Modern day Sassy cover girls?

August 1, 2010 6:41 PM

What "cool" girl role models (like Zoey Deschanel) would grace the cover of Sassy magazine, if it still existed?

I was having a conversation with an old friend about a lack of "cool" girl role models for teenager girls. Girls that would be in the pages of Sassy magazine, if it existed today. OR Jane Magazine (but only the early years of Jane, before it became another Glamour knockoff).

All we could come up with was Zoey Deschanel. What do you guys think?

posted by wannaknow to media & arts (29 answers total)

Are you familiar with Bust magazine? It's basically the inheritor of the Sassy role in magazines, though targeted at a slightly older audience.

Off the top of my head:

Tina Fey
Ellen Page
Beth Ditto
Karen O
Lily Allen
Diablo Cody
Lady Gaga
Alia Shawkat
Kristen Bell when she was on Veronica Mars
MIA
posted by lunasol at 6:50 PM on August 1, 2010 [5 favorites]

Oh, and here's Bust's website. Seriously, if you loved Sassy, you should be reading Bust.

More cool girls:

Sarah Silverman
Sarah Haskell
Aubrey Plaza
posted by lunasol at 6:53 PM on August 1, 2010

I'd like to think that Sassy, these days, would still skew a wee bit quirky and include folks like, say, Molly Lewis and Marian Call.
posted by fairytale of los angeles at 6:53 PM on August 1, 2010

I believe it's Zooey Deschanel. What about her sister Emily?

For the younger teenage girls, people like Selena Gomez.
posted by IndigoRain at 6:58 PM on August 1, 2010

Chloe Sevigny
posted by something something at 7:06 PM on August 1, 2010

Probably whoever is on the cover of Bust this month. Bust is modeled almost directly as a followup to Sassy.
posted by Sara C. at 7:12 PM on August 1, 2010

Are you looking for girls who are actually teens now? What about someone like Dakota Fanning? Abigail Breslin? They are serious actresses, as opposed to manufactured pop stars, and that seems cooler. Ellen Page is in her early 20s, she's someone I would have worshipped as a teen.

If you want to go not-TV-famous-but-super-cool-and-quirky (like Chloe Sevigny was when she was the Sassy "it girl"), I'd say Tavi Gevinson
posted by donnagirl at 7:14 PM on August 1, 2010 [1 favorite]

Also, can I clarify - you're not looking for a replacement for Sassy girls in your more grownup life, right? You're looking for Sassy girls for today's teens, which makes Bust (which is awesome) not quite what you're looking for.
posted by donnagirl at 7:16 PM on August 1, 2010

FWIW, Chloe Sevigny was an intern at Sassy and was not in any way a celebrity/actor/well known person in her own right at the time.

Which actually does make her an apt comparison to Tavi Gevinson.

Dear Tavi,

Please don't grow up to be an actress. And if you absolutely must, just remember: avoid Vincent Gallo at all costs.
posted by Sara C. at 7:18 PM on August 1, 2010 [4 favorites]

Right, Sara C., that's exactly what I was trying to say. Chloe:1990s = Tavi:2010s
posted by donnagirl at 7:23 PM on August 1, 2010

actually, I'm in my late 20s but we were lamenting the lack of a certain type of girl, but you guys seem to have nailed it! Keep em coming!

I'll have to check out Bust. I've heard of it but I always assumed it was more serious and less on the humorous side, like Sassy and Jane often were.

And what about that girl from the new movie "Easy A" -- the one that was in Superbad.
posted by wannaknow at 7:26 PM on August 1, 2010

Eleanor Friedberger of the Fiery Furnaces.
posted by escabeche at 7:39 PM on August 1, 2010

Interestingly, Tavi recently put up a post titled "sanctuary" that looked like a list of girly sources of inspiration/admiration. They're largely 80s and 90s movie and TV characters.
posted by donnagirl at 7:40 PM on August 1, 2010

Ooh, maybe Amy Winfrey? She's in her 30s, but her work like Making Fiends would be known to and likely loved by teen girls. She's also got that whole "chick doing a creative thing you usually hear about dudes doing" thing that Sassy loved.
posted by donnagirl at 7:44 PM on August 1, 2010

