# What magazines did you read in your childhood/teens? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 19, 2006, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-magazines-did-you-read-in-your-childhood-teens/365215 "2006-07-19T19:24:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Clockwork\_And\_Candy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b782af/32.png) [@Clockwork\_And\_Candy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clockwork_And_Candy)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2006, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-magazines-did-you-read-in-your-childhood-teens/365215/21 "2006-07-20T00:37:45Z")
_Health_ and _National Geographic_. What can I say-- I’m boring. v:(v ---
**Author:** ![Tenar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@Tenar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tenar)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2006, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-magazines-did-you-read-in-your-childhood-teens/365215/22 "2006-07-20T00:47:46Z")
_Weekly Reader_ (if that’s a magazine) My mother’s \*Woman’s Day \* and \*Family Circle \* magazines _Mad_ Magazine _Seventeen_ (as a young teen. It made me feel very inadequate.) _Omni_ (now THAT was a great one) _Esquire_ (so shoot me) I don’t think it quite makes the “teens” cut, but I LOOOOVED _Spy_ magazine. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2006, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-magazines-did-you-read-in-your-childhood-teens/365215/23 "2006-07-20T00:48:37Z")
[QUOTE=Rhythmdvl] Somewhere between _Highlights_ and _Mad/Cracked_ there was something called Dynamite or Banannas or something like that. [/QUOTE] I remember reading these; they came through the Scholastic book clubs. They also had a science-fictioney type magazine called _Weird Worlds_ that reprinted stories by the likes of Ray Bradbury. IIRC, at least some of these mags were edited or contributed to by “Jovial Bob Stine,” who later wrote the Goosebumps books as “R. L. Stine.” As a kid and/or teen I also read _MAD_, and _Boy’s Life_, and _National Geographic WORLD_, and _GAMES_, and _Dragon_, and _Reader’s Digest_, and eventually one or two computer magazines (the kind that had the programs you could type in). ---
**Author:** ![kiz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7feea3/32.png) [@kiz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kiz)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2006, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-magazines-did-you-read-in-your-childhood-teens/365215/24 "2006-07-20T01:05:17Z")
My first subscription was to _Highlights_/ Every so often I’d submit one of my drawings to their “art gallery”, but to no avail ☹ My parents always had \*Time, Newsweek, Yankee, The Saturday Evening Post, \* and _Reader’s Digest_, so I read those. Starting from junior high onward, I subscribed to: _Teen American Girl_ (it’s now published 6x/year, I believe, and it’s no longer owned by the Girl Scouts. It’s more geared to “tweens” now) _Glamour Mademoiselle Seventeen National Geographic_ Later I dropped some and added: \*Jane Marie-Claire Self Natural Health Elle Boston Bon Appetit Cooking Light Pastry Art and Design \* (industry mag) _American Cake Decorating_ (ditto) _Taste Of Home_ and _Light 'n Tasty_ I’d buy [i[Mad\* at the corner store every so often as a kid; I loved “Spy vs. Spy” and their takeoffs on a particular movie. Ditto for _16_ and _Tiger Beat_ because, of course, I HAD to have every photo of David Cassidy plastered all over my bedroom walls 😉 I stopped subscribing to _Glamour_ last year…let’s see, that was, what, after almost **30** years?!? _mind boggles_ I hate the way it’s been dumbed down to a _Cosmo_ clone. Speaking of which, I was never a big _Cosmo_ fan. I buy _Allure_ and _Self_ at the newstand. I still subscribe to all the aforementioned cooking magazines plus _Marie-Claire_ and _Jane_. Mom still subscribes to \*Yankee, Boston, [i/] and _TSEP_, although she can no longer read them. Me, a magazine junkie? Nah 😃 ---
**Author:** ![DaveRaver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/daveraver/32/1078_2.png) [@DaveRaver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DaveRaver)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2006, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-magazines-did-you-read-in-your-childhood-teens/365215/25 "2006-07-20T01:13:38Z")
Dynamite was great. They had various young 70’s celebrities on the cover (Kristy McNichol, Leif Garrett, and of course J.J. “Dy-no-mite!” Walker). They encouraged you to form your own Dynamite clubs, and do activities like make a pillow out of a rock concert T-shirt. Bananas was supposedly for an older audience (meaning early teens), but I never graduated to that. Dynamite continued (or reappeared) into the early 90s. No word on Bananas. ---
