INDEED teen magazines have changed - - but not as radically as suggested by your report (TES, January 28).
I was reading Jackie from 1970 through my early teens and I certainly don’t remember “pet pooch” stories as being typical. Like my friends, I bought it for news on pop groups, fashionbeauty features, comic strips (photo-stories came later) on the girl-gets-boygirl-doesn’t-get-boy theme and, of course, the Cathy and Claire problem pages.
Sex was a major concern - how not to get pregnant, contracepion myths, nasty infections, resisting pressure. These were our favourite pages because we wanted to know, and schools then (or certainly ours) didn’t tackle these issues at all.
Yes, teen magazines are more explicit. They also present far more positive images of girlswomen than I ever came across.
So don’t don rose-tinted spectacles when reviewing those comics of 30 years ago. They and we, were doing more than just “snogging”!
S A Davies
26 Thomas Street
St Pauls
Bristol