Listen To Sassy: Life In The 90s

Want to learn how grim a teen's journey into gambling addiction actually is? NO? Well, too bad, because Catherine's piece on Kim Cohen leads off the features in the August 1989 issue. We also cover cheerleading, summer flings, the intimate results of the recent Sassy readers' poll, and a short story about a girl short-circuiting her mom's affair with an electrician (see what we did there). But wai...

The July 1989 quiz invites us to rate our social conscience and then feel very smug about ourselves -- but do we? Then it's on to your calls, which are the usual chaotic mix, careening from the summer movies of yesteryear to the unexpected cautionary tale that is the Harry Connick Jr. vehicle Copycat to the works of Canadian YA author Gordon Korman, with many stops in between. Get into or out of t...

The time has come to discuss the fashion (etc) of the July 1989 issue! We're back in Morocco for stories on colonial costume and culturally appropriative beauty! We're also doing vests and polka dots! We're learning how to stay safe in the sun! And we're...making a bandana cap? Or not! In the "etc" section, we're reviewing Jane's staff's review of her in Diary and commenting on the latest round of...

The pop culture coverage of the July 1989 issue gets into a lot of different areas. The breakup of Johnny Depp's latest engagement? An offensive Guns N' Roses song? Censorship? A surprising amount of Ken Ober? What Now goes there! We also get reviews of Say Anything ..., Road House , Boy George, and Julian Lennon, among many others. One To Watch tells us about Alex Désert, yet another young actor...

You're not going to believe this, but the first feature of the July 1989 issue -- about getting through vacations with your family -- is not extremely depressing; it's merely somewhat worrisome if you read between the lines about maintaining harmony amongst everyone on the trip. In fact, there's hopefulness in all the features, which also include a visit to Navajo and Hopi girls on an Arizona rese...

Listen To Sassy is changing from a weekly podcast to an every-other-weekly podcast; let us tell you why. (And also tell you we love you.) QUICK LINKS 🗒 Full episode notes can be found on this episode's page on ListenToSassy.com JOIN THE LTS CLUB AND GET THE GOODIES 📖 Full cover-to-cover magazine PDFs 💬 Chat with us and your fellow listeners on Discord 🐣 Get episodes earlier than the general pub...

It's one thing to test your TV trivia IQ today, when there are hundreds of networks and dozens of streaming platforms. It's quite another to test how well you can recall TV trivia that, at its most recent, is 33 years old -- but your co-hosts bravely attempt it with the June 1989 quiz, Rate Your TV Trivia IQ. (Which of us got a perfect score? The answer won't surprise you.) Then it's on to your la...

Summer movie season is just around the corner, so for our latest special episode, we're traveling back 33 years to recall the summer movie season of 1989. We've collected a bunch of TV spots from that year's movie hits (and misses) and are sharing our memories of what we rushed out to see that June, July, and August...or what we just possibly happened to be on for a $2 Tuesday when we needed to so...

Want to dress like a John Waters protagonist, but only half the time? Risk abuse in a Muslim-majority country by flouting their standards of modest dress? Find a new way to confound your loved ones with bloomers? Give yourself a migraine with wildly complicated braids? The June 1989 issue is here for you! Our podcast on its fashion (etc.) also covers whether navy is basic; how young the cover mode...

Have you ever wanted to: know what's in a lava lamp? Get Sassy to approve of your taste in music? Find out where Karen and Tiffany stand one year after the disaster that was Karen's attempted profile? What Now covers all of this and more. Watch It reviews The Dream Team and Troop Beverly Hills (among others), but which is the Hit and which is the Bomb? The answer may surprise you! Opinions are spl...

The June 1989 issue starts with a downbeat feature to end all downbeat features: first-person accounts from survivors of incestuous child abuse. Fortunately, the rest of the issue keeps it light: Karen tells you how to land a summer job; Christina profiles young-adult activists; all the female staffers discuss where the best guys come from. Outside the features, there's blisters, butt pimples, Lon...

Have you ever wanted to know how susceptible you may be to possibly developing an addiction to...anything? The May 1989 quiz -- Rate Your Addictability -- claims to tell you how worried you should be about it, but we think it just might be too vague. As always, it's a joy to move on to your latest voicemails on such subjects as supporting your local abortion providers; which hair metal bands were...

