Hip to be Pink

I admit it. I'm a magazine junkie (note my earlier post, and rest assured, others will be referenced in the future). As probably best represented by the disparity between Vibe and Opera News, my eclectic mix of subscriptions and those mags that I buy off the newsstand would have someone visiting my home while vacant trying to figure out, "Who in the heck lives here?!" Some people buy shoes, I buy magazines (although I don't run around barefoot, and I can appreciate the fact that Manolo is a very, very brilliant craftsman).

Someone who I think really "gets it" when it comes to creating quality magazine concepts is "famillionaire" (love the term--ask her or her husband about it) Cynthia Good.

I was a charter subscriber of Atlanta Woman, her first magazine. Everything about it was fresh, clever and original. Literally, from the moment you held it in your hands, you could tell it was unique--it was square in shape, as opposed to the standard rectangular magazine dimension. For some reason I really, really liked this distinguishing feature, and I was sorely disappointed (again, I really can't explain why) when it did in later issues succumb to what was stated as reader feedback and adopt the standard magazine size. The reader argument presented was something like, "I like my magazine to fit easily into my briefcase...," to which my knee-jerk response was, "Oh shut up, you no vision-having, cookie cutter-bound whiner!" Yeah, I took it inexplicably too personally...

I don't know what went on behind the scenes, but from that point on the magazine was never quite the same to me, and I suspect it wasn't to Cynthia either, because she moved on and created Pink (go check it out and see for yourself how it represents more than a color).

Somewhere in the midst of having babies and not being a part of the traditional full-time workforce, I missed Pink's 2005 launch. And while it caught my eye for the first time on the newsstand this past summer, I was being distracted by other things at 9 months pregnant (ahem, finding Borders' restroom and keeping my toddler son from lifting a "Thomas The Train goes to Breakfast" DVD), and I didn't get back to buying a copy.

Fast forward to a routine doctor's appointment yesterday, and lo and behold, to my delight, there sat on the coffee table the October 2006 issue of Pink.

I devoured it as hastily as I could before being called. With compelling articles and visual construction that made me say, "Yes... yes!", Pink is another winner (don't just take it from me--apparently Pink won the 2006 Grand GAMMA Award from the Magazine Association of the Southeast).

And the kicker? The magazine's dimensions are a palatable compromise between standard and square! I'm subscribing today.

Way to go, Cynthia! For staying true to your own path and encouraging others to make a difference, live their dream and realize their potential, you've just been added to The Thanks Ranks.