remember reading the issue over and over again and feeling like Sassy was going to be the answer to all of my problems--my total absence of coolness, my preadolescent ennui, my lack of friends--and I immediately got my mom to buy me a subscription.

In some ways, Sassy was the answer I was looking for, since I took pretty much everything the magazine said literally. I was that girl at school who made the pillowcase dress (and wore it with Doc Martens, naturally), who used toothpaste (never the gel kind!) to shrink zits, who ordered the Oscar Wilde zine I read about in Zine of the Month, who went to Bikini Kill shows at Christina's urging, and who bought and read Sexual Personae purely because of Sassy's hatred of Camille Paglia. And since I have an alarming ability to hang onto my adolescent obsessions (see also: all the episodes of Beverly Hills, 90210 on my TiVo), I can safely say that I am just as obsessed with much of what I read about in Sassy today as I was circa 1992.

I have no idea what kind of teenager I would have been without Sassy. I am pretty sure I was never destined to be the homecoming queen type   (plus, my high school didn't even have homecoming queens, or cheerleaders for that matter), but I'm not sure if I would have found the breadth of life-changing ephemera, were it not for Sassy. I pride myself on being able to spot former Sassy readers on the street, without even talking to them. Beyond the books I read and the music I bought and the beauty tips I gleaned, I think the best part of this lifetime of Sassy obsession has been the chance to finally meet all the Sassy fans I didn't grown up with. I wish I had known them when I was 14, but I'll settle for meeting them at 29.--MARISA

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I considered myself a feminist-though I'm guessing I didn't know that word yet-from the time I was in first grade and Sr. Josita called on a certain boy in my class, though I also had my hand raised, to spell Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, which he spelled WRONG and yet still got two pieces of purple candy as a reward and which I would have spelled RIGHT, having just seen Mary Poppins over the weekend. I was supremely rankled by not getting the purple candies (my mom was a health nut...my chances to eat candy were few and far between), and this anger was part of a larger resentment I felt about the boys at my school always seeming to be favored over the girls.

My awareness of this inequality at age 6 was refined, over time, into a political consciousness. And that's where Sassy comes in. I had a subscription to Ms. from a young age, and it was beloved, but if memory serves, the magazine's content wasn't quite in sync with high school concerns; I seem to remember Naomi Wolf heralding heterosexual marriage. Nor did the buttoned-up Ms. seem to have much sympathy for my more prosaic interests, like looking cute (mostly for the aforementioned candy-getting boy in my class).

But according to Sassy's ethos, you could want to look cute with your Manic Panic glitter nail polish and you could also want to march for women's rights. Feminism and femininity weren't mutually exclusive, and in the pages of the magazine-which I got from the first issue in 1988, when I was 13-being a feminist seemed like a must for any smart, cool girl. After all, in the magazine, all the smart, cool girls- Jane, Christina, Mary, Mary Kaye, Karen, etc.-proudly declared themselves as such. I even remember Sassy profiling one of its models and approvingly noting that she was a Women's Studies major-the same degree I would graduate with years later (and which I may not have considered so seriously if not for the magazine's encouragement).

As Marisa and I say in the book, Sassy was a Trojan horse, bringing feminism into the bedrooms of small-town girls like me who felt alienated from their friends, whose goals in life seemed to be less like my own 15-year-old aspirations (which included moving to the city and becoming an intellectual and a writer), and more about staying in the same place we grew up, settling down with a local guy, and having babies. But if I felt alone in real life, Sassy let me know that I wouldn't be for long: Christina's coverage of riot grrrl in What Now proved that there were other girls out there like me, who wanted to intellectualize about eating disorders and rape and the patriarchy. Even if I didn't know any adolescents wearing baby tees with "SLUT" scrawled in Sharpie across their decidedly un-washboard-like abs, Sassy assured me that soon I'd be out in the "real world" and get to meet them. I get almost weepy just thinking about it. I think I need to stop blogging and go get a tissue.--KARA

Comments

[Sarah Black]

Since I'm a bookworm, I might have to say that Sassy changed my life by introducing me to some wonderful novels. Of course, I rushed out to the bookstore to track down Blake Nelson's Girl, after reading the excerpts in the magazine. I also bought both Donna Tartt's The Secret History and The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides based on reviews in Sassy. All 3 of those books remain on my Favorite Books list today. (By the way, remember the excerpts from Lunch in Brooklyn? I searched avidly and in vain for that book. I'd still like to read it. What happened to it?)
And of course, Sassy also reassured me that it was ok to not diet, alright to be single, and cool to be a feminist. It helped broaden my horizons beyond my suburban upstate NY adolescent existence. I always admired the winners of Sassiest Girl in America, though I never felt like I was quite hip enough to be a contender in that category. Still, I'm sure I'm a little bit sassier now than I would've been if I'd just stuck with YM (oh! I've only just remembered: I had a fellow Sassy-obsessed friend in high school, and we used to sometimes refer to things we disliked as "YM" because we considered it to be the antithesis of Sassy.)
I absolutely cannot wait to read this book.!

