If you’re anything like me, you probably spent your younger years pouring over magazines. I would read my mom’s stack of Redbook and Good Housekeeping, and, by the time I was in my teenage years, I’d moved on to buying Vogue at the drugstore — even if I didn’t quite grasp it’s society meets fashion meets culture angle yet.
And, while blogs piqued my interest as soon as they hit the internet, my love of flipping through a magazine never waned. These days, they pile up before I get to them more often than I’d like to admit, but I still love the satisfaction of leafing through, tearing out recipes I’d like to try or rooms I’d like to emulate, then closing it for good. As someone who’s a Finisher, in Gretchen Rubin’s terms, there’s a sense of accomplishment in the finite completion of reading a magazine.
The Magazines I Still Subscribe To
Currently, there are four magazine subscriptions that still find their way into my mailbox monthly. Two I subscribe to, and two I assume someone gifted me — and I’ll take it. There’s something both trendy and nostalgic about them. As I read through the seasonal content, I aspire to be the person whose recipes and decor change with each month. I’m not there yet, but if I read enough, someday I will be, right?
Garden & Gun
My absolute favorite. If you’ve been around here a while, you know my ultimate goal is to write for Garden & Gun. There’s a beautiful, literary cadence to their articles on culture and the diversity of personalities that make up what we know broadly as the South.
Southern Living
The classic. Southern Living will always be the perfect mix of travel, garden, style, and home. I love that it’s multi-faceted lifestyle — basically the original lifestyle blog in magazine form. Making their Tastemakers list will be a life goal for me (just need to figure out my niche…).
Real Simple
Real Simple was the first magazine I subscribed to as an adult, and I continue to love its accessible, everyday tone. It’s accessible rather than aspirational, and its clean, minimalist layout is quite literally, real simple.
Better Homes & Gardens
I believe my mom gifted me a subscription to Better Homes & Gardens a few years ago and it just kept coming. At first, I expected it to be antiquated — this is, after all, the same magazine I wrote my fourth year seminar paper on, exploring women’s evolving consumer power and feminism through the light of the birth of women’s home decor magazines. But, I love it. They go all out with holiday decor for every season and, given my aversion to overconsumption, I’ll never buy all new decorations for a Fourth of July party, but I get so much joy from looking at their ideas.
