# Just As Beautiful Magazine



## AmazingAmy (Sep 29, 2010)

Just found this in the Daily Mail about a new lifestyle magazine, Just As Beautiful, marketed exclusively for plus size women. It says it's the first publication of its kind in the UK. Is that true?

So what do people think about this?

I can understand their angle on the title of the magazine, but it personally irks me a bit. They say there will be no models below a size 14, no diet tips, completely about plus size women etc, yet the title makes a comparison with 'other' kinds of women straight off, saying we're 'just as beautiful' as them. I think they could have done without making that 'point' - it just makes them look too aware of what plus sized women are considered to compete with: typically thin, beautiful women.

My initial impression, of course. Thoughts?


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## Emma (Sep 29, 2010)

It irks me too. Straight off the name just annoys me, 'just as beautiful' wow I didn't know I needed to be told I was just as beautiful as the thinner ladies. 

Give it another name and maybe I'll check back. For now I'm fine with reading the other magazines. I don't need to be made to feel different.


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## Mishty (Sep 29, 2010)

AmazingAmy said:


> So what do people think about this?



I miss having a plus size rag to carry in my bag.... 

When I was in highschool Lane Bryant gave copies of Mode away with purchases... which wasn't even necessary, I had been buying them since first copy. 

I'll read a copy and see whats going on of course, at first glance I think I'd enjoy the articles! :batting:


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## AmazingAmy (Sep 29, 2010)

I reckon they could do with more on the front cover - but with it being new, I suppose they need time to build on content. Even though the title is annoying me a little more every five minutes I'm still going to give this magazine a go - it might feel a little less couch potato to read something about plus sized women on a park bench rather than at my computer desk. :blush:

But there are some fat-themed titles popping into my head that I think would've been better: _Curve Magazine_ or _Larger Than Life_ would have been simple ones, and equally rememberable. And _The Big Issue_ if it wasn't already taken!

Anyone else got alternative title ideas?


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## Scorsese86 (Sep 29, 2010)

That's prety cool, but I do agree with the name. It gets pretty offensive, when I think about it - for both BBWs and FAs. I mean, any sort of "curvy" would be great. Lol, or perhaps "Much More Beautiful" Works on more than one level.
Well, it still is a step in the right direction - despite the title.


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## disconnectedsmile (Sep 29, 2010)

CurvyEm said:


> Straight off the name just annoys me, 'just as beautiful' wow I didn't know I needed to be told I was just as beautiful as the thinner ladies.


you didn't, but some ladies do.

this magazine is for them, and will likely help them find the confidence that the mainstream media doesn't want them to have.


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## Mishty (Sep 29, 2010)

disconnectedsmile said:


> you didn't, but some ladies do.
> 
> this magazine is for them, and will likely help them find the confidence that the mainstream media doesn't want them to have.



yah

I was thinking the magazine is geared toward fatties that know they rock and those that *don't*.


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## AmazingAmy (Sep 29, 2010)

I don't much like that presumption either though - that fat women are stereotypically lacking in confidence. Thin women also suffer from poor self-image, but you don't see magazines for them called _You're Pretty, Honest_.

Bigger women with poor self-confidence can still gain from this magazine without that 'just as' assurance. It's the message in the content that they're going to gain something positive from, not the title.

Tell women they're beautiful, but don't add 'just as' to it - it's only conjuring the comparison they're trying to escape from.


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## mossystate (Sep 29, 2010)

And the Bitch Fight! is a nice touch. The whole cover is a trainwreck, but maybe they can get somebody who has some kind of an eye...hell, just one eye. " Learn his tactics "...lol 
Well, maybe the magazine will speak to/grab enough young women and will have to step things up. The no ' diet ' talk is really great, but if it is one big cliche other than that...well, I guess they will be successful, as they will be a mirror to the popular mainstream mags, which seems to be their desire. Oh, and the featured woman...errrr, a bit much. Is that the first issue? Maybe they felt they had to do that...or something.


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## disconnectedsmile (Sep 29, 2010)

AmazingAmy said:


> I don't much like that presumption either though - that fat women are stereotypically lacking in confidence.


some actually are.
and some are not.

if you don't like the magazine, then don't buy it.


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## AmazingAmy (Sep 29, 2010)

disconnectedsmile said:


> *some actually are.
> and some are not.*
> 
> if you don't like the magazine, then don't buy it.



I acknowledged that fact in the sentence after the one you quoted.