[nmoney]

I am 25, which is a little young to have been a Sassy fan but I have 2 (very cool) older sisters, you see, now ages 28 and 30, who were readers of the late, great Sassy. Even as a skittish tomboy in late elementary and middle school, Sassy left an idelible print on my mind. At that age, I was already a literate girl who loved fashion and music, something of an anomaly at the time. Sassy made it cool and OK to be smart yet stylish and idividualistic. My goal in college was to work for a magazine and I got an internship at a Hearst magazine that will go unnamed. After a year there and working at various newspapers, I realized it wasn't for me but it did help shape my current career, outlook on life, and musical/literary/fashion tastes. More proof of the effect Sassy has: Those two very cool older sisters I have are now a high school english teacher and fashion/beauty copywriter.

[Maressa Brown]

While my recreational reading probably still consisted of The Babysitters' Club and Sweet Valley High series around the time that Sassy was on its way to its "Stepford" phase, I clearly recall reading teen magazines from a precocious age. I remember begging my ex-hippie mother to buy me a subscription to Sassy, noting it was obviously different from (slash better than) the homogenous pink and teal, pretty and tan pages of YM or Teen. A self-professed activist by age 8, campaigning on a Midwest suburban playground for "human rights" and "equality for all," but I may not have realized yet that Sassy's alternative approach was actually a fresh form of feminism. That it would set a foundation for my drive to succeed in the magazine world and even greater passion to write for/about women in an innovative and progressive way. I didn't realize that even when it disappeared, Sassy had left its mark on a generation of young women in a way that no other has quite been able to do again. So thank you, Kara and Marisa, for paying tribute to the greatest teen mag ever! The book is a significant step in bringing back dialogue that is subversive and truly Sassy!

[Maileen]

Each issue of Sassy that made its way to the magazine racks on the Philippines was a godsend. I was always the weird, smart, hiding-behind-a-book dork in grade school and high school (which is not what you want to be in an all girls catholic school) with totally awful self esteem issues but then I found Sassy - images and stories that I could relate to, girls just like me, all this creativity on every page - an entire magazine that felt like they were talking directly to this poor girl who felt so out of place. Suddenly I found I wasn't alone. Sassy helped me survive high school. And also contributed to a lifelong love of all things music and my current liberal feminist consciousness (with a love of cute dresses and nail polish!).

I went on to get an engineering degree at university, where life immediately got better, made the big leap to new york city to work in the internet, then went and got an MBA. And even managed to catch some bands that I had first read about on the pages of Sassy. (Ah Christina Kelly, I envied you so...)

Sassy helped me be the strong woman I am today. It had a voice and a point of view that just was not available in the media sold to the teenage girl demographic at that time.

I'm glad you were able to get this book out there. Congratulations!

[ei-nyung]

Sassy! How I love you so! Sassy was the only magazine that I read from cover to cover, even all the tiny print in the gutters and margins. I adored the crew; they were like cool big sisters who didn't pipe down and always wanted to make waves. And I learned to be confident, to be proud and tolerant of differences, to be unashamed of sexuality, and to really ask myself who I was and who I wanted to be. And I am a great, happy, secure 31 year old, due at least in part to your influences.

I miss you, Sassy. I often wonder if I could find my stash of Sassy somewhere in my parents old things, but I doubt it.

[Jennifer Coleman]

At the Astor Place reading last night, I thought of something I hadn't in quite a while. I loved Sassy's "Say What" pages, and in high school I would cut out the poems, make collages, and put them on my bedroom door. I know there's a photo of the door buried in a closet in a dusty box in my dad's house. Anyway, one poem, by Sunny Harrelson, from Austin? Dallas? Texas began, "Life is good because Paula says so."

As we worked through our teenage angst, my best friend, also named Jennifer, and I repeated that line back and forth to each other. It made sense and gave us comfort as we popped each other's zits and had our first French kisses. In college I bought her one of those cheesy "Life is good" t-shirts as a token of our forever Sassiness.

