Thank You and Goodbye to Helen Gurley Brown

Helen Gurley Brown was the original Cosmo girl.  That alone would put her in the fabulous column on my roster; however, she did so much more.   In 1962 she wrote a book called Sex and The Single Girl and then created Cosmopolitan Magazine for Fun, Fearless, Females.

She was the editor of Cosmopolitan from 1965 until 1997 and is often thought to be the driving force behind the magazine’s current incarnation of the issues featuring no-holds-barred articles and features on sex. Recently, the New York Times ran a piece on how Cosmo, as the flashy magazine is generally known, has taken over the world. This was no doubt thanks to Gurley Brown’s steady, guiding reign and her reinvigoration of the brand.

 Ms. Gurley Brown married her husband David Brown, a film producer, when she was 43, and it was he who suggested she write her now legendary book. “Sex and the Single Girl.”

“The book encouraged young women to enjoy being single, find fulfillment in work and non-marital relationships with men, and take pleasure in sex.”  Which is something young women need to hear now almost as much as they needed to hear when the book was written.

Without Helen Gurley Brown, there wouldn't have been a Carrie Bradshaw or many of our other fictional icons of freedom, fun and fashion.  You can be well dressed and well informed.  As Ms. Gurley Brown said, "You can have it all."


Helen Gurley Brown died yesterday in Manhattan, she was 90.  Another of her oft quotes sayings was, "Good Girls go to Heaven, bad girls go everywhere else."   If it is at all possible, Helen will do both. 

Rest in Peace Helen Gurley Brown 1922-2012. 

Source: New York Daily News