They're not rags, they're valuable forms of literature

So I love the Oprah Magazine. Maybe more than any magazine I've ever read, and this says a lot, because the majority of my reading material is magazines and blogs. I spent most of my teenage years pouring over Seventeen, Teen, and when I got a little older/more interested in smut, Cosmo. Well, maybe Cosmo reading wasn't until college, because I think my mom would have found it a bit too "adult" (meaning, every SINGLE issue involved a list of the best ways to have sex, and then every three months they would compile THOSE lists into a much larger list. I'm not sure who they were fooling with this. Sort of like how I imagine bridal magazines to be--the same 15 articles every four issues, because most people probably don't subscribe to those magazines indefinitely, and thus won't recognize the repetition. Unless you're a bridal freak, in which case I'm not sure you'll mind).

Anyway, Teen and Seventeen were wonderful because my mom didn't really care about fashion and I didn't have a big sister, so I had to have a jr. beauty editor at Teen teach me how to apply eye liner in their How to Get Smokey Eyes section. The pictures were never helpful, but they did encourage you to buy a lot of different products, and this is why I own 70 shades of eyeshadow.

So the thing I love about the Oprah Magazine is that though it is geared toward 50 year old women, I somehow find it very specific to my life. Just when I was wondering how to dress myself, the Oprah beauty editor explained that you should buy clothes that fit you properly. You might thing I'm joking, but this was sort of valuable knowledge to me. Additionally, they always have these random successful 50-something women detailing how she ate really healthy/worked out/quit email for a month and what happened as a result--it always includes some Greater Life Lesson they discover, which usually aren't that great but are only tangentially related--and this is how I operate. I'm always getting myself into these new kicks, from eating healthy to decluttering--only no one pays me to do these things or really cares about the Lessons I Learn as a result. (Well, maybe you do, fair reader(s), but that remains to be seen).

The other great thing about the magazine is the Letter from Oprah at the beginning. She always ties all the sections into the theme of the month, which I appreciate because I love synergy. Sadly, though, there's always one section that doesn't quite fit, and Oprah (and her writers) never seem to master a way of cramming it in. It'll be like, "This month is all about financial freedom! In Beauty, we'll be showing you how to look great for less. In the money section, Joann Schmo teaches you how to TAKE CONTROL of your budget. And also, we interviewed Denzel Washington. Here's to escaping debt! -Oprah!"

I have a love/hate relationship with Oprah (I like her now only because I hate Tyra so much, and somehow they have an inverse relationship so that I can only like one at a time). But there's nothing I love more than a fake letter from her introducing magazine topics. Nothing.