# 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:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2006, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-magazines-did-you-read-in-your-childhood-teens/365215/41 "2006-07-20T12:51:22Z")
Preteen: \*\*Newsweek Life Boy’s Life \*\* Once I hit my teenage years: \*\*National Lampoon Mad Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction Fantastic Sports Illustrated \*\* ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2006, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-magazines-did-you-read-in-your-childhood-teens/365215/42 "2006-07-20T12:57:50Z")
As a kid, **Boys Life Life Time National Geographic Lots of Comics Classics Illustrated Treasure Chest of Fun and Fact** The last two were nominally comics, but heavily educational. I learned more about the French Revolutuion and WWII from the Classiocs Illustrated Special Editions on those events than I ever did in _any_ school class on them. Treasure Chest was a Catholic educational comic that I still love. It stayed away from being heavy-handed, and had great continued stories that ran for 10 issues. It also had short treatments of science, history, and biography – stuff Dopers would love. Frank Borth’s series “How to Draw” was superb (done by one of TC’s stable of artists – who had once done Phantom Lady!). They even had stuff on sports and housecraft that I could get interested in. I was a latecomer to Mad, but once I started, I didn’t miss an issue until I got married. I was never a big fan of their competitors, Cacked or Sick or Crazy or National L:ampoon. ---
**Author:** ![KRC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/45deac/32.png) [@KRC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KRC)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2006, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-magazines-did-you-read-in-your-childhood-teens/365215/43 "2006-07-20T13:37:00Z")
As a child: Highlights when I was about 6 Cricket when I was older Ranger Rick Audubon (nice pictures; the pollution and endangered animals were depressing) Reader’s Digest As a teen: Audubon Newsweek Reader’s Digest (though by then I found it rather lame and old fashioned) Guideposts (another lame magazine but good for a few laughs) Rolling Stone and occasionally Hit Parader or Creem Playboy (we’d steal it from my Dad) People (silly but sometimes had an interesting article.) National Geographic Mad Magazine As an Adult: Bird Talk ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Rieux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Dr.Rieux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Rieux)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2006, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-magazines-did-you-read-in-your-childhood-teens/365215/44 "2006-07-20T14:53:31Z")
(Note: I was teenager in the '70s.) Humor: _Mad_, _Crazy_, and (occasionally) _Cracked_. Music: _Creem_, _Circus_, _Rolling Stone._ SF: _F&SF_, _Analog_, _Galaxy_, _Amazing_, _Fantastic_, _Asimov’s_. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2006, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-magazines-did-you-read-in-your-childhood-teens/365215/45 "2006-07-20T16:27:15Z")
I had a subscription to **Highlights** when I was a kid. I always read it cover-to-cover and occasionally did the art projects. There was also a magazine called \*\*Penny Power \*\* (I think that was the name?) (which may be the same as **Rhythmdvl’s Pennywise** ) which I think changed it’s name to **Zillions** …gosh, I remember reading that thing cover-to-cover. It was about managing your money - for kids!! I totally forgot about this magazine till just now…and it explains a lot about my miserly ways! There was a **Sports Illustrated for Kids**. I got it when it first came out. I liked it a lot. Bo Jackson was the shit at the time so I remember reading a lot about Bo. When i got older my brother and I got **Rolling Stone**. Then I became offended by RS for some reason and thought they were sellouts and subscribed to **Spin** in college. I had a subscription to **Cosmopolitan** for a while but just cancelled it this year. Realized they start to repeat themselves after a while. Now I just read **Wired**. It makes me feel sm4rt. All those other kids magazines…I never had a subscription to them but I spent a lot of time at the pediatrician’s office so I FEEL like I subscribed 🙂 ---
**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, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-magazines-did-you-read-in-your-childhood-teens/365215/46 "2006-07-20T21:15:37Z")
Did anyone ever have a subscription to Zoobooks Magazine? I remember Zoobooks from the TV commerials that were contstantly on, though I never did get a subscription. ---
