Jackie (magazine) facts for kids

Jackie was a weekly British magazine for girls. The magazine was published by D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd of Dundee from 11 January 1964 until its closure on 3 July 1993 — a total of 1,534 issues. Jackie was the best-selling teen magazine in Britain for ten years, particularly in the decade of the 1970s.

Title

The name was chosen from a list of girls' names, although it was nearly dropped due to the association with Jackie Kennedy following her husband's assassination in 1963. An urban legend exists that it was named after Jacqueline Wilson, who worked there before she became a notable children's author. Although the author has attempted to perpetuate this claim, this has been denied by those who were involved in the launch.

Content

During the 1970s, Jackie published a mix of fashion and beauty tips, gossip, short stories, and comic strips. The latter were usually illustrated with line drawings or posed photographs, especially if the story involved a "reader's true-life experience." Both the comics and the short stories invariably dealt with either romance or family issues. The centre pages of the magazine usually contained a pull-out poster of a popular band or film star. The magazine featured a section called Silly Star File, a humorous interview with figures from the world of pop music.

Jackie became very popular with young teenage girls, not least because of the Cathy and Claire problem page, which received 400 reader letters a week and dealt with controversial issues that were nonetheless relevant to the readership.

Contributors

Ex-RAF Engine Fitter Gordon Small was the first editor. TV critic Nina Myskow was a former editor, as well as its first female editor.

Notable writers

• Chrissie Glazebrook, novelist

Notable models

Models and feature story characters in Jackie included:

• Shirley Manson — Singer of band Garbage, actress
• Fiona Bruce — BBC newsreader
• Leslie Ash — actress
• Hugh Grant — actor

In other media

The magazine also inspired a musical.