Sarah Polley
Amy Poehler
Rashida Jones
Emma Stone
Natalie Portman
Laura Linney
Cate Blanchett
Rachel Weisz
Christina Hendricks
Jenna Fisher
Kari Byron
Emily Mortimer
Diane Keaton
Kathryn Bigelow
posted by purephase at 7:49 PM on August 1, 2010

Janelle Monáe
posted by missmary6 at 8:00 PM on August 1, 2010

I don't know anything about these magazines so I might be off, but here are some musical suggestions:

Regina Spektor
Esperanza Spalding
Jenny Lewis
Imogen Heap
Rihanna
Sara Bareilles
Kaki King

Come on, at least Regina and Esperanza, right??
posted by Jaltcoh at 8:01 PM on August 1, 2010

What about Emily Blunt?
posted by kat518 at 8:08 PM on August 1, 2010

ooh! i love this question. as a former sassy reader, i'd have to say:

music:
Regina Spektor
Florence (of Florence and the Machine)
MIA
Kathleen Hanna
Lady Gaga
Gillian Welch
Cat Power

writing:
Diablo Cody
Kristen Wiig
Tina Fey
Amy Sedaris

acting:
Mary Louise Parker
Maggie Gyllenhal
Tilda Swinton
Laura Linney

art:
Miranda July
Carolita Johnson
Lynda Barry
Marjane Satrapi
Alison Bechdel
Tacita Dean
Gillian Wearing

these are off the top of my head. the list, happily, goes on...
posted by enzymatic at 8:36 PM on August 1, 2010

Laura Burhenn
Amanda Palmer
The Vivian Girls
Kimya Dawson
posted by ryanshepard at 8:38 PM on August 1, 2010

Janelle Monáe times 1,000.
posted by grapesaresour at 9:00 PM on August 1, 2010 [3 favorites]

I think it's ok that lots of these women are in their 20s and even early 30s - the Sassy editors were in their 20s and had lots of "alternative" pop culture that were more liked by 20somethings than teens. Which was one of the awesome things about it - it didn't talk down to teenagers, and understood that lots of high school girls were more interested in that stuff than teenybopper shit. When they did cover teenybopper shit (I still remember their hilarious profile of Tiffani Amber Thiessen) they did so in a snarky, smart way. I really doubt they would have been excited about Selena Gomez.

Re: Bust. It's not as goofy or fun as Sassy was, for sure. But I still think it's a reasonable facsimile and certainly worth checking out.
posted by lunasol at 9:16 PM on August 1, 2010

Michelle Williams (the actress)
Shakira
Anna Paquin
Pink

I still miss Sassy!
posted by SisterHavana at 9:31 PM on August 1, 2010

I really like Tavi. She's 20 years my junior but is a total legend, I feel. Also agreeing with the Ellen Page mention, and I think that today's Sassy would include more eFamous people - for instance, YouTubers like Julia Nunes and various fashion bloggers.
posted by mewithoutyou at 11:07 PM on August 1, 2010

Sloane Crossley
Elizabeth from Allo Darlin
definitely Christina Hendricks/Tavi/Beth Ditto - I love Tavi's explorations of riot grrl
Gabourey Sidibe
Kate Harding

Alexa Chung is seen as a 'style icon' in lots of magazines over here (UK) but I don't think she'd quite fit. I also wondered about Portia De Rossi, but she might be a bit mainstream. We had Just Seventeen in the 90s which from the looks of things tried to emulate Sassy a bit and had a lot of grunge pin-ups.
posted by mippy at 3:10 AM on August 2, 2010

What about Felicia Day? She was in Dr. Horrible and writes/produces/stars in The Guild.
posted by SeeTheTurtle at 7:07 AM on August 2, 2010

nthing Tavi Gevinson.
posted by thegreatfleecircus at 10:18 AM on August 2, 2010

Olivia Wilde, not so much for the being pretty in movies as for the awesome volunteer/ non-profit stuff she does.
posted by quin at 2:07 PM on August 2, 2010

Bust is modeled almost directly as a followup to Sassy.

Bust predates Sassy's demise by 3 years or so.
posted by dobbs at 7:34 PM on August 2, 2010