And please don't be so dismissive. Just because I want to discuss the magazine doesn't mean I'm not allowed to bring up negatives. I've also mentioned I'm going to buy the magazine. 

Actually read what I've said before you quote me in future.


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## disconnectedsmile (Sep 29, 2010)

AmazingAmy said:


> Actually read what I've said before you quote me in future.


no..........


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## Mishty (Sep 29, 2010)

disconnectedsmile said:


> no..........



douche bag much.... :huh:


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## AmazingAmy (Sep 29, 2010)

Mishty said:


> douche bag much.... :huh:



Agreed, Mishty.

But, it was as good as an admittance they were being pathetic. Glad they won't be coming back to the discussion.


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## mossystate (Sep 29, 2010)

disconnectedsmile said:


> some actually are.
> and some are not.
> 
> if you don't like the magazine, then don't buy it.



Fat women with not a lot of confidence ( god how I have come to grow weary of this word and how we are supposed to get it, this way or that way and in this amount ) do not deserve to be viewed so much as ' the other '...at the very least. They don't need to be compared to the ' ideal '. Beautiful would be a great title. It does the job, and let's the woman herself define.


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## disconnectedsmile (Sep 29, 2010)

AmazingAmy said:


> But, it was as good as in admittance that they were being pathetic. Glad they won't be coming back to the discussion.


don't speak so soon.

i personally don't see anything wrong with the title. there, i said it.
i mean, this magazine is a POSITIVE THING, regardless of title. a fat friendly magazine! on newsstands next to mainstream drivel! this is something to celebrate, not deride.
instead of nitpicking every aspect of things, why can't we just accept them for what they are?
jeez.

(i used my 888th post for this?)


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## AmazingAmy (Sep 29, 2010)

mossystate said:


> Fat women with not a lot of confidence ( god how I have come to grow weary of this word and how we are supposed to get it, this way or that way and in this amount ) do not deserve to be viewed so much as ' the other '...at the very least. They don't need to be compared to the ' ideal '. *Beautiful would be a great title. It does the job, and let's the woman herself define.*



_Beautiful _would work perfectly, actually. I'm not sure there's another magazine with that title, either? And agree with letting women define themselves.


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## AmazingAmy (Sep 29, 2010)

disconnectedsmile said:


> don't speak so soon.
> 
> i personally don't see anything wrong with the title. there, i said it.
> i mean, this magazine is a POSITIVE THING, regardless of title. a fat friendly magazine! on newsstands next to mainstream drivel! this is something to celebrate, not deride.
> ...



It was your immature 'no' that I was labelling pathetic, not what you had to say on the discussion.

And why just accept every aspect, why not debate? You really shouldn't have come into this thread if a finality was all you wanted to see happen.

_EDIT:_ sorry for double post.


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## mossystate (Sep 29, 2010)

disconnectedsmile said:


> don't speak so soon.
> 
> i personally don't see anything wrong with the title. there, i said it.
> i mean, this magazine is a POSITIVE THING, regardless of title. a fat friendly magazine! on newsstands next to mainstream drivel! this is something to celebrate, not deride.
> ...



It is fairly funny that you are scolding women talking about something that is directed at them. Not saying you don't have the right to your opinion, or that every woman will have the same opinion about the issue...just that you are a man who is using words like " nitpicking " when a discussion is being had about how words matter...how words send messages. 

Like I said, there will be many fat women who are fine with the title, but until you have experienced actual life as a fat woman, or can at least stop and think about the power of words, and understand why this is being discussed...then I will just say, " oh, you like it, isn't that nice...oh look...a quarter on the floor ".


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## AmazingAmy (Sep 29, 2010)

Thank you, Mossystate - and that's a good way of putting it that I didn't think of before: a debate on words and how they affect us. The title of _Just As Beuatiful_ magazine is something that is going to spark debate in other places, not just here, as it's not just representing itself, it's actually sending a message about what it thinks of plus sized women. That they're 'just as' alright as something that is regarded as better. Which just _isn't_ important.

For the record, I do agree with the sentiment that the title is offering - it _is _postive, and _is _ acknowledging how some women feel; but it also raised questions in me that I wanted to talk about because it struck me as _off_.


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## CastingPearls (Sep 29, 2010)

Good heavens, my grandmother has sexier lingerie. :doh:


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## Ned Sonntag (Sep 29, 2010)

'Just' is a strange word... you hear Televangelists using it all the time('just let me spend one more meth weekend with the rentboy and i'll NEVER do it again') ... in Latin it has the connotation of 'juxtapose' as place things 'beside' each other for contrast... in Zoroastrianism, it was about whether a person or object was 'spiritually clean enough' to participate in a religious ritual... it's all about Discrimination... Size Acceptance may be a sort of 'moral' Decriminalization...


