We Still Love Sassy
Sassy inspired a cult following that echoes today. So, like, why is that? Elizabeth Woyke asks the big questions you want answered.
THROUGHOUT its eight-year life, Sassy
trailed behind the other giants in the teen
magazine field Seventeen, YM, Teen in circulation
and in advertising. But if magazines
were measured by reader devotion, Sassy
would have been the leader. With its mix of
irony, irreverence and straight talk, Sassy
inspired slavish devotion among teenage
girls, a group with notoriously fickle tastes.
Even now, eight years after its last issue was
printed, Sassy remains a cult favorite of twentysomething
women. Aficionados continue
to post highly personal in memoriam essays
about it on the Internet and snap up old
copies on eBay.And it continues to make an indelible impression on the industry through its talented alumnae. Former editor Jane Pratt now edits an eponymous magazine, Jane, owned by Fairchild Publications. Sassy writer Kim France heads Condé Nast s Lucky. Atoosa Rubenstein, once an intern at Sassy, was head of CosmoGirl! until she took the helm at Hearst s Seventeen. And Christina Kelly, a Sassy writer and editor, was in charge of YM until she resigned in late February, in a dispute with the publisher, Gruner + Jahr.
Perhaps more important than the rise of Sassy s staff at other magazines is the way Sassy s first-person voice and big-sister tone live on, shaping the way teen and women s magazines are written and edited today.
So, in the Sassy spirit, NYRM tracked down some former staffers to get caught up. Like, what do you miss most? Where are you now? And why did NYRM love Sassy so much?
NYRM: How come so many cool chicks
first worked at Sassy?:
Marjorie Ingall, contributing editor,
Glamour and a columnist for The Forward:
The women who worked at Sassy were superduper
smart and interesting. We didn t really
respond to focus group stuff. Instead, we
thought, Here s what I like and I think the
reader will like it too.
Mary Kaye Schilling, executive editor,
Entertainment Weekly: I give a lot of credit to
Jane Pratt for hiring opinionated, idiosyncratic
women, and for fostering an atmosphere
where writers were encouraged to follow
enthusiasms, speak their mind and write with
passion.
Mary Ann Marshall, freelance magazine
writer: Everyone at Sassy was very serious
about working in magazines. And, since Jane
Pratt had been so successful, we all saw that it
could be done.
Diane Paylor, editor of STANK magazine:
The Sassy staff was a bunch of leaders in an
industry where all people do is follow.
NYRM: What was it like to work there?
Schilling: Working there was a lot like
being back in high school, with all the idealism
and enthusiasm, but also the high drama
and superficiality.
Andi Zeisler, editorial/creative director, Bitch: It was very casual and seemed really
fun. The entire staff, interns included, would
pile into Jane Pratt s office for staff meetings.
It seemed very egalitarian in a way I d never
imagined would be true at a woman s magazine.
NYRM: Do you like your new job better?
Ingall: Sassy was the best staff job I ll ever
have. Fortunately, I think I knew it at the
time.
Karen Catchpole, senior editor, Jane: The
environment here at Jane is practically the
same as it was at Sassy we are, after all, simply
the grown-up version.
Schilling: EW is sort of like the adult Sassy grew up to be. At EW, the camaraderie is just as essential and fun.
NYRM: How come NYRM is allowed to,
like, write in this teenybopper voice?
Ingall: There s this terribly annoying trend
of Hi, I m your editor in chief, I m your pal,
in teen magazines now a lot of we, we, we.
Sometimes Sassy went too far with it, but I
think we were writing smart and challenging
pieces.
Schilling: Sassy created a certain kind of
journalism in America, where the writers
became personalities. First-person journalism
ultimately got old, but for the time Sassy was
around, it was genuine and refreshing and
trailblazing.
Zeisler: The casual tone with which Bitch often addresses readers and the audience in general may be, in some ways, cribbed from Sassy. We envisioned Bitch as Ms. crossed with Sassy.
Marshall: I got spoiled at Sassy because it
was all about writing with a personal voice,
which every other magazine frowns upon.
NYRM is aching for a Sassy fix. Any
advice?
Schilling: Probably Time Out and EW are the closest in tone and energy. But there are no teen magazines that come close to Sassy.
Catchpole: The only thing close to Sassy
is Jane, but we re obviously for an older
audience. Teenagers, unfortunately, are left
to sift through the same old teen titles
which did get slightly more progressive and
rooted in reality after the success of Sassy.
Zeisler: There's not much to compare with
Sassy on the newsstands now. The role of
celebrities as salespeople has really increased
since Sassy first launched, and that s had an
effect on how teen magazines speak to their
readers.
Ingall: Different teen magazines have had
different moments of smartness since the
90s. YM had a golden age, and Seventeen had
its moments. But Sassy had an evangelical,
loving vision of helping girls it s not the
same thing.
Marshall: I think the industry is crying
out for another Sassy, but no one has the
balls or the money to make it happen.
NYRM: So, what s the Sassy moral here?
Paylor: When you know who your audience
is, and your audience knows who you
are, they will be with you forever. Every
upstart publication is looking for the type of
bond Sassy had with its readers.
Zeisler: Staff frustration that the parent
company was allowing advertiser bias to
dictate what the magazine could print got
me interested in alternative publishing.
Sassy empowered teen girls to create their
own media.
Marshall: If you get together a group of
women who believe in what you re working
on, the sky s the limit in terms of quality
and creativity.
Schilling: To respect readers and not to
make generalizations.
Catchpole: You can t fool readers. Ever. 