The full title of this post was going to be ‘All The Magazines I Ever Subscribed To’, and then true to form I got pissed off by the dangling preposition and ‘All The Magazines To Which I Ever Subscribed’ was a bit pretentious.
It’s better to hide how pretentious I am until the actual meat of the post, and keep the title innocuous until all reading visitors are trapped.
I’m going to try to divide this post up into a rough chronology, but the magazines don’t actually fit clear delineations so well, and there was more overlap than I’m going to present in this post. All in all, the time segments are, in actual fact, much more wiggly.
Elementary:
The only magazine to which I can REMEMBER being subscribed in Elementary school is Ranger Rick. In case you weren’t blessed with Ranger Rick in childhood and have not run into it in any other way, it’s a wildlife-focused publication for kids ostensibly helmed by a cartoon raccoon. There are puzzles and stuff.
Early Middle School:
In early middle school I had an odd mix of the following:
- Seventeen
- TeenVogue
- Young Rider
- Horse Illustrated
I got caught up in the fashion magazine thing after reading a few after sleeping next to them on my cousin Megan’s floor. The first TeenVogue I had was the one with Chanel Iman, Karlie Kloss, and Ali Michael together on the cover. It’s kind of bittersweet because since then two of them have become hugely famous top models. Ali Michael has struggled with anorexia (much as I have). And I can’t say how much of it was fed by the beauty-and-body-focused publications of Seventeen and TeenVogue. And it was my first experience with really being exposed to rampant consumerism and the heartache of wanting so much and desiring so many out of reach beautiful things was new to me. Growing up is weird. Mixed in with the pain of discovering life as an adult are also the glimpses back at simpler things (Traumarama! Stupid personality quizzes! Horoscopes!).
And then as I got more serious about riding I spent a fair amount of time poring over Young Rider and Horse Illustrated. I have particularly strong memories of a Horse Illustrated guide to nematodes and how to deworm your horse. Other standouts: sheath cleaning, recovery from colic, poisonous plants (yew!), and how to say goodbye to your horse when it needs to be put down (I cried reading it).
Late Middle School into High School:
- Vogue
- Elle
- Allure
- Marie Claire
- Elle
- Lucky
- Harper’s Bazaar
- Practical Horseman
- Dressage Today
From Middle School to High School I guess I just took a step up all around to more serious publications, both with regards to sartorial whatevers (I don’t think I was ever subscribed to ALL of these at once) and horsemanship.
High School Addition:
This Old House I added in High School. I loved TOH and would still love it if it hadn’t changed hands and altered in many ways afterward.
List Mimsy 