It's a new year in the Sassy timeline, and you know what that means: time to crown a new Sassiest Girl In America! The latest crop of hopefuls descend on New York (thanks to Clairol and L.A. Gear), and apparently don't slow down for photos because other than the winner on the cover, all you get are silver dollar-sized, super-processed photos of them. (If this is what we have to look forward to from the magazine's new redesign, its first since its launch almost three years ago: boo.) Elsewhere, we hear first-person testimony from staffers' bouts of depression, a wildly sexist feature on why boys find YOU scary, an excellent short story from copy assistant Jessica Vitkus, the incongruous choice of Nick Cave as What He Said's celebrity boy, and much more. You're going to need your reading glasses and a flashlight to make out what's on some of these pages, so you might as well just let us tell you about it all instead!

🗒 Full episode notes can be found on this episode's page on our website

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🎧 It Is January 1991

🎧 Feature: Spying On The Sassiest Girls In America

🎧 Feature: Why Boys Think You’re So Scary

🎧 Feature: When We Were Depressed

🎧 Fiction: Chicago

🎧 Body Talk

🎧 It Happened To Me: Pen Pal Stopped Writing

🎧 What He Said: What’s Your Type?

🎧 Help

🎧 Help For Him

🎧 Stuff You Wrote

🎧 Goodbye For Now

🐳 Tom Carvel on Wikipedia

🏫 "Smart Business with a Social Conscience" and Columbia College Today

🧑🏻‍💼 Wah Chen on LinkedIn

⚖️ Traprock Center for Peace & Justice

🏪 Sandra Yeh on Yelp

⛑️ "10 Disturbing Things ProPublica/NPR Learned Investigating the Red Cross' [sic] Sandy Relief Efforts" at ProPublica

💰 "How the Red Cross Raised Half a Billion Dollars for Haiti and Build Six Homes" at ProPublica

😡 "Red Cross Endorsed Top Official Despite Sexual Misconduct Claims, ProPublica Reports" at NPR

📜 Dawn Wilkinson on Wikipedia

📸 Dawn Wilkinson on Instagram

🎬 Derek Madison on IMDb

🍎 Christian Cervegnano on BitbyBit

💻 Terry Miura's website

Some of the readers in charge of fashion freak it, like stylist Daisy von Furth's fun and quirky denim looks. Others, like Shelly Franklin, went to a Gap and grabbed the first seven garments she saw. The two co-exist uneasily over 12 pages in the December 1990 issue's one and only fashion feature. (Which stylist did you prefer? Tell us at 720-SASSY-GO!) Beyond that, we get a makeup enthusiast getting mentored by an expert; an essay about how weight-related beauty standards change over time, an absolutely cuckoo Making It project, and much much more. Put down your new-fangled bath puff and listen!

🗒 Full episode notes can be found on this episode's page on our website

🖼️ Check out this episode's Visual Aids

☎️ Call The Hotline! Leave your questions, comments and Sassy stories on the hotline at 720-SASSY-GO or record directly on our site

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🎧 It Is December 1990

🎧 Fashion Feature: Denim

🎧 Making It: Outerunderwear

🎧 Beauty Feature: I Hate My Body

🎧 Beauty Feature: Real Professional

🎧 About Face

🎧 Remember When

🎧 We Try It

🎧 Sassy Ads

🎧 Diary: Strange Things Afoot At 1 Times Square

🎧 Say What

🎧 Goodbye For Now

🎁 Give the Listen To Sassy Club as a gift on Patreon

🌎 Deborah Jaffe's website

💻 Carter B. Smith's website

📸 Victoria Ventanini on Instagram

💍 "Weddings: Vows; Katie Weinberg and Patrick Schumacher" at the New York Times

💿 Letha Rodman Melchior on Forced Exposure

🪈 U By Kotex

😎 Summer Lopez on Amazon

⛱️ Her Own Summer

🌊 Summer Lopez's "cold case crime novel," Murder On Big Water: A Sierra Cold Case Crime

Our second episode on Sassy's first reader-produced issue covers its pop culture topics. Whose mom surprisingly liked Das Damen? Is "gnard" going to catch on as a slang term? And is Nathan Limbaugh...okay? There's also movie reviews, a One To Watch who may or may not be, a profile of Faith No More's Mike Patton, and a bushel AND a peck of a Mystic, CT scribe named Eva Peck. Put down your Factsheet Five for just a second and listen!

🗒 Full episode notes can be found on this episode's page on our website

🖼️ Check out this episode's Visual Aids

☎️ Call The Hotline! Leave your questions, comments and Sassy stories on the hotline at 720-SASSY-GO or record directly on our site

🦋 @ListenToSassy on Bluesky

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🎧 It Is December 1990

🎧 What Now

🎧 Watch It

🎧 Listen Up

🎧 One To Watch

🎧 Goodbye For Now

🎧 Fudge

👧🏻 "'Emily The Strange' Animated Movie In The Works From Warner Bros., Bad Robot" at The Hollywood Reporter

🪑 "Remembering Trivet's Antiques In Cincinnati" at That 70's [sic] blog

🛹 "The X-Girl Factor: How The Cult '90s Label Set The Standard For Skater-Girl Style" at Vogue

🌭 "Mr. Show - Titanica [sic] Visits A Fan" on YouTube

👖 Das Damen at Trouser Press

📢 "SST Vets Das Damen Announce First Shows In 30+ Years" at Brooklyn Vegan

📷 Das Damen on Instagram

🚏 Reprodepot on Etsy

📷 Djerba Goldfinger on Instagram

🔦 Volunteer application at the Olympics website

🚫 NOlympics L.A.

