Why am I convinced that "Highlights for Children" used to be called "Highlights for Kids"?

April 10, 2007 3:37 PM

Highlights magazine. Has the title always been "Highlights for Children"? Was it ever "Highlights for Kids"?

Okay, so I bought some Highlights magazines from a thrift store: issues from 2002 and 2003. I looked at the cover, and it says "Highlights for Children" on it. Me and another person both thought this was strange, and distinctly remembered it saying "Highlights for Kids" on the covers of the ones we read growing up. I am 33, she is 36.

Searching on the web has yielded no mention of the magazine ever being called "Highlights for Kids"? Was it a regional thing? Was the phrase used in other promotional materials, just not on the cover of the magazine? Are me and my coworker just totally confused?

posted by 23skidoo to media & arts (21 comments total)

According to Wikipedia, Highlights was first published in 1948. On ebay, I found an issue form 1961. And it says "Children." So if it was ever kids, it was prior to that.

I was born in '65, so all the issues I ever saw definitely said "Children."

(I guess it's remotely possible it was changed from Children to Kids and then back to Children again.)
posted by grumblebee at 3:49 PM on April 10, 2007

Single datapoint -- I know it was Highlights for Children in the early-mid 1980s in Texas. I've never heard "for kids" -- in my head, when I see the name of the magazine, the whole title follows along, and it's always "Highlights for Children".
posted by katemonster at 3:50 PM on April 10, 2007

I think you're just misremembering. I'm around the same age, and as far as I remember it was always Highlights for Children. The fact that it was "for Children" rather than "for Kids" fit with the stuffy formality of the whole magazine. The magazine was so generic, I would be surprised if there were regional versions.
posted by teg at 3:51 PM on April 10, 2007

An even earlier one on ebay, 1956, which also says Children.
posted by grumblebee at 3:51 PM on April 10, 2007

I always remember it as 'Highlights for Children.' As you've likely already seen their website makes no reference to "Highlights for Kids" in their Our Story section.

Since I only read that magazine at the doctor's or dentist's office, I have mixed feelings about it, due to the memories of fear and foreboding. And, BTW, I never knew anyone who received a subscription at home.
posted by ericb at 3:51 PM on April 10, 2007

The magazine was founded in 1946 ("Since 1946, Highlights for Children has left an indelible imprint on the hearts and minds of tens of millions of children....^*).
posted by ericb at 3:53 PM on April 10, 2007

slightly o/t: when I was a child, I thought that the motto for the magazine ("fun with a purpose") was actually "fun with a porpoise." that baffled me.
posted by davidmsc at 3:54 PM on April 10, 2007 [3 favorites]

A casual scan of Ebay listings seems to indicate that the magazine was known as "Highlights for Children" in 1957, 1963/64, 1970, 1975, 1988/89, and 1995.

However, it appears that there was a "National Geographic for Kids". Could you have been conflating these two magazines? They both seem to be prime doctor/dentist waiting room fodder.
posted by mhum at 3:56 PM on April 10, 2007

See also Sports Illustrated for Kids and Zillions, Consumer Reports for Kids.
posted by grouse at 3:59 PM on April 10, 2007

WorldCat mentions Highlights for Children and just plain Highlights, but not Highlights for Kids.
posted by metabrilliant at 4:39 PM on April 10, 2007

And, BTW, I never knew anyone who received a subscription at home.

My son got this magazine at home until very recently (gift subscription from his grandmother).

I don't have any of the issues, but he does have a Hidden Pictures 2007 calendar where, in the corner, it says "Supplement to Highlights for Children".
posted by Lucinda at 4:51 PM on April 10, 2007

I'm in the same age group, and I remember "for Children" too. As many have said, the mag was pretty stuffy, and also, our language was more formal, even as recently as 20 years ago. I bet "Kids" wouldn't have flown then with publishers and parents the way "Sports Illustrated for Kids" or whatever flies today.

An aside: Why was it "for anything"? It's not like there was a "Highlights for Adults" sitting around where Goofus and Gallant drink and have sex.
posted by GaelFC at 4:57 PM on April 10, 2007

It's not like there was a "Highlights for Adults" sitting around where Goofus and Gallant drink and have sex.

Oh yeah?
posted by grouse at 5:03 PM on April 10, 2007

We had a subscription for a few years and I still have some around, assorted hardcovers from 1979 to 1982. They're all titled "Highlights for Children" with a few that have "THE MONTHLY BOOK" between the "Highlights" and "for Children" parts.
posted by jenh at 5:09 PM on April 10, 2007

Damnit... Someone did the Goofus joke already.

Yep, 'children' here, too. Early 70s, for me.
posted by baylink at 6:00 PM on April 10, 2007

Don't feel bad; you're not the only one. Maybe you heard the name from one of these places. One of them even has link "Highlights for Kids" that goes to "Highlights for Children" products.

I don't remember if we had the subscription or always saw it in the pediatricians' office or what, but we had "Highlights for Children" back in the 60s.
posted by Robert Angelo at 6:24 PM on April 10, 2007

"for Children" here, and I read them through the early half of the 90s.
posted by mittenedsex at 6:46 PM on April 10, 2007

I subscribed for a while in the 1970's to a magazine called Kids (I think); its tagline was "The Magazine by Kids for Kids" and its content was pretty much generated by children of various ages. I can't find any mention of it on the net so it has pretty much been sucked into the black hole of history, but if you were one of the few other people who read it, perhaps you are conflating it with Highlights.
posted by TedW at 7:10 PM on April 10, 2007

"for children," as long as I can remember. My grandmother always had a current subscription going for me and my brother, from, say, 1974 to 1984.

The title, "Highlights for Children," just makes sense, and bespeaks an age in which words made sense in context and single-name branding was slightly less common than today. "Gentlemen's Quarterly" strikes me as similar. Today we have GQ and no memory.
posted by Miko at 7:41 PM on April 10, 2007

We had a home subscription when I was a kid. Oh, I mean when I was a children. That was in the 60s. It was always "for children" as far as I ever knew. Maybe you are thinking of a hairstyle...
posted by The Deej at 11:19 PM on April 10, 2007

Ulrich's Periodical Directory is a great source for questions like this; however, it's not available for free online - you can get it either in print (your local library almost certainly has a copy) or online via Dialog. The 45th edition of Ulrich's lists over 200,000 serial titles, and it includes name changes among the information it tracks.

The Ulrich's entry for Highlights for Children (p. 2372 of the printed 45th edition, in case you want to double-check) does not list any former titles.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 10:08 AM on April 11, 2007