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## AuntHen (Sep 29, 2010)

The girl on the cover is beautiful but she just hangs there like a dead fish! borrrrring...


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## AmazingAmy (Sep 29, 2010)

I think a busier background would liven the cover up a bit. That blue is a little tacky and draining. Creates too much of a void.


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## thirtiesgirl (Sep 29, 2010)

Scorsese86 said:


> That's prety cool, but I do agree with the name. It gets pretty offensive, when I think about it - for both BBWs and FAs. I mean, any sort of "curvy" would be great. Lol, or perhaps "Much More Beautiful" Works on more than one level.
> Well, it still is a step in the right direction - despite the title.



"Curvy" is a divisive word in the fat community (at least from my perspective) and one that I wouldn't want to see on any magazine cover for fat people. When most fat people and FAs mention the word "curvy," they use it to signify a particular body shape - usually that of the more proportional/hourglass shaped fat woman, or the pear-shaped fat woman. Not all fat women are shaped that way, and are therefore not "curvy," by the standard use of the word. Not being a 'curvy' woman myself, I would feel underrepresented by a magazine that chose to use the word "curvy," or any derivative thereof in their title. 



disconnectedsmile said:


> you didn't, but some ladies do.
> 
> this magazine is for them, and will likely help them find the confidence that the mainstream media doesn't want them to have.



The problem is, as others in this thread have indicated, the words "Just As" are a signifier that fat women aren't beautiful in their own right, without being compared to thinner women. It would be like saying a gay person is "_just as_ normal" as a straight person, or like the prefix 'over' in the word "overweight." 'Over' indicates that having excess weight is a bad thing; that there is a line drawn between acceptable weight and 'over'weight. The words "Just As" when attached to "Beautiful," do much the same thing for fat women. We're being compared to thinner women and being found "just as" beautiful, when what I'd much prefer to see is a magazine that sees us as beautiful, stylish, socially acceptable and multi-faceted _as we are_, without any need for comparison to thinner women.

On the plus size magazine tip, though, I'm glad to see another one has found a publisher and I hope it does well and sticks around for a while. I desperately miss Mode, Grace and even Figure, and have almost all the back issues of those magazines for when I feel the need to glance through glossy photo spreads and see other women who (sort of) look like me and make me feel better about myself.


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## thirtiesgirl (Sep 29, 2010)

CurvyEm said:


> It irks me too. Straight off the name just annoys me, 'just as beautiful' wow I didn't know I needed to be told I was just as beautiful as the thinner ladies.
> 
> Give it another name and maybe I'll check back. For now I'm fine with reading the other magazines. I don't need to be made to feel different.



Can I ask what other plus size magazines you read? I wasn't aware that there were any out there...at least not in the US.


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## kioewen (Sep 29, 2010)

AmazingAmy said:


> It says it's the first publication of its kind in the UK. Is that true?



No, that is false. A print magazine called YES was published in the U.K. in the late 1990s. It was more or less a British version of MODE, although it predated MODE. It was far superior in images, content, and production values to this magazine




AmazingAmy said:


> I can understand their angle on the title of the magazine, but it personally irks me a bit. They say there will be no models below a size 14, no diet tips,


The title is terrible. "No models below a size 14" isn't as promising as it sounds, given that a U.K. size 14 is a U.S. size 10, so the magazine could be including some very skinny models.

On the other hand, "no diet tips" is a good thing.


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## joswitch (Sep 30, 2010)

This reminds me of rows over picking a name for a band... Pretty much all the good names = already taken... Oh, the humanity!


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## Saoirse (Oct 1, 2010)

joswitch said:


> This reminds me of rows over picking a name for a band... Pretty much all the good names = already taken... Oh, the humanity!



My friend and I are starting a ukulele/sax band. We're gonna call ourselves The Awesome Stalkers.

I pretty much love it.


aaaaaaand back to the thread:


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## Ho Ho Tai (Oct 1, 2010)

AmazingAmy said:


> Just found this in the Daily Mail about a new lifestyle magazine, Just As Beautiful, marketed exclusively for plus size women. It says it's the first publication of its kind in the UK. Is that true?
> 
> So what do people think about this?
> 
> ...



