From Smash Hits and Top of The Pops to Sugar and Mizz, there was no shortage of teen magazines on offer to the Irish girl in the late nineties and early noughties but when KISS magazine hit the shelves in 2002 something special happened.
For the first time a generation found themselves reading a magazine produced especially for the Irish girl, and not just the girly girls either.
I can still remember picking up my first copy of the magazine: I was a little late to the party having missed the first issue but read the second from cover to cover as I sat on a train from Enniscorthy to Dublin, devouring every single word.
From there on in I was hooked, even going as far as to write letters and emails about the things discussed in each issue. It was under the watchful eye of then editor Susan Vasquez that a generation of young Irish women like me finally found a special place to have their voices heard.
When I heard the news of the magazine’s closure this morning I was deeply saddened. I outgrew KISS a long time ago and could never really get into STELLAR (the grown up girl’s KISS as I like to think of it) but I can’t help but feel as though the former’s departure will leave a MASSIVE gap on our shelves.
It was through KISS that I won tickets to a preview screening of a little movie called Mean Girls (which I might never have gone to see otherwise), developed a passion for writing, and saved a hell of a lot of pocket money. Sure it never cost more than €2 in my day.
As a 24-year-old girl with a Peter Pan complex I still enjoy flicking through magazines like Teen Vogue, but they just don’t offer up the same level of understanding about what it’s like to grow up on the Emerald Isle.
From Transition Year to the Gaeltacht, dolling yourself up for the Debs to getting the shift, the team behind the scenes were on hand to guide us girlos through all those Irish milestones.
KISS magazine may be gone but it’ll certainly never be forgotten.
It's Strawberry Blonde 