5️⃣ Factsheet Five on Wikipedia

💿 Nathan Limbaugh on Discogs

🎞️ Peter Sobczynski at RogerEbert

🏔️ The Two Jakes on Paramount+

🌚 Darkman on AMC+

🚮 Men At Work on Fubo

🎥 "Hollywood's Brat Pack" at New York magazine

🗑️ Men At Work on Wikipedia

🐸 Toad The Wet Sprocket's website

🗺️ Tara's Somebody Somewhere S03 review at Cracked

🚶‍♂️ Tara's review of Seth Meyers: Dad Man Walking at Cracked

The staff at Sassy had impeccable instincts for building its community -- and in the days when doing so required going to the post office to put actual paper goods in the actual mail, too -- and there's no better proof of their success than its first-ever reader-produced issue. The proof that some 80+ real readers made the issue happen is that...you know, the photos are kind of dark. Also that a lead feature about parents doing cocaine and the effect of their drug use on their 10-year-old son showing a few more gaps than we typically like to see in a piece purporting to be factual. But is the nitpicking by at least one of your co-hosts due in large part to the fact that she's jealous of all her then-peers who, unlike her, WEREN'T too scared to apply? Yes, yes it is. The readers bring us all the usual departments, plus a new one (Green Gossip) and the return of On The Road and a super-sized Stuff WE Wrote: join us as we leap in to the Teen Life topics of the December 1990 issue!

🗒 Full episode notes can be found on this episode's page on our website

🖼️ Check out this episode's Visual Aids

☎️ Call The Hotline! Leave your questions, comments and Sassy stories on the hotline at 720-SASSY-GO or record directly on our site

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🎧 It Is December 1990

🎧 Feature: When Mom And Dad Snort Coke

🎧 Feature: Black Armbands And Bart Simpson

🎧 Body Talk

🎧 Green Gossip

🎧 What He Said: When Do You Consider Yourself “Taken”?

🎧 On The Road: Vancouver, BC

🎧 Help

🎧 Help For Him

🎧 It Happened To Me: Magazine Taken Over By Readers

🎧 Comic Strip: Stereotype Gripe

🎧 Horror-Scope

🎧 Stuff We Wrote

🎧 Goodbye For Now

🎧 Women's Section

💬 "Free Speech In High School" at TheFire

☮️ "From black armbands to the Supreme Court: Mary Beth Tinker and student free speech rights" at TheFire

🐊 "'No hoodies, no Crocs': Bessemer City High announces dress code requirements for new school year" at WBRC

👗 "Why dress codes are a violation of Title IX" at Lake Oswego Review

📹 The case involving middle school girls who were taped while changing clothes in a locker room, at FindLaw

🌞 "Revealed: The Worst Cities to Live in the U.S. for Your Skin" at Newsweek

📜 Judy Budnitz on Wikipedia

📖 "Miranda July: By the Book" at the New York Times

🖥️ Teresa McWhirter's website

🔫 "My Mom Shot Me" at Vice

🌴 The Again With This podcast on Patreon

How spacy are we? According to Sassy's November 1990 quiz, the answer is "possibly a lot spacier than some of us would care to admit" or "just about as spacy as we thought." Then, because we spaced on our last combined Slumber Party episode, we go back in time to take the September quiz and Rate [Our] Boy-Obsessiveness. (If you predicted that Pam's score would require a whole different scale, good job: you've REALLY been listening.) Then we move on to some of your latest calls, which cover topics including how a driver's ed teacher might work smarter, not harder; how to ruin a pair of overalls with a single trip to the bathroom; and how messy a woman's first-date meal can be without driving her beau away. Don't space out: listen now!

🗒 Full episode notes can be found on this episode's page on our website

☎️ Call The Hotline! Leave your questions, comments and Sassy stories on the hotline at 720-SASSY-GO or record directly on our site

🦋 @ListenToSassy on Bluesky

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🎧 It Is November 1990

🎧 Quiz: How Spacy Are You?

🎧 Quiz: Rate You Boy-Obsessiveness

🎧 From The Hotline

🎧 Goodbye For Now

😵‍💫 The November 1990 Quiz: How Spacy Are You?

🤩 The September 1990 Quiz: Rate Your Boy-Obsessiveness

🗿 Does Tampax Rock? by Small Town Titans on TikTok

🐐 Lubricated Goat on In The Raw, on YouTube

📹 In The Raw documentary on YouTube

🌃 Tara on Saturday Night's Not Ready For Primetime Players, ranked by verisimilitude

The weather's getting chillier, and the fashion (etc.) of the November 1990 knows it. Hence a whole story about brown coats, and a spread to help you source all the goth-y looks your black heart desires. Mary brings us a report on her time auditing classes at the Vidal Sassoon Academy and actually getting to cut real (mannequin) hair. Jane tells a confusing story about getting mugged, a pet store owner's daughter sticks up for her mom (we're not having it), and much much more in an episode that REALLY smells like Teen Spirit!

🗒 Full episode notes can be found on this episode's page on our website

🖼️ Check out this episode's Visual Aids

☎️ Call The Hotline! Leave your questions, comments and Sassy stories on the hotline at 720-SASSY-GO or record directly on our site

🦋 @ListenToSassy on Bluesky

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🎧 It Is November 1990

🎧 Fashion Feature: Coatings

🎧 Fashion Feature: Wicked

🎧 Beauty Feature: I Was A Beauty School Dropout

🎧 About Face

🎧 Sassy Ads

🎧 Sassy Club

🎧 Say What

🎧 Inside Out: Ooh, It’s A Little Baby Sassy!

🎧 Goodbye For Now

🎧 Goodbye Forever

📸 Maybe or maybe not the Joe Hill who shot the November 1990 cover

🤳 The Joe Hill linked above, on Instagram

🌐 Probably our Markus Morianz's website

✂️ Sassoon Academy

👃 Le Scent on eBay