"Just as beautiful" doesn't necessarily have pejorative connotations. Reading through the posts, I was reminded of Aunt Eller's words (Oklahoma! "The farmer and the cowhand should be friends):

"I'll teach you all a little sayin'
And learn the words by heart the way you should
I don't say I'm no better than anybody else
But I'll be danged if I ain't just as good!"

These are the words of someone with enough confidence and rootedness in her own character that she doesn't have to seek an advantage. She wants equity for all - all, including herself. She looks, clear-eyed, straight at people and expects the same. If she sees someone with their head down, chin buried in chest, she will put a hand under their chin and gently raise their head. To put it another way, raise their spirit, give them a shot of self confidence.

I'm no better than you,
I'm no worse than you
But I'm just as good.

Sounds like a great basis for a partnership, a community, or a world.


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## thirtiesgirl (Oct 1, 2010)

I'm going to respectfully disagree, Ho Ho. In my opinion, the words "just as" create a dividing line in any context. When discussing socio-economic conditions or the sense of identity one gets from one's job/lifestyle (which was the whole point of the argument between farmers and cowhands in Oklahoma), that dividing line is apparently ok (no pun intended). While Aunt Eller says her life as a farmer's wife makes her "just as good" as that of the cowhand's, she's also firmly standing behind her line of demarcation - her identity as a farmer's wife - and subtly hinting that she'd never want to be anything else; certainly not a cowhand's wife. "The farmer and the cowhand should be friends," sure, but they're not going to cross that dividing line, and one would never mistake a cowhand for a farmer or vice versa. Oklahoma, which was written in the '50s, neatly parallels our particular American obsession with individual identity. We can be friendly with our neighbors, sure, but don't you dare mistake me for _them_.

"Just As Beautiful" magazine, however, is bringing up the issue of body politics. Not intentionally, of course, but when you create a magazine for fat women, you're naturally stepping into the body politics arena. And in that arena, I don't think there's any need for a dividing line. By implying that a fat woman is "_just as_ beautiful" as a thin woman, the magazine title implies that there is a dividing line between how fat women and thin women are perceived. I'm not just talking about the obvious difference in size and shape, but the subtle and often not so subtle ways that western culture and society perceives and relates to fat and thin women. That dividing line ("just as") implies that fat women and thin women are held to different standards of beauty; that the way one perceives and relates to thin women is different than the way one perceives and relates to fat women. 

And as far as I'm concerned, that's b.s. I don't want to be held to a different standard of beauty than a thin woman. I don't want to be differentiated because of my size and shape. I don't want to be seen as "_just as_ beautiful." I want to be seen as _beautiful_. Full stop. No comparison or division needed from other women with different body sizes and shapes. Don't tell me I'm "just as beautiful" because I'm fat. As far as I'm concerned, that's damn close to telling me, "You have such a pretty face!" Show me I'm beautiful as I am, or don't show me anything at all.


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## Webmaster (Oct 1, 2010)

"Just as" is wrong. It's apologetic and demeaning. Imagine any other persecuted group using this sort of approach to getting their message across.


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## Emma (Oct 1, 2010)

thirtiesgirl said:


> Can I ask what other plus size magazines you read? I wasn't aware that there were any out there...at least not in the US.



Oh I don't. I just meant "normal" magazines.


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## thirtiesgirl (Oct 1, 2010)

CurvyEm said:


> Oh I don't. I just meant "normal" magazines.



Ah, bummer. I guess I can always hope. I know there's a couple of online plus size magazines... or there _were_, at any rate, a few years ago. I know that one of them, Skorch, hasn't done an online issue in over a year. But I actually like to hold a real magazine in my hands, turn pages and look at glossy photo spreads. It's just not the same 'reading' a magazine on your computer.


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## Dmitra (Oct 1, 2010)

I'm going to think of this as JAB since acronyms are inevitable and seeing tummies of all sizes makes me want to give them a gentle poke. _Just As Beautiful_ as a title has gotten to the meaningless repetition stage for me so I can't say either way right now whether it's good or ill. :/


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## AmazingAmy (Oct 1, 2010)

thirtiesgirl said:


> As far as I'm concerned, that's damn close to telling me, *"You have such a pretty face!" * Show me I'm beautiful as I am, or don't show me anything at all.



That phrase has been popping into my head every time I think on my opinion of all of this. And it's very true. Both "You have such a pretty face!" and_ Just As Beautiful _are so damn backhanded.