Let's just say it's a May tradition to do a spread on day-glo swimsuits and a spread on white garments, because we got both of those in the May 1988 issue, and here they are again! There's also a spread that's reggae in fashion form, lessons on how to use blush, and tips to reduce stress -- or at least its effect on your looks -- that have not all aged particularly well. We go in on denim styles a...

The full complement of pop culture coverage returns for Sassy's May 1989 issue, PHEW. Following a What Now full of shrug items that read a lot like placeholders (what fell out?!), we're on to a very effusive Watch It, featuring Chances Are in the HIT slot and four-star reviews for Sing (not the one with animated animals) and Heathers. Listen Up vibes with Robyn Hitchcock and Elvis Costello's lates...

We're opening up a brand-new issue and discussing its Teen Life topics! What's it like to be a competitive weightlifter who is also female? Which camp should you go to...next year, since if you're reading recommendations in May it's too late for this summer? Do guys REALLY only want sex? And what kind of slang are they busting out in Boulder? All this and much more in our latest podcast -- the per...

As poorly qualified as I am to uplift individuals and communities on a global scale to prescribe a course of action, I hope you will bear with me while I begin this sincere and earnest attempt. And please don’t get mad with me if, in doing so, I must rail against the pseudoscience that attempts—and continually fails—to prove that it is Major American Corporate Conglomerates’s moral imperative to s...

Declining to submit ourselves to the literal vocabulary quiz in the April 1989 issue of Seventeen, we launch straight into your calls. What is it like indoctrinating your kids into They Might Be Giants fandom? What were the smart kids called at your school? How does Dave make flavored powder stick to his popcorn? And what call prompts a deep dive on colored toilet paper? Listen to our latest Slumb...

It's a slimmed-down Fashion (etc.) issue this month, but we still find plenty to yell about in the features. Why aren't any of the photos in "Going Fast" in focus? What is aspirational about a swimsuit shoot in a swamp? Who are they trying to kid with this friggin' hat story? All this plus a bunch of new ads, a deep dive on Sassy Club and much much more in our latest episode! QUICK LINKS 🗒 Full ep...

Pop culture offerings are slimmed down this month -- everyone was tired after the big anniversary issue, perhaps! -- but there's still lots of What Now to discuss, from the death of Acid House to the Brady ladies to Axl Rose's tresses, and...everything in between? A remarkably effusive Watch It delivers four-star reviews to the likes of Criminal Law, The Return Of Swamp Thing, and Big Man On Campu...

The April 1989 issue is a little stripped-down -- no fiction, no quiz -- but still gives us lots to chew on. Catherine's profile of Andi, a teen addict, left us with a lot of questions. Laura Norton heads to a Yonkers high school to get close to its cliques. Christina and Jane's trip to spring break in Daytona Beach might not have gone into enough detail on a vacation that sounds like our worst ni...

The March 1989 issue's quiz invited us to Rate [Our] Social Style, so we did -- and we were all a bit dismayed by the results that came back. Then we get to your latest calls, which run the usual gamut from adding on to previous callers' remarks, sharing hilarious high school memories, and uninhibited musings (thanks, NyQuil)! We love all of you, and we hope you love our latest roundup! QUICK LINK...

Your prom is going to be here before you know it, so the March issues of every magazine marketed to teen girls is going to be full of dress inspiration, and Sassy is no exception. But how effective is "Photo Finish" at making its looks seem aspirational? We've got critiques! The issue also tells you how to dress for pool (as in snooker), which blouses will look best with your underwear (???), how...

If there's one thread that runs through nearly all the pop cultural coverage of the March 1989 issue, it's writers acting like preparation is for nerds. Christina admits in a What Now item that she assumed U2 was an inspiration for The Go-Betweens when it was actually the other way around. Neill reviews Rain Man without knowing anything about it. Christina jumps in on the Nightmare On Elm Street f...

We spend a lot of time talking about what Tara was doing in March 1989 -- at band camp for what would be the last time -- and then it's another jokefest about REGINA, perhaps because none of us is that excited about discussing a very long and journalistically very questionable article about "Young White Racists." But Karen's advice about "How To Ask The Time Without Hyperventilating" is nearly as...

After we take the confounding February 1989 quiz -- How Romantic Are You? -- and share our results, we dive into your latest calls, and they are doozies. Your fellow listeners tell us their experiences with: the scary "real" "memoir" Go Ask Alice; innovations in cursing by the children of Somerville, Massachusetts; and the antisocial uses of retail fitting rooms. But by far the most calls we've re...