To celebrate our 50th anniversary issue, I invited the magazine’s former editors back to share this page and celebrate with me. Enjoy!
iremember devouring the editor’s letter pages of this magazine growing up, searching for the secret to making it in journalism and, well, making it as a happy, successful, functioning human being, too! (I’m getting there… I think.)
Cosmopolitan has taught me so much over the years about what I deserve and how to get it. But not nearly as much as the colleagues I’ve worked with have taught me. The friendly, funny, creative people who put this magazine together are some of the kindest and most talented I’ve ever met. And I can only thank the incredible teams who have come before this one, that have made the brand what it is today. To say it’s an honour to follow in your footsteps is an understatement.
But I have probably learned the most from you, our reader. Whether it’s our Jonathan Van Ness cover, our bodypositivity campaigns or our hard-hitting investigations, you have always supported us with open arms and an open mind. We’re so lucky to have you.
(PS: I can’t pretend I’m not devastated that Cosmo conferences in the Bahamas aren’t still a thing…)
Claire Hodgson, 2019 – present
Farrah Storr, 2015 – 2019
There’s something very special about being the editor of Cosmopolitan. I was told this in the interview and laughed it off. How arrogant, I thought to myself. Then I got the job and saw why. It was you, the reader.
Never have I worked on a magazine where the readers’ and staff’s lives felt so entwined. I read every single one of your social media comments, good and bad. My team threw themselves into the stories they felt mattered to your lives. (Undercover In Magaluf and To Catch A Predator being two such stories.) We fell in love with you all because Cosmo readers were just so, well, excellent. You didn’t judge. Didn’t snipe. Never complained and certainly never explained to another woman what a feminist should be.
It was a special editorship and a special time. I miss you all very much!
Louise Court, 2007 – 2015
Cosmopolitan’s inspiration over the past 50 years has been to encourage and equip women to feel they can live their best lives, on their terms and nobody else’s. Every woman has her own goals and dreams, and every Cosmo editor’s job has been to interpret the zeitgeist of the moment to support her.
For me, it was an eye-opening, empowering, hilarious, emotional, glamorous and humbling experience. It was a privilege being able to tell politicians, royalty, celebrities and extraordinary women about what exactly our readers wanted and what they could do to help them.
I was proud to campaign on many issues. While progres
