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Authors: Kara Jesella
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course, on your definition of responsibility. To the Sassy staff, it was irresponsible, in light of the threat of AIDS and the possibility
of unwanted pregnancy, to pretend that teens werenât having sex; it was irresponsible to talk to teenagers about sex in a way that wouldnât connect with them; it was irresponsible to shy away from subjects that were important to teenagers simply because writing about them might piss off advertisers. Not to mention that it was more irresponsible to pretend that all of its readers were the consummate good girls, that their parents were always right, that sex wasnât the issue that loomed largest in their minds.
In other words, Sassy âs definition of responsibility was radically different from Seventeen âs. âYou werenât like, âOh, weâve got to give those girls the truth,ââ says Crichton, who was in charge of all the articles, of the magazineâs traditional role as an extension of the patriarchy. âYou were like, âWeâve just got to give those girls whatâs good for them.ââ
Itâs an attitude she probably learned from her boss, Midge Richardson, the editor in chief of Seventeen and an ex-nun. Midge grew up in a Catholic family in Los Angeles, a former child star who had appeared in a movie called The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer with Cary Grant, Myrna Loy, and Shirley Temple. But she put aside her Hollywood life when she found God, joined a convent, and became Sister Agnes, then a Mother Superior. She was heading a high school in her home city when she was stricken with psychosomatic blindness. The doctors told her that she would never regain her sight if she didnât make some major life changes. So she left the conventâand apparently thatâs all it tookâand wrote a memoir about her experience called The Buried Life . While she was doing press for the book, an editor at Glamour magazine called her up and offered her a job. She accepted.
One day, Alexander Liberman, the legendary Condé Nast editorial director, spotted her in the elevator and asked around about the cute girl who looked like a nun. âShe was a nun, until recently,â he was told. But she was quite fetching without her habit on. In fact, she caught the eye of Vogue photographer Gordon Parks, who sent her to France for a $10,000 makeover, including a chic new haircut from Vidal Sassoon. All of which is to say, by the time Jane Pratt appeared on the magazine scene, Midge wasnât totally uncool: she wore Ungaro and Chanel; she dated Burt Reynoldsâno rock star, true, but a furry-chested Cosmo centerfold all the same; and she later married Hamilton Richardson, a tennis star who had an apartment on Park Avenue, rented a huge house in Southampton, and owned a condo on Palm Beach.
âShe was a tough lady. She considered herself always the educator, always tied to young people,â says beauty editor Annemarie Iverson. âAnd thatâs kind of the way she ran it; it was the mother superior running Seventeen .â Mary Clarke, who worked at Seventeen before getting her job as the beauty editor of Sassy , agrees. âShe was like a school principal. She would walk down the halls and say, âGood morning.ââ At Monday editorial meetings, she informed the beauty and fashion departmentsâwhich consisted of more than a few fair-haired ice queensâwhat they would cover (she didnât care much about the articles). She would try to fire people because they chewed
gum like a cow or didnât know how to bend over properly in their miniskirts.
âItâs almost like talking dirty to kids,â Richardson said about the Sassy sex stories.
But her comments were likely politically motivated. For one thing, the two magazines were at war. ( Sassy âs 1994 entertainment poll asks, âWhoâs your favorite dinosaur? T. Rex, Barney, Aerosmith, or Midge Turk Richardson?â)
of unwanted pregnancy, to pretend that teens werenât having sex; it was irresponsible to talk to teenagers about sex in a way that wouldnât connect with them; it was irresponsible to shy away from subjects that were important to teenagers simply because writing about them might piss off advertisers. Not to mention that it was more irresponsible to pretend that all of its readers were the consummate good girls, that their parents were always right, that sex wasnât the issue that loomed largest in their minds.
In other words, Sassy âs definition of responsibility was radically different from Seventeen âs. âYou werenât like, âOh, weâve got to give those girls the truth,ââ says Crichton, who was in charge of all the articles, of the magazineâs traditional role as an extension of the patriarchy. âYou were like, âWeâve just got to give those girls whatâs good for them.ââ
Itâs an attitude she probably learned from her boss, Midge Richardson, the editor in chief of Seventeen and an ex-nun. Midge grew up in a Catholic family in Los Angeles, a former child star who had appeared in a movie called The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer with Cary Grant, Myrna Loy, and Shirley Temple. But she put aside her Hollywood life when she found God, joined a convent, and became Sister Agnes, then a Mother Superior. She was heading a high school in her home city when she was stricken with psychosomatic blindness. The doctors told her that she would never regain her sight if she didnât make some major life changes. So she left the conventâand apparently thatâs all it tookâand wrote a memoir about her experience called The Buried Life . While she was doing press for the book, an editor at Glamour magazine called her up and offered her a job. She accepted.
One day, Alexander Liberman, the legendary Condé Nast editorial director, spotted her in the elevator and asked around about the cute girl who looked like a nun. âShe was a nun, until recently,â he was told. But she was quite fetching without her habit on. In fact, she caught the eye of Vogue photographer Gordon Parks, who sent her to France for a $10,000 makeover, including a chic new haircut from Vidal Sassoon. All of which is to say, by the time Jane Pratt appeared on the magazine scene, Midge wasnât totally uncool: she wore Ungaro and Chanel; she dated Burt Reynoldsâno rock star, true, but a furry-chested Cosmo centerfold all the same; and she later married Hamilton Richardson, a tennis star who had an apartment on Park Avenue, rented a huge house in Southampton, and owned a condo on Palm Beach.
âShe was a tough lady. She considered herself always the educator, always tied to young people,â says beauty editor Annemarie Iverson. âAnd thatâs kind of the way she ran it; it was the mother superior running Seventeen .â Mary Clarke, who worked at Seventeen before getting her job as the beauty editor of Sassy , agrees. âShe was like a school principal. She would walk down the halls and say, âGood morning.ââ At Monday editorial meetings, she informed the beauty and fashion departmentsâwhich consisted of more than a few fair-haired ice queensâwhat they would cover (she didnât care much about the articles). She would try to fire people because they chewed
gum like a cow or didnât know how to bend over properly in their miniskirts.
âItâs almost like talking dirty to kids,â Richardson said about the Sassy sex stories.
But her comments were likely politically motivated. For one thing, the two magazines were at war. ( Sassy âs 1994 entertainment poll asks, âWhoâs your favorite dinosaur? T. Rex, Barney, Aerosmith, or Midge Turk Richardson?â)
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