Hot Off The Press – New Titles This Week
Published on 6 October 2025 by Rose Staveley-Wadham
This week we have added an icon of British teenage life to our Archive, DC Thomson’s best-selling teen magazine, none other than Jackie. A weekly magazine for girls, Jackie was a cultural phenomenon.
We’ve published every single edition of Jackie here at The Archive, running from 1964 through to 1993. That means we’ve added 51,474 pages of purely Jackie this week, a lively and bright smorgasbord of everything that appealed to a young teenage girl in the latter half of the twentieth century.
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Jackie: The Beginnings
The first ever edition of Jackie, for ‘go-ahead teens,’ was first published on Thursday 11 January 1964, priced at 6d. With a smiling Cliff Richard on its cover, it advertised a ‘free twin heart ring,’ the first of many free gifts that would come with editions of Jackie. Cliff would be covered again later on in the magazine, in ‘The Cliff Alphabet,’ which, ‘just for kicks,’ would start with the letter ‘E.’
Encouraging its new readers to ‘make a date with Jackie,’ the first edition of the magazine contained all those elements which would make it a winning formula amongst young teenage girls of the era. Within its 24 pages you can find engaging picture strip stories, the first of these being The 5th Proposal, the illustrated tale of a BOAC flight attendant receiving her fifth proposal of marriage.
Following the story of Julie the flight attendant came a piece on perfumes, designed to help ‘that gorgeous hunk you have your eye on’ to notice you. Such beauty hints and tips were to become an important part of Jackie, the debut edition of the magazine noting how ‘each week Jackie will show you how to be subtle ‘n’ skilful with all the latest cosmetics.’
The first edition of Jackie also provided a colourful fashion spread, and a look at the ‘art of being kissable.’
Pin-ups, pop and pull-outs
From beauty tips to pin-ups, and featured on page seven of the very first edition of Jackie was the magazine’s very first ‘pin-up,’ English rock and roll star Billy Fury.
Published at the height of Beatlemania, Jackie included a column entitled ‘Pop Gossip‘ penned by the perfectly named Pete Lennon. Pete Lennon was actually the pen name of journalist Harry Buckle, who would go on to write for Jackie for another six years.
But back to the pin-ups – the first edition of Jackie advertised a vacant situation, that of a wife for ‘one of the best-looking men in Hollywood,’ Dick Chamberlain. And of course, at the height of the fever around the band, the next colourful Jackie pin-up was The Beatles, with Paul McCartney getting a page all to his own.
Meanwhile, the final pin-up of Jackie‘s first edition was ‘The King of Rock and Roll’ himself, Elvis Presley.
The ‘Cathy ‘n’ Claire Page’
The debut edition of Jackie also saw the debut of the ‘Cathy ‘n’ Claire Page,’ an agony aunt page where readers could write in with their problems. By the 1970s, this agony aunt page was a cultural phenomenon in and of itself, with the column receiving some 400 letters a week from Jackie readers, who were typically aged between 10 and 16.
The first ever ‘Cathy ‘n’ Claire Page’ contained the usual fare of boy-related troubles, with the advice offered often being startlingly blunt. One reader, complaining of a boyfriend who would only meet her inside at the pictures, was advised to change him out for ‘another boy. This one’s a confirmed meanie.’
Others wrote in on more practical matters. Decades before the internet, one could easily forget how difficult it was to find things out. For example, one letter asks about the average costs of going ‘youth-hostelling,’ with the Cathy and Claire pair advising how ‘average charges are – each night you stay, 2s-3s according to your age.’ Another letter, meanwhile, asks about French customs and how to get passports.
Providing advice from the stars meanwhile was Simone Selina with her ‘teen scope,’ which provided advice for those ‘going steady,’ those ‘on the loose,’ and for ‘the boy friend only.’
Jackie enters the seventies
All the elements encapsulated by Jackie’s first edition, the picture strip stories, the beauty tips, the life advice, the pin-ups, would prove to be a winning formula, and were echoed throughout following editions. Indeed, Jackie was so successful, that the magazine went on to sell in excess of a million copies a week, surpassing competing titles like Boyfriend and Valentine.
