| Star Magazine - Hair, Beauty & Fashion Finds Galore |
| Karen Marie Shelton |
| Date: 10/13/2004 |
Introduction
 When I was an impressionable teen living in St. Louis so many years
ago, I would religiously save my hard-earned, part-time, after school
wages to indulge in all the teen-friendly fashion, hair and
beauty magazines.
Back then, before the existence of Vogue Teen
my reading addictions included Teen, Seventeen and of course YM.
(Image of March 22, 2004 issue of Star Magazine - all rights
reserved).
As I moved from naive teen to more worldly college student, or at
least I thought so, my tastes in fashion magazines evolved to include Glamour. I
also shared the required college girl addiction to Cosmopolitan and
eventually Allure.
As I moved away from my college years into the world of business my reading tastes
for fashion focused magazines continued to evolve according to my
age and spending budgets. Although I continued to regularly check out
Cosmo, Glamour and Allure, I added the ultimate beauty and fashion
bible, Vogue to my monthly magazine splurges.
Techie Mags Meet Vogue, Elle & Bazaar
Since I was toiling in the "real world" of software and systems
engineering, I would mix up some techhead Dr. Dobbs Journal purchases with my Vogue,
Elle and Bazaar. Yes, I got really strange looks from the
bookstore checkout dudes trying to figure out if I was a computer nerd
dressed as a fashionista or vice versa.
In 1998 when my karma sucked me kicking and screaming into the hair
and beauty worlds, I found myself buying and devouring any and all
publications that had anything even remotely to do with fashion,
hair or beauty.
As the gigantic packrattish stacks of hair, beauty and fashion
related magazines took over my humble abode,
I became overwhelmed with my inability to manage my fashionista
inspired research materials.
Color Coding My Magazine Collections
After some thought, my
engineering evil twin emerged with an organization plan to help restore order to my magazine chaos. I implemented a color coded
post-it style system of flags that allowed me to mark pages and sections of each
magazine for future retrieval.
Red flags were designated
markers for any information related to hair care and styling.
Blue was allocated for beauty while green won the fashion category.
Yellow, which reminded me of real gold were used for my true
passion, hair or
related accessories. As my interests expanded, I added new
colored flags. In some cases I even had a patchwork of colored
flags to signify a major hair, fashion or accessory find.
Although it sounds crazy,
if you understood my flagging system and could somehow make your way into my
HairBoutique.com library, you could instantly spot topic concentrations
by little flags peeking out over the tops of a dizzying array of
magazine publications spanning many years. And no, I do not have a
lending program.
Rag Mags To The Rescue
After my addiction to
hair, beauty and fashion magazines had stabilized I discovered that
I was unwilling to take my precious magazine cargo on any
out-of-town trips.
While some people buy and easily discard those mags that they pick
up in the airport news shops, once I own any type of glossy
publication, it is mine for life. Which meant lugging extra
baggage full of newly purchase airport reading goodies.
Consequently I started to
feed my voracious reading addiction on business trips with the
so-call "rags" designed to titillate with stories of celebrity
scandals. While I was often skeptical about some of the latest
reports on Britney, Jessica, Demi or Oprah, I was always
entertained. Even better, I had no pangs of guilt when I
donated my fingerprint stained copies to flight attendants or fellow
airport travelers.
During my early rag days
I didn't have a noticeable preference for any particular scandal
magazine. While I read the Star, I also sucked the print off
the pages of the National Enquirer and Globe. I was also a fan
of People and eventually US Weekly and InTouch which were designed
to be scandal tomes "in disguise as weeklies".
Star Magazine Breaks Out
 Imagine
my surprise and total joy when Star magazine started focusing
on hair, beauty and fashion. Ahhh, topics so near and dear to
my heart that I was beside myself with happiness.
Whereas in past times I would quickly flip through Star to check out the latest celeb
gossip, I found myself lingering over the new sections that included
celebrity fashions.
(Image from August 23,
2004 issue of Star Magazine - all rights reserved).
Towards the end of
2003 I noticed that my weekly Star purchases were requiring a much
larger percentage of colored flag utilization. I also
found myself unwilling
to discard a single issue of any Star Magazines purchased at
checkout counters or in airport news stands. In fact, I
started to routinely travel out of my way to a Barnes and Nobles bookstore to
buy my weekly issue since I was no longer willing to throw caution
to the fates and try to grab a Star at the local 7-11.
Heavens, what if they were sold out or didn't have the latest
copies?
By early 2004 I purchased
a Star issue that used every single color of my flag indexing
system. I created a special place in my Hairboutique.com
library for Star magazine. Needless to say, this was a first
since I previously only preserved hair, beauty and fashion editions.
The look of Star
continued to change as each week's edition got bigger, glossier and
jammed chock full of incredible fashion, beauty and hair
information. The magazine evolved from the old newsprint style
of paper to gorgeous slick paper with full technicolor spreads.
I was overcome with a
pure fit of shopping frenzy when the June 28th issue had a two page
full color spread on Baby Doll fashions. The Baby Doll Shoes
blew me away. In fact, I still have dreams about the Michael
Antonio heels that were included in that feature.
I would never have
believed that Star could get any better but whoa, they continue to
blow my Steve Madden zippered leggings off every week.
Now when I buy my
weekly copy at Barnes & Noble right after I get my daily Starbucks,
I have to stop and flip immediately to the fashion pages or risk an
accident while motoring. One week I tried to eyeball the latest fashion and
hair pages while driving to work. I came very close to getting
a speeding ticket for Driving Under The Influence Of Star (DUISTAR).
Conclusion
What else can I say about
The Star other than when it comes to hair, beauty and fashion
information it is perfectly named. And yes, you can relax,
Star still has all the latest on celebrity nuptials, weight changes
and scandals. Even better are the What's In & Out, the Hey!
Remember Me and Star Style Stalkers features. The Stalkers weigh in on Worst of the
Week and Most Gorgeous of the Week with amazing accuracy.
Sometimes I could swear they are reading my own thoughts when I
check out some of the celebs.
Victoria Gotti, when not
busy being a sizzling reality star shares hot celebrity secrets.
Meanwhile you can find Athena's famous lucky star to give you an
energy boost and a fun StarScope. I could babble on indefinitely
about Star but hey, this publication is so fabulous you have to
experience it real and in person to understand.
Just be sure to have a
designated driver present so you can enjoy every single page without
even the tiniest distraction.
Kudos to all the fabulous
folks at Star! |