Rising above Blue Jeans and Patches, and even Misty, Jackie magazine holds a warm spot in my heart. I remember Jackie above all the others. It’s not just a retrospective thing, since I met one of my writing heroes, Jacqueline Wilson, at the BBC studios and found out that she was the original editor (and it was named after her, though according to Wikipedia this is an urban myth). I think that Jackie stands apart from the other teen mags of the era on quality. And I’m obviously not the only one because there are now available Best of Jackie compendiums.
In the main it wasn’t the photo stories of gorgeous boy romance, or the agony aunt pages with realistic problems, it was the photos of girls cuddling fluffy animals on the covers that I liked best. I wanted to be that rabbit and have my ears fondled! I never bought the magazine myself (would not face the ridicule) but my sister often had old copies lying around and I’d read them secretly just to see what real girls felt like.
I thought there must be something that I could tap into as a way of getting through school and at least pretending to be a girl so I didn’t get picked on. Jackie was good research. It helped me to understand that the nonsense that passed for conversation in the school playground (sorry, yard) was a cover for insecurity and embarrassment. And if the other girls wouldn’t talk to me then that was okay because I could get inside their heads by reading Jackie.
I still don’t totally understand women, but I think that Jackie was a better and less misleading education than the one I got from porn mags in the eighties.
Josie Henley-Einion, author, blogger, Legend in my own Living Room
Filed under: Brands, Culture, Literature, Love, Magazines | Tagged: girls, Jackie, magazine |
Pop&Crisps - Memories of the Seventies 
would love to find a copy of jackie from the seventies brief story on photo story was girl falls for swimming pool attendant at local baths