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## superodalisque (Oct 1, 2010)

AmazingAmy said:


> Just found this in the Daily Mail about a new lifestyle magazine, Just As Beautiful, marketed exclusively for plus size women. It says it's the first publication of its kind in the UK. Is that true?
> 
> So what do people think about this?
> 
> ...



that title makes me whence. the titles on the cover seem so woman against woman initially. is that what they really think gets a fat women's attention?


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## superodalisque (Oct 1, 2010)

disconnectedsmile said:


> don't speak so soon.
> 
> i personally don't see anything wrong with the title. there, i said it.
> i mean, this magazine is a POSITIVE THING, regardless of title. a fat friendly magazine! on newsstands next to mainstream drivel! this is something to celebrate, not deride.
> ...



i respect your opinion and your right to have it but as a fat woman i don't feel its fat friendly at all but diminishing, small minded and opportunist of people they feel are insecure enough to make money off. thats how it reads to me. i find all of the presumptions of the cover disrespectful and offensive. it assumes we don't feel as beautiful as everyone else already and it has to tell us. and its articles give the impression that the main way to self esteem is to try and trounce other women. at best its wrong headed and manipulative.

PS: i think a fat woman should reserve the right to knitpick anything she likes that urks her and not just accept whatever because she thinks she's lucky to get anything. we are raising the bar around here those days are over.

my personal knit pickery: honestly, personally i also think the cover sucks for bad, unimaginative, horribly lit photography and a not very fat model wearing cheap tacky illl fitting lingerie. how do you manage to make a beautiful woman look so mundane anyway?


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## b0nnie (Oct 3, 2010)

The word just can be used so many different ways but to me I took it as them saying:

Just: by a narrow margin; barely; only or merely; perhaps, possibly

Idk, IMO thats what that title seems to imply. :doh:


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## Inhibited (Oct 3, 2010)

I don't see the title so much as telling me, a fat person, that i'm "just as beautiful" as everyone else, but is telling others who don't see fat ppl as beautiful that we are worthy.. not to sure i articulated that well but hope you get the drift...


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## AmazingAmy (Oct 3, 2010)

Inhibited said:


> I don't see the title so much as telling me, a fat person, that i'm "just as beautiful" as everyone else, but is telling others who don't see fat ppl as beautiful that we are worthy.. not to sure i articulated that well but hope you get the drift...



True, that's one way of looking at it. I'm drawn between liking that message to other people but also disliking it for some of the reasons I've mentioned before: it just looks insecure to an outsider. Kind of defensive. It also raises the question as to why a publication would target one readership, but try and make a statement to people outside that readership at the same time. 

The whole thing lands on the cusp between confident and insecure.


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## Inhibited (Oct 3, 2010)

You can't please everyone, as i'm not pleased with the cover i have never seen a model wear lingerie on a mainstream magazine such as cosmo or cleo, to my knowledge only magazines such as playboy have girls in lingerie on the cover.
Also she doesn't look like she is over a size 14 the model looks like she is a size 12 to me, would also like to see more variety of sizes such as ssbbws instead of just women from a size 14-20.


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## roobuck (Oct 10, 2010)

Looking at their website, this is a free magazine that will be given away at selected outlets like Evans, presumably. YES magazine in the 90s was a paid for magazine (the YES stood for "You're Extra Special"). YES failed for the same reasons a lot of plus-sized magazines fail, lack of circulation and not enough advertising. Other mainstream womens magazines are chock full of profitable weight loss and slimming ads which a plus size magazine will not carry, so that's a huge chunk of ad revenue that is not there. 

I agree with the previous posts that the title is demeaning, but at least the "Beautiful" is in the big and bold typeface so that's what catches the eye. Like all these plus-size magazines, most of the models they use are what I would call normal-sized rather than plus-sized, this reflects the sizing of the target audience - there are more size 14s than 30s. As BBWs/FAs we may not like it, but that's the commercial decision they have to make. 

Here's hoping this one survives - I think its better to have a magazine out there that is helping to get the message out to a wider audience that big is beautiful rather than have nothing at all.


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## kayrae (Oct 12, 2010)

that website opened up with a james blunt song, blech


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## KendraLee (Oct 12, 2010)

The name of the magazine feels condescending to me. You'd think they would have done a little more market research of their target audience before choosing the name Just As Beautiful. Advertising is how magazines make their money after all so making sure you're not annoying your target audience so that they'll buy your magazine and therefore buy into what the advertisers are selling is pretty essential to staying in business.

"Really, I'm just as beautiful as they are? Wow, thank you so much for telling me that.....now who are they and what if I think I am more beautiful than they are?"


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