Last night, the authors talked about how many of Sassy's readers grew up having a hard time finding people like them (meeee!), and how now the Internet allows teens, and us too, to meet more of the right people. They also mentioned that many former Sassies are now in media/publishing (me too!).

Though it's crossed my mind from time-to-time since the magazine (it was so much more than a magazine) folded, I didn't fully realize until last night how much my coming of age with Sassy impacts me even now. As I continue to find the right friends, figure myself out, and realize my potential, it's remarkable that a magazine I read 15 years ago still shines a guiding light in the right direction.

P.S. I’m reading the book during my subway commute – wonder if any conversations will strike up!

[Abigail Zenner]

Jennifer, I also cut out the poems and stuff. Only I pasted them into the inside cover of my journal. I've been reading the book also and can't put it down. I also have not actually met anyone else (back then or now) who read Sassy. My friends who would have loved it then, didn't realize how cool it was because it was labeled a "teen" magazine.

Reading this book, I was tickled by the first page of the section on feminism, my mom brought me my first copy and told me that it was smart and treated teens like the competent people that they were. That was 1990, I think and I was 12. She was right, bought me a subscription and I read it until the end.

I think it changed my life because it showed me that I could choose to be into trends if I wanted to and still be geeky me. It was quite validating in my lack of interest in dating at the time. I didn't date until my senior year of high school and I didn't feel like that was a problem.

Thank you for writing this book, it brings back a lot of memories of a confusing and sometimes hard time in life but happy in many ways also. It is great knowing others who read sassy because I don't know any others who did. I do know a lot of women who probably should have!

[Stefanie Weiss]

Having been the child of a drugstore owner, I read every magazine printed when I was under 18. By the time I was 13, I was no longer interested in Seventeen or Young Miss or any of what was age-appropriate.

Sassy came out when I was in my mid- to late 20's, and even though I knew I was too old for it, I read it faithfully anyway because to me it represented the development and progression of teen magazines. (At the time, who knew that it was a one-off?) I was fascinated by it.

Sassy did not really change my life, but if I'd been able to read it when I was a teenager it probably would have. I would've felt less isolated--I would have known that there was a group of people, a place, where I fit in. I wouldn't have realized until later that Sassy was helpful because it broke the mold of skinny models and total content being clothes, shoes, makeup and inane, prissy advice.

I wish someone would re-Sass, because my daughter is getting close to the Sassy age. I would be so pleased if she had a magazine that upheld values like feminism and individuality while in her tween/teen years.

[holly]

I discovered Sassy while visiting my grandparents over the summer one year - i was probably 12 or so. The public library had tattered copies of the magazine (back issues, never new ones) and I checked out & consumed every one.
I miss Sassy. I'm pretty sure it's at least partially responsible for introducing me to Nirvana, Hole and street fashion - with real girls. And those are 3 things that I'd be lost without today.

[Christen McCurdy]

I'm glad somebody else mentioned the fiction excerpts: I loved the Lunch in Brooklyn excerpts as well, and a few years ago I tried to find out if it had ever been published. Best information I can gather is that it was Rebecca Moore's MFA thesis at Columbia and was never published...and also that Moore has apparently completely disappeared since then. Maybe the resugrence of interest in Sassy will mean the book actually sees the light of day.

I actually only got in on the last year or so of Sassy. The first issue I bought was the March 1993 issue -- at the time I was still a YM subscriber and had totally drunk the Kool-Aid, so I was deeply offended by that issue's story trashing on YM and Cosmo's advice on how to land a man. (That article, by the way? Fucking hilarious.) Six months later, though, I bought another issue, this time because of the cover line, "Three girls and their geeky reputations."

I'm not sure what grabbed me about it, enough to give Sassy another shot. But I was 12, I was geeky (enough to take the advice in other teen rags seriously), and I was completely blown away that a teen magazine (or really, any adult, anywhere) was willing to talk about unpopularity as if it were a real phenomenon and one that was for the most part fixed. I recall that other magazines ran articles about how to become more popular -- as if a dorky reputation, like zits, frizzy hair or cellulite, were something you could just fix by following five simple steps. Instead here was someone who was saying what every teenager knows, though some of us wanted to believe otherwise: at every high school, there are gonna be a few kids who just don't fit in. With anyone. And it's a heartbreak, but it's also not the end of those girls' world -- and more importantly, the author made it clear that the traits that made the subjects unpopular were some of the same traits that would make them valuable adults. After that I was hooked -- I can say that Sassy changed my life, but 90 percent of it was probably that article; I was a different person after I put it down.

