Ten Kids Magazines I Grew Up With

Ah, nostalgia. I once talked about how much I loved TV Guide, but that wasn’t the only magazine I regularly enjoyed as a kid. Do they still have these in the day of iPad’s and kindel’s? It’s to bad if they don’t because they were a lot of fun. I am of course talking about magazines based on the popular TV, movies, and cartoons that were on. These weren’t usually that remarkable, they would have puzzles and games with the occasional story or comic regarding the product they were advertising for. Because let’s be honest, that’s what these were. Advertisements.

My research suggests that yes these still exist. Some that were around in my day are still around now, but that’s because they were so general they could appeal to kids over the years. For instance, we all know Highlights. If you went do a doctor’s office as a kid in the 80’s, you saw this magazine. It was basically a straight up activity magazine, just without the popular characters. But while it had nothing more substantive than that, it’s been around for ages and is still going strong with phone apps. Ranger Rick, a nature magazine, started in 1967 and is still around. Remember how Doug Walker has said he hates the cartoon Doug because he was made fun of due to the same name? Yeah let’s just say I have similar feelings for this magazine.






Now these weren’t teen magazines. They were geared for kids. I never read teen magazines since I was never a teenage girl. There were tons of them from Teen Beat to Teen People to Seventeen but that’s another topic. And I added the pic but Nintendo Power is not listed here. Sorry, never read it.

Here are the magazines I remember growing up with :




Sesame Street

This one has been around for ages and has left and come back a few times. And it’s harmless thought not very memorable. I remember the Little Golden Books better than these. These are meant for very little kids.








Electric Company

I had the same feelings about the magazine that I did for the TV show. Ehh. It was ok. It was meant for kids a little to old for the Sesame Street Magazine (seriously, that’s how it was advertised on the covers!) with articles rather than just games. This was probably my first exposure to Spider-Man who featured. And that’s all I really have to say about it.






321 Contact

I loved this magazine (later called Contact Kids). I guess because rather than being soft kiddie stuff and pointless games, it had articles about real things in science and nature and technology. It would also touch on things in pop culture. This is one of the few magazines I had to read cover to cover and loved every second of it. Ironically I never watched the show as much. Apparently it had a Mathnet comic before Mathnet appeared on Square One. I, uh, don’t recall that.







He-Man and the Masters of the Universe

Anyone shocked? I am pretty sure all of these franchises had magazines from G.I.Joe to Transformers to GoBots but this was the only one I remember/liked. And I’d be lying if I said it was anything remarkable. It had fan art, games and stories. Posters of course, the all had posters. And was probably what led to me seeing the awful live movie. It wasn’t as tied into the cartoon as you would have imagined which is probably why I didn’t care for it. She-Ra of course had her own magazine which of course I never read. And yes girl magazines were around too, like Barbie and My Little Pony (which exists today actually, anyone know if there was an 80’s version?).



Yep, they did have one too!




Muppets

Muppets magazine was really cool, problem was the Muppets weren’t doing anything around that time for them to focus on. As a result it was just Muppets interviewing celebrities, like Pee-Wee Herman. Yeah that would be cool on TV but in a print format….it loses something when you have to imagine it’s Kermit doing the talking.






Disney Adventures

Well this..existed. As you might imagine anything Disney got a magazine. from Ducktales to Disney Junior. This is the one I remember seeing though I was probably told to really be reading it when it came around in 1990. It was a lot like the Muppet magazine where the articles could be about anything whether it was a Disney property or not, as the cover above shows. It was more about the activities and games inside.








Sports Illustrated for Kids

Some may be surprised to see this since it’s hardly nostalgic. It still exists. But it came around when I was still a kid (though ok may be a little to old for the magazine) and it was what it advertised- a sports magazine for kids. It included articles geared toward kids and my favorite was the “Bad Day’ column where an athlete talks about some awful mistake they made to show athletes are not perfect. As a Red Sox fan I got a chuckle out of the Bill Buckner one. Gee I wonder what he talked about?







Zillions aka Consumer Reports for Kids

This was great! It was Consumer Reports but not only did it focus on kids stuff it was a little easier to read than the regular Consumer Reports magazine. And it was also a forerunner to internet comment sections, as it contained reviews on items from real kids (I assume they were real) to help get an idea of what others thought of whatever the product was.







Dynamite

This magazine was awesome because while most of the others on this list covered one very specific franchise, this one covered all of them! Oh sure it had the puzzles and games like the others here, but that isn’t what made this cool. This magazine was all about the 80’s kid and we all loved it. I think the coolest thing from these were the posters they had inside, which I’m sure I had a few of. I don’t think I ever actually had subscription to these, unlike all the others here, but I sure saw them in school all the time.







Starlog & Comic Book Buyers Guide
   
Ok ok, Starlog is not a kids magazine. But I loved it and since it doesn’t exist anymore, decided it was worth a mention. Before Star Trek.com this was where we went to for Star Trek news. Or any other news relating to sci fi or comic book genre including Star Wars, Back to the Future and the Batman movies in the 80’s and 90’s. TV included which was really cool. And yes Cinefantastique came first but I didn’t care for that one as much. Comic Buyers Guide was just awesome. That was a newspaper format and was my #1 source for comic book news for years. It lasted a real long time, till 2013! By the way comic books also had Wizard Magazine which I read a little but not often.





Finally, if there is one magazine that every kid reads at some point in their life it’s this one :

Not sure if this was intended to be aimed at kids but every kid reads it. Why? Because it’s funny! They have some great jokes and fantastic satire as they parody everything from TV, movies, and popular culture. This magazine does not get the respect it deserves for the gags it has in it. Ok, it’s hardly unknown heck they had a show on TV called Mad TV that last for awhile. But man was this stuff funny! We all know Spy vs Spy and of course the mascot, Alfred E.Newman who appeared on every cover. Of course he is an icon still very much around. I admit I haven’t looked at this magazine in years but man does it bring back great memories from when I did.



And if you’re saying “what about Cracked?”…never read it. You may also wonder, did I read anything that wasn’t geared for kids? Actually yes, I loved a news magazine so mich I read it religiously for a time It was :






I don’t know why I just really enjoyed the format and read it cover to cover every week.




Magazines get a bad rep these days with our online world. They were a lot of fun and informative.