Five Fashion Magazines Even Grown-Ups Can Use

Beyond Just A Fashionista

Sep 14, 2011 by Tish Grier

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According to most fashion and beauty magazine publishers, women “age out” of fashion magazines somewhere in their 40s. By that time, we’re supposed to have grown up to “mommy mags’ like Good Housekeeping, Women’s Day, and Family Circle. Or we’ve decided to go the route of Real Simple, Martha Stewart Living, or Better Homes & Gardens. Not that there’s anything bad about those magazines—they are, perhaps, not where we’re at in our lives.

Or we could graduate to More magazine and Real Beauty. Personally, I find these two a bit like the Chinese food of fashion and beauty mags: they’re fine at the time, but forgettable two hours later.

Yet there’s hope! Over the past year I’ve been reading fashion magazines like there’s no tomorrow. I didn’t read this many fashion magazines even when I was a young club-gong hipster! Out of all the titles on the shelves, though, there are five magazines that are relevant to any woman who’s still interested in looking good and getting important beauty and health information. Here they are, in no particular order

1. Allure: Everything you will need to make sense of the explosion of beauty products hitting the markets. From sparkly lip gloss to eye de-puffing age correctors, every month gives great reports on products in every price range, for every age group. If you travel and want to know the best spa inSeattle, or where to get a perfect pedicure inPhiladelphia, Allure’s got that info, too. Their annual Reader’s Awards are every beauty consumer’s must-read. Not to mention great features on everything beauty every month.

2. Lucky: The focus of Lucky is shopping, shopping, shopping. Every month gives you a page of sticky page markers so you can keep track of items you’d like to purchase. Lucky is one of the few magazines that shows many curvy actresses on its covers. Recently, Lucky featured curvaceous Christian Raines of MadMen, and actress-designer Lauren Conrad (whose jeans for Kohls, I can attest, fit like a dream on my curvy 50 body.) More important though, are monthly features on health-related topics. A recent feature on milks (soy, almond, cow, etc) was a real eye opener.

3. People Style Watch: More of a celebrity focused “what are they wearing” editorial policy makes it different from Lucky, but it also offers a different perspective. Feature after feature gives you not just a breakdown of what celebs are wearing, but also what you can find at the local mall that looks almost like that celeb look. Listing prices, websites, etc. People Style Watch shows how to create affordable looks at any price point and at any age—yes, they even show stylish middle-aged celebs like Juilanne Moore and Sharon Stone.

4. Cosmopolitan: The bible of sexiness. So, why should a grown up need this mag? After all these years, Cosmo still has the best sexual health information on a monthly basis. It’s just not enough to read one issue of a mag devoted to sex: grown ups need to be reading about the latest in lubricants as much as we need to be reading about the latest news in combating STDs or how to talk to the men in our lives about sex. Cosmo makes sex smart, safe (without being paranoid) and fun.

5. Harper’s Bazzar: Probably the grande damme of fashion magazines, Harper’s Bazzar speaks to every woman from 20 to 70 with short, frankly written features on timely grown-up topics (adultery, the pressures of staying young) along with lots of advice on how to take trends and incorporate them into your personal style. Think you can’t wear Marc Jacob’s polka-dots. Think again! HB will show you how at 40, 50, 60 and 70!

Graphic credit: Fashionably Just

About the Author

Tish Grier Has Written 6 Articles For Us!

I am a freelance writer with a focus on the impact of social media on the newspaper industry for Poynter.org. I also am a social media strategist. I have been a professional blogger for a multi-national telecom, a thought-leader blog network and several noteworthy projects, as well as a community developer for Placblogger.com, Assignment Zero, and NewsTrust.

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