**Author:** ![Cowgirl\_Jules](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4af34b/32.png) [@Cowgirl\_Jules](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cowgirl_Jules)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2006, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-magazines-did-you-read-in-your-childhood-teens/365215/26 "2006-07-20T01:20:33Z")
_Mad \* and Cracked._ Ranger Rick \* as a kid, and my sister got another one like that, although I don’t remember the name. _Reader’s Digest_ and _Popular Science/Mechanics_, because my grandparents got them and would save the magazines for me. I had a subscription to \*Smithsonian \* for a few years when I was about 12. I read everything I could get my hands on, up to and including the cereal box (still do) but those were the regulars that I can remember. My own kids read the \*Nickelodeon \* and \*Disney \* magazines, as well as \*National Geographic \* when it’s around. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2006, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-magazines-did-you-read-in-your-childhood-teens/365215/27 "2006-07-20T01:21:05Z")
As a child, I went through the _Sesame Street -\> Electric Company -\> 3-2-1 Contact_ progression. I also read _World_, a kids’ magazine which I believe was published by National Geographic In my teens (more or less following the order in which I started reading them)… _Mad Enter_ (PBS/CTW-linked computer magazine with BASIC programs. When it folded, my subscription was switched over to 3-2-1 Contact, which didn’t really hold my interest as a 7th-grader) _Omni Discover Poular Science Popular Photograpy Petersen’s Photographic National Lampoon_ In college: _National Lampoon Heavy Metal Photo Playboy Scientific American_ ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2006, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-magazines-did-you-read-in-your-childhood-teens/365215/28 "2006-07-20T01:22:20Z")
I don’t remember the name of the teen/pop star magazine that was popular when I was a teenager. It wasn’t _Teen_, it was trashier than that, I think. Mostly I read the true confessions and true crime mags – was there a Mickey Spillane magazine – I seem to remember that. And all the Creepy and Eerie I could find, and Mad and Cracked. I also read a magazine that had the lyrics to pop songs. Maybe that one was Hit Parade, but I don’t remember. I enjoyed my aunt’s Arizona Highways, and a friend’s dad’s Playboys. ---
**Author:** ![River\_Hippie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/river_hippie/32/26_2.png) [@River\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/River_Hippie)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2006, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-magazines-did-you-read-in-your-childhood-teens/365215/29 "2006-07-20T01:34:45Z")
Childhood: Mad CarToons, similar to Mad but dealing with hot rod/car culture. CycleToons, as above but motorcycles. Readers Digest Teens: Car Craft Hot Rod Any motorcycle magazines, dirt bikes, choppers, racing-didn’t matter. Outdoor Life Psychology Today, my Mom subscribed to this for years. Late teens/early twenties: Heavy Metal High Times Still into cars/motorcycles. Penthouse-Playboy ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2006, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-magazines-did-you-read-in-your-childhood-teens/365215/30 "2006-07-20T01:41:07Z")
Oh yeah, I almost forgot. As a teen I was also a heavy reader of _Twilight Zone_, a sci-fi short-story mag that went under after a couple of years. and if reading my parents’ magazines counts, then add in _National Geographic, Sports Illustrated_ and _Track & Field News_. ---
**Author:** ![River\_Hippie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/river_hippie/32/26_2.png) [@River\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/River_Hippie)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2006, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-magazines-did-you-read-in-your-childhood-teens/365215/31 "2006-07-20T01:48:19Z")
Wow, I just found a CarToons web site. I never realized it ran from the late 50s through 1991. I would have been reading it in the late 60s. [CarToons magazine](http://www.georgetrosley.com/60.html) ---
**Author:** ![Kozmik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8dc957/32.png) [@Kozmik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kozmik)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2006, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-magazines-did-you-read-in-your-childhood-teens/365215/32 "2006-07-20T02:08:54Z")
[QUOTE=Cowgirl Jules] My own kids read the \*Nickelodeon \* and \*Disney \* magazines, as well as \*National Geographic \* when it’s around. [/QUOTE] I can’t believe that _Nickelodeon Magazine_ is still around. I use to read it when I was a kid during what I regard as the Golden Age of Nickelodeon. I feel old. ---
**Author:** ![fishbicycle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aeb1de/32.png) [@fishbicycle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fishbicycle)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2006, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-magazines-did-you-read-in-your-childhood-teens/365215/33 "2006-07-20T02:12:53Z")
I don’t remember ever buying a _Mad_ magazine, but I’ve read plenty of them. I remember reading _Reader’s Digest_ at my grandmother’s house when I was small, but not for the feature articles - it was for the humorous anecdotes at the end of articles. My father had stacks and boxes of old “Popular Electronics” and “Popular Mechanics” magazines from the early '50s through the mid-'60s. In my teens, I bought _High Fidelity_, _Stereo Review_ and similar titles, _National Lampoon_, and any number of musicians’ publications - _Guitar Player_, _Keyboard somethingorother_, and recording technology magazines. _High Times_. And _Rolling Stone_, back when it mattered. Later on, I subscribed to _The 910_ and _Belmo’s Beatleg News_, the place where my wife discovered me in the classified section. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2006, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-magazines-did-you-read-in-your-childhood-teens/365215/34 "2006-07-20T02:13:02Z")