[Annette Maltes]

I first started reading Sassy when I was in the 9th grade. I finally found some other women who thought, felt, and were into the same stuff I was into!
These women also introduced me to other things like zines, comic books, and music I wasn't aware of and am still a fan of to this day.

Recently, comic book author, Jaime Hernandez(of Love and Rockets fame) was in my city speaking @ Brown. I went to the lecture and gallery opening and had the opportunity to thank Jaime for giving me something to relate to when I was a lonely 15 year old latina riot grrl in a boring suburban New England town!
I couldn't have been happier and the whole time I thought to myself "thank god Sassy was around back then to tell me about Love and Rockets.
That was 15 years ago and Sassy still has an impact on my life.
Thanks so much for this book, Sassy was probably the best part of my teenage years.

[Laurel Kirtz]

My mom got me a subscription before Sassy was even on the stands. She saw an ad for Sassy in Ms. magazine.
It's hard to say how exactly Sassy changed my life. I would more like to think, it was a part of my life, a rich and important part. Be it the camp counselor who went on about that hot Johnny Depp poster Sassy provided her, or seeing where Sassy went, and wondering if I'd like to live in that city, or winning that book about Prince and Jane wrote me a friendly hello, or even compiling what I thought would definitely win the Sassiest Girl in the America Contest…no matter what Sassy did that changed my life, it is the culmination of all that Sassy did which changed my life. Sassy allowed me to talk about sex, wear weird clothes that I altered myself, dream about the future, know about my present, and to develop integrity. Sassy was bold, and I followed suit.

- Laurel Kirtz, co-founder of Whats Up magazine and lover of the old Details magazine, before it was a men's magazine.

[Samantha McGavin]

I only ever read one issue of Sassy; I think it was mid-high school, around 1991/92--but fifteen years later, I still remember the article on a girl who knew she was really a boy (my first introduction to transgenderism), and wishing I knew Jessica Vitkus after reading her article about being a supply teacher. (I even remembered her name!) I also remember the fiction, a "to be continued" short story - my older brother read it too and we both wanted to read more, and it puzzles me now to wonder how come we never did.

Having just read the Bitch article on "How Sassy Changed My Life," I am also left to wonder how it could have changed my life as well, had I tried harder to find another issue or if I had thought to subscribe. I was a teenager in a conservative suburb, the only one in my youth group (including the middle-aged leaders) who put up her hand when the guest lecturer from a women's shelter asked if anyone was a feminist...it took me until university to find people like me, and to figure out who that "me" was. Somehow I feel like Sassy could have saved me a lot of wasted time.

The article made me not only want to go find your book, but to also finally buy a copy of Shameless (www.shamelessmag.com) - a Canadian teen mag that I have been seeing in my favourite feminist bookstore since it first came out a few years ago. If you haven't heard of it, I'm sure they've heard of you - they even say in their "about" section that Shameless is for "sassy young women"!

[Jenn Harman-Hensler]

I dont remember which issue of Sassy was my first, but it had to have been close to 1989, when I was just about to start high school. I remember looking forward to every issue because not only did the articles make me look at things from a different perspective, but it made me realize that there was more to the world than just my little town. I really do miss the magazine immensley! I thought of Sassy as the alternative to all the girl magazines that were out at that time. Sassy seemed to be all about empowering young women and making them realize that they had a voice in media. Unfortunetly, I dont know what happened to Jane Pratt! She now has Jane magazine which is the antithesis to Sassy! It seems that she tries to compare the two as if they are doing the same thing, but all I see is another girl magazine that talks about how to be sexy, what makeup to wear, and how to win a man. Sassy was the exact opposite of that, or at least it was to me. Anyways all that to say that I miss Sassy, and I am glad that as a teenager I had the experience of being able to find a magazine that spoke to me on a higher level than just fashion, makeup, and sex.

[Lilledeshan Bose]

I've worked in a travel magazine, was the features editor for Seventeen Magazine Philippines at 23, entertainment editor for a daily newspaper in Southern California at 27 and now a staffwriter in a weekly in Milwaukee.

I attribute my career in publishing directly to Sassy. I remember the first time I picked it up, and why: Billy Wirth, an "American Gladiator" was a "One to Watch."

I saw it at a book sale bin; it must've been 1990, but all the old isssues of the magazines were on sale. I was 13. I picked it up for a cute boy, but fell in love with everything -- the spine, the horoscopes, the stories, the first names, the fiction, the earnest writing voice.

I bugged an aunt who lived in New York to get me a subscription. Whenever one would arrive at my house in Manila, all my friends would come over and read it. My love for The Ocean Blue, R.E.M., Teenage Fanclub -- all because of Sassy.

I grew up in the Philippines, went to an all-girls' Catholic high school and was borne of counter-culture parents. It was hard for me to reconcile my repressive education with my parents' lifestyle. But it seemed to me that Sassy was proof that you could use the mainstream to promote alternative beliefs.

It formed my ideology by making it seem easy to be subversive. To be an insurgent, an effective one, a purveyor of intelligent pop culture -- you had to work within the system and change things using the platform that reached the biggest audience.

In fact, when I was at Seventeen, I shamelessly co-opted my features stories after ones that were published in Sassy: Profiles on militant teenage activists. Sex ed. A first person account of a teen prostitute. There was also a nod to Christina Kelly; within an interview with John Mayer I wrote in a daydream that I asked him to marry me. AND it got published.

In 2002, I wrote a young adult novella called "Una and Miguel" where the protagonist was the epitome of the offbeat, quirky, creative and ultimately beautiful inside teenager that Sassy thought so highly of. It was nominated for a National Book award in the Philippines.

People who've read my work -- from my college professors to my bosses to readers -- always cite the clear, recognizable voice in my writing. That was a style developed after Sassy: one that was true to who I was, and unafraid/unashamed to write with language I used with my friends daily.

Speaking of co-opting...I still use a lot of Sassy's vocab these days, to try and be clever.

Needless to say, all my old issues -- maybe 30-40 of them -- are still in my mom's house in Manila. The last time I was home, I leafed through a few of them, then realized I didn't have to. I remembered its contents so vividly that I still knew the "make it" pillowcase dress model was wearing a plain yellow one with tights and flowers.

[Mary Bowers]

Sassy got me kicked out of 9th grade:

I received my first issue of Sassy in 1989 - it may have been the first published. My military family was transferred from San Francisco to the island of Guam, where I was enrolled in a strict Southern Baptist school for the 9th grade. While uniforms were required, we could wear any type of shoes/socks we wanted. I ordered from Sassy a pair of Red plaid tights and a matching headband. It took a while to arrive, but in late fall I finally received the long-awaited package, and walked into school with them on. I was sent to the headmasters office and told I was too liberal for their school. A few days later my parents, thank God, transferred me to another school. I will always be appreciative of Sassy's support in my journey through life to be myself - no matter what others think.

[Mary Bowers]

P.S. I'm now a licensed psychotherapist who helps others achieved their individuality. Thanks Sassy - do you have any idea how profound your mag was?

[Ellen Croteau]

OOOOOOOOOOOOOohhhhhhhhhhhhh I loved Sassy. Every teen magazine today, and even women's magazines, I think, gets their informal, "I'm your girlfriend," tone from Sassy. Before Sassy, all magazine's tones were a lot more formal, like a teacher, or authority in any case. Now they all copy Sassy, and never give credit! WHY did the magazine stop!??

I still hold one day with Sassy as the most relaxing day ever. I had told my Mom I was sick-- I couldn't go to school. I was just needing a day off. I coughed a little. She went out to do errands and I made myself a plate of sliced cheese and ritz crackers, got an ice-cold diet coke, and lay on the floor, reading Sassy. I could not stop laughing. Tears were rolling down my face. The article that made me laugh so much was about what would happen if an intrepid Sassy reporter actually followed the tips for attracting men laid out in Cosmo magazine. I'm laughing right now as I remember.It's still funny. Cosmo instructed dabbing vanilla, the kind you bake with, behind your ears and wrist like perfume. This was before vanilla came out big in body-sprays and etc. The Sassy report dabbed the vanilla on said places and went to a show, where she sat in the audience near of group of guys. She did attract thier attention. They were sniffing all around. "Don't you smell rice krispie treats?" they asked each other.

Oh, Sassy. Thank God. Other than them, there was Teen magazine, of which I still remember this one girl's leg measurement that the magazine printed in their annual model search, and Seventeen, from which I can never forget a quote from an everyday Joe. The magazine had asked theis guy, "What attracts you to a certain girl?" I couldn't believe even then that this "guide" for girls even printed his answer: "She should definitely hold most of her weight in her bust."
??? And tip over? Oy.

This is why I was and am so happy to have had Sassy. Amen to Sassy! Bring it back for the souls of the younger generation!

It really was unique and a godsend in a sea of "made for us" photos and literature meant only to make us strive to be thin, popular with boys, etc. Not very interesting, only docile arm candy. So sad.