Its 1972 edition covering David Cassidy’s tour of the UK would become its best-selling issue. Published on 6 May 1972 with a photo of the American singer on the phone on its front cover, the magazine advertised a ‘super competition’ in which 100 David Cassidy albums could be won. All readers had to do was to find the 25 words they would use to speak to David Cassidy down the line.
So what did the Jackie of the early 1970s look like? Readers’s letters, the teen scope, picture strip stories, fashion spreads, pop gossip, all still filled the magazine’s pages, alongside interviews with celebrities of the day. Of course, the 6 May 1972 edition was devoted to none other than David Cassidy, as the magazine followed his daily routine in Los Angeles.
Meanwhile, ‘The Cathy & Claire Page’ was fleshed out to include longer letters and responses, covering such subjects as embarrassingly large feet, a head-scratching habit, and a boyfriend with an obsession for cars.
Jackie also included a series ‘on the right job for you,’ with looks at different career paths like nursing. Indeed, the magazine certainly had a didactic edge, with ‘Jackie teach-ins,’ outlining potential real-life scenarios, like one entitled ‘from dating to waiting.’
Jackie in the 1980s
By the 1980s Jackie had grown. From being 24 pages from 1964 to 1970, 32 pages until 1979, until 1986 Jackie filled 36 pages. The magazine would reach its largest page count from 1986 to 1990, when it filled some 48 pages.
Change was afoot in 1987 when ‘The Cathy and Claire Page’ was retired in favour of ‘Dear Ellie,’ which made its debut on 11 July 1987. The new look problem page, with its classically eighties design, featured the same raft of problems, but a quick glance at the new page reveals the serious problems that Jackie readers were facing. One such reader turned to the pages of Jackie for support after her father was imprisoned for two years. Suffering from acute despair, it was Jackie she wrote to in her time of need.
Familiar elements of Jackie remained, meanwhile, in its fashion spreads and pin-ups. Picture story strips got an update in the shape of photo story spreads, like this one entitled ‘Shattered Dreams.’
Jackie continued on, in its third decade, full of colour, stories, and advice.
Jackie bows out
By 1990, Jackie had gone down to 40 pages. Sales of the magazine had declined ever since its 1970s heyday, and by 1993, the title was selling some 50,000 copies. Refusing to bow to the pressure of more sexualised and high-fashion contemporary titles, DC Thomson published the last edition of Jackie on 3 July 1993.
Costing 50p, the final magazine looked back at ’30 years of Jackie,’ as well as covering new stars like Take That and Brad Pitt. Still a riot of colour, the magazine stated its claim to fame as being one of the first ever magazines to feature Take That in 1991, all the while advertising its successor, Shout, the ‘new teenage magazine that’s something to shout about!’ Jackie also took time to advertise Shout’s agony aunt, Cathy, so readers would still have somewhere to go with their problem letters.
Meanwhile, the last edition of Jackie featured trips around Sidcup and Swanley with guides Laura, Devi and Louise. The piece took in the things to do in the area, local celebrities, as well as the ‘talent,’ that is to say, the ‘hunky lads’ to be found in the area. There was also a piece entitled ‘Just Mad About Brad!,’ covering the rise of a new heartthrob, Brad Pitt.
Rounding off the final edition of Jackie was a nostalgic view of the magazine from the 1960s through to the 1990s. Through this time Jackie was a cultural juggernaut, that celebrated the biggest stars of the day, whilst also putting its readers front and centre, with their letters and their lives paramount to the magazine’s success.
For so many, Jackie was a part of growing up, of becoming a teenager and navigating those most challenging of years. Providing colour, joy, advice, browsing the pages of Jackie is to take a trip into the shoes of young teenagers growing up in the latter half of the twentieth century. Be sure to browse its pages here.
New Titles
Title | Years Added |
1964-1993 |
You can keep up to date with all the latest additions by visiting the recently added page. You can even look ahead to see what we’re going to add tomorrow.
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About the author
Rose Staveley-Wadham
Newspaper Licensing Manager
Published on Mon, 6 October 2025.