**Author:** ![Jayn\_Newell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Jayn\_Newell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jayn_Newell)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2006, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-magazines-did-you-read-in-your-childhood-teens/365215/47 "2006-07-20T21:38:03Z")
When I was young I read _Highlights_ for a while, and _Ranger Rick/Wild_\* for years (I still have a couple boxes of that somewhere…I preferred the former to the latter though :(). As a teen I had a subscription to _YM_ thanks to my cousin, but I never got to read all of it–they were going to her house rather than mine, and after a few months they started vanishing. Turns out her daughter had been taking them (This surprised me, her daughter is six years younger than me, and hadn’t even hit the double digits yet). My favorite though was a free one I picked up at school called _What! a magazine_. I also read, more recently, _Reader’s Digest_ and _Time_. The latter wore thin around 2003, at which point I was skipping most of the magazine (namely, anything to do with the Middle East), but the only reason I don’t read either anymore is that Mom no longer has active subscriptions. She stopped reading _Time_ before I did I think, but my first year of college she still passed them forward to me. \*My subscription ran so long I started seeing the similar articles to ones I’d read a few years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2006, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-magazines-did-you-read-in-your-childhood-teens/365215/48 "2006-07-20T21:47:14Z")
[QUOTE=Sublight] 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 [/QUOTE] I had a subscription to _Electric Complany_, followed by _World_, _Boy’s Life_, _MAD_, and _Hot Rod_. My brothers had also subscribed to _Boy’s Life_ and _MAD_ so I was reading their '60s issues before I got my own. My parents liked going to garage sales; they picked up some _Smithsonian_, _Reader’s Digest_, and _Car and Driver_ collections when I was in high school. ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-magazines-did-you-read-in-your-childhood-teens/365215/49 "2006-07-21T01:11:14Z")
My first magazine subscription was Sky & Telescope when I was twelve. ---
**Author:** ![Arien](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Arien](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arien)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-magazines-did-you-read-in-your-childhood-teens/365215/50 "2006-07-21T02:54:01Z")
My aunt got me subscriptions to Highlights, Cricket, and Ladybug (younger kid’s version of Cricket). Actually I think Ladybug was mine and Cricket was for my older sister but I read both. I also submitted a drawing to Highlights without success, **kiz** , so I feel your pain. I also read my parents’ Reader’s Digests. I think I was the only one who did; they were also a gift from my aunt. Later when I was 12-13, I bought issues of Seventeen and YM regularly. After that, a friend of the family had a bunch of magazine subscriptions and I would read his old SPIN magazines. Now sometimes I read Entertainment Weekly while waiting for a dentist appointment, but other than that I don’t really read magazines anymoe. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-magazines-did-you-read-in-your-childhood-teens/365215/51 "2006-07-21T13:49:44Z")
[QUOTE=AuntiePam] … 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. [/QUOTE] RE Creepy and Eerie- whew! I thought I was gonna be the only one who named them! And of course, Famous Monsters and Vampirella from the Warren group (I never got into 1984). And from the Marvel group, Dracula Lives!, Tales of the Zombie and Vampire Tales. National Geographic (courtesy of Dad), Boys Life, Mad, and Cracked. UFO Magazine, Ancient Astronauts, and the old standard FATE. I also read the Pop Lyrics magazine. Hit Parade did have lyrics, but also articles. I think the Lyrics magazine was a spin-off. Near my late teens, Christianity Today, Moody Monthly, National Review, American Opinion (the Birch Society’s monthly journal), American Atheist (for a change of pace), Catholic Digest, and whatever religious mags the library carried at the time. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-magazines-did-you-read-in-your-childhood-teens/365215/52 "2006-07-21T13:54:50Z")
Aaah! **Famous Monsters of Filmland**! How could I forget? Great stuff. I also read some competitors and spin offs (Anybody remember **Monster World**? **Castle of Frankenstein**?), but not regularly. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-magazines-did-you-read-in-your-childhood-teens/365215.md?page=2)