[QUOTE=Sublight] Oh yeah, I almost forgot. As a teen I was also a heavy reader of _Twilight Zone_, a sci-fi short-story mag that went under after a couple of years. [/QUOTE] More than a couple of years. I think it ran from 1981 until at least 1988. Great magazine – there hasn’t been anything like it since, for good horror, SF and fantasy fiction, interviews, movie info, etc. Plus TZ scripts. ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2006, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-magazines-did-you-read-in-your-childhood-teens/365215/35 "2006-07-20T02:28:18Z")
MAD, National Geographic, Surfing… ---
**Author:** ![supervenusfreak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@supervenusfreak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/supervenusfreak)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2006, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-magazines-did-you-read-in-your-childhood-teens/365215/36 "2006-07-20T02:32:32Z")
As a youth, my aunts gave me an annual subscription to Reader’s Digest. I believe that the first magazines I subscribed to on my own were Fangoria and Rolling Stone. ---
**Author:** ![Sunrazor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sunrazor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunrazor)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2006, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-magazines-did-you-read-in-your-childhood-teens/365215/37 "2006-07-20T03:30:44Z")
Ah, jeez, I am really gonna’ show my age! Okay, yes, I actually remember reading Weekly Reader in grade school. Avidly. When I joined Boy Scouts, I got and read Boy’s Life every month, cover to cover. Dad subscribed to Argosy, Time and Life, so I browsed through them – still read Time, and US News & World Report. The Denver Post had its own Sunday magazine, Empire – I read it while I was growing up, and later, as a journalism student, had two articles published in it. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2006, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-magazines-did-you-read-in-your-childhood-teens/365215/38 "2006-07-20T05:01:51Z")
I was reading _TV Guide_ by age six. I would also read _Highlights_ and _Jack and Jill_ whenever I was at my doctor’s or dentist’s office. When I was seven, I began reading parts of the _San Francisco Sunday Chronicle/Examiner_. I would also read _Mad_ whenever my father bought a copy. At age eight, I started reading the daily newspaper of whatever town I was in along with the short-lived revival of _Liberty_ magazine. I began reading _Time_ and _National Geographic_ on a semi-regular basis at age nine. I started reading _Time_ regularly at age eleven along with _Newsweek_, the long-defunct _New Times_, _Readers’ Digest_, _Writer’s Digest_, and–since I was a Boy Scout–_Boy’s Life_. Because my parents subscribed, I began to read _Sports Illustrated_, _Consumer Reports_, and _National Geographic_ on a regular basis at age twelve and _Esquire_ and _The Sporting News_ when I was 13. In junior high, I took advantage of the wider selection of magazines available in the library by adding _People, Saturday Review, Life \* (monthly version),_ U.S. News & World Report, Science, Psychology Today\*, and _Omni_ to my regular reading list. In high school, along with most of the publications I already mentioned, I regularly read _The New Republic, The Atlantic Monthly, Harper’s, National Review, The American Spectator_, and _The Nation_. I’m probably leaving a few out. ---
**Author:** ![Bobotheoptimist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/919ad9/32.png) [@Bobotheoptimist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bobotheoptimist)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2006, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-magazines-did-you-read-in-your-childhood-teens/365215/39 "2006-07-20T05:09:04Z")
Oh, National Geographic’s from 1917 to present (no, I’m not 90 years old, but my dear departed Gramma had a very impressive collection before the fire) I’ve recently convinced myself that it is not a sin to toss them after I’m done - since the whole collection is available on DVD… I think… Oh man, I sure hope so! I can’t believe I tossed 10 years of NG. I am SO going to hell. ---
**Author:** ![Baffle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/dec6dc/32.png) [@Baffle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baffle)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2006, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-magazines-did-you-read-in-your-childhood-teens/365215/40 "2006-07-20T05:16:21Z")
National Geographic: World (the kids version) Reader’s Digest [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-magazines-did-you-read-in-your-childhood-teens/365215.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-magazines-did-you-read-in-your-childhood-teens/365215.md?page=3)