Monday, May 9, 2011 at 10:03AM Review: Pratt is back with Sassy 2.0
April 1992, Sassy's most famous cover/Image courtesy of Matilda Publishing
Do you remember Sassy? I mean remember it, as in you are currently north of your 30th birthday and are old enough to have read, and loved, one of the most legendary teen-driven magazines in American publishing history. Do you? I do. For me, Sassy was a big part of those delicate years before and during high-school. Never condescending, and always filled with truth and humor, founding Sassy editor Jane Pratt established her magazine as one that addressed the realities of being young in a post-Brady Bunch world.
The Sassy discussion was not a sanitized YM version of teen angst where helping mom with housework and washing your face with ivory soap could conquer anything ninth grade threw your way. It was a realistic exploration of school, sex, drugs, and identity that teens who weren't necessarily the most popular in school could relate to. Sassy was a revolution. Sassy wasn't trying to get its readers to conform, it was trying to help them form their own ideas in spite of parental and peer pressures.
Of course, Pratt did not create this revolutionary magazine on her own; Sassy was staffed with some of the best writers in the business including Christina Kelly, Karen Catchpole, and Catherine Gysin, all of whom brought intelligence and hilarity to the magazine and made it something to look forward to each month. From infamous interviews with Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love to the discovery of Chloe Sevigny, Sassy gave people under the age of 18 a media forum all their own.
And then it was gone. Just 6 years after Pratt and Matilda Publication CEO Sondra Yates founded Sassy, the magazine was bought out, dumbed down, and within two more years closed completely. Oh sure, Pratt had her Ricki-Lake-esque talk show, and years later her eponymously titled Jane Magazine, but both those projects were decidedly more commercial than the original magazine, and decidedly less inspiring, leaving all those Sassy lovers out in the cold to find their way in a less fulfilling media universe.
In recent years, loving Sassy has re-emerged as an alt-cool badge of honor, thanks in part to Tavi Gevinson, the now 14-year-old blogger who claims to have discovered the magazine and developed an obsession with it via her mother's collection. This new attention to Sassy has launched a book, countless articles on its legacy, and many an op-ed piece addressing why someone born in 1996 (Gevinson) can't possibly understand what Sassy really meant to a generation of women.
And so like all cult classics that return from the grave to live a new life, Sassy was remade and launched this week online as XOJANE.COM. Helmed by Jane Pratt, XO JANE is described as:
"XoJane is the where women go when they are being selfish, and where their selfishness is applauded. This is not the place to go to find out how to please your husband, mom, kid, or boss. This is the place to indulge in what makes you feel good. We are not snarky, but inclusive and uplifting while remaining nothing but honest at all times. Like Sassy and Jane before it, XOJane is written by a group of women (and some token males) with strong voices, identities and opinions, many in direct opposition to each other, who are living what they are writing about."
Not to be confused with the rumored collaboration between Pratt and Gevinson, XOJane is Pratt's project entirely, which upon first read appears to be targeted at the original Sassy readers who are now adult women in their mid 20's and 30's. So for all those anti-Tavi-ites who were enraged at the thought of a 14 year old giving out 'life advice' and writing "it happened to me" stories, rest assured that will not be happening at XOJane.
So what IS happening at XOJane? Some very good writing is happening, that is sure. Between contributor Emily McCombs's breath-takingly honest "My rapist friended me on Facebook" to Cat Marnell's hilarious "I spent two weeks in a mental hospital but left with better hair," much of the old Sassy Spirit lives on.
And much of it is missing. Like nearly all remakes, XOJane is currently lacking a lot of the soul of Sassy. The relatively small editorial staff has talented writers such as McCombs and Marnell stretched too thin. Each of the Jane XO writers is currently covering a wide variety of topics, some clearly outside their expertise, which leads to some seemingly-slapped together articles that feel forced and overburdened with kitschy sassy-esque speak.
Does this mean certain failure for XOJane? Certainly not. Just like Sassy most likely stumbled in its first few publications (honestly I can't remember much from the first few issues), XOJane will need time to hone its voice, and strike a balance between the 90’s era teen speak that made its predecessor famous and the adult world language most of its intended audience uses. Let's just hope there are enough of us actual readers around to keep Pratt’s magazine going this time so we don’t need another 14 year old to come along and ‘rediscover’ her work 20 years from now.
What say you Wyldies? Have you checked out XOJane? Do you love it? Hate it? Wish Tavi was a part of the project? Let us know in the comments!
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