“Black beauty was everywhere, and so I never once lamented my Blackness or thought it made me less beautiful.”
Nov 24, 2020
Ashley C. Ford writes about more than just her search to find a copy of Seventeen’s iconic August 1998 issue featuring Drew Barrymore. She reflects upon her life as an almost-thirteen year old, and the influence that teen magazines can have on a young girl at the precipice of teenage-hood. Her writing evokes feelings of nostalgia for a brief period of adolescence that I had completely forgotten about. I, too, coveted my own issues of Seventeen, YM, and Delia’s from the late-90’s as if they held secrets that would lead me through a gateway to a new dimension of girlhood. “History is public but the past is personal.”
