Cheryl Shops

Confession: I'm one of those girls who loved, loved, loved the magazine Sassy. I have nearly every issue saved (they're at my parents' house), and I devoured the excellent How Sassy Changed my Life. What was so great to me was that the magazine let its editors' and writers' personalities into the magazine, so much that I felt like they were actually my friends, or at least cool girls I could look up to. One of those editors was Kim France, who went on to edit Lucky, taking a similar tactic in bringing its editors onto its pages. Kim is no longer the editor at Lucky, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss her, so I was beyond overjoyed to see she started a blog called Girls of a Certain Age. It is very clearly her voice—cool, a little neurotic, honest—and while many of the posts are about shopping (everything from store reports to cool products), she also interviewed fellow Sassy alum Christina Kelly, and hopefully will continue that practice (where are Mary and Karen?!). The blog is geared toward women in their 30s and 40s, so obviously I'm the target audience, but I can't help but feel like I've reconnected with a long-lost friend.

Elsewhere on the blogosphere, Sea of Shoes and The Cut are engaged in a war of words over this profile of SOS's Jane Aldridge in Texas Monthly. Jane apparently had no problem with the article until this post on The Cut, snarkily analyzing the profile. Jane issued a rebuttal; The Cut responded. My take? The TM story is a pretty damn good profile—it's an award-winning publication, after all—and while Jane comes across as a bit...snobby...you can't help but admire her for knowing what she wants and going after it—successfully—at such a young age (she's 20), so who cares if she's not going to college? (Nor do I care that she drinks a glass of champagne in the story; I did far worse things at that age.) Jane is now claiming a bunch of quotes were taken out of context by The Cut, and that she was misquoted by TM; Texas Monthly stands by their reporting. Jane may be savvy beyond her years when it comes to her blog, but she's certainly showing her age when it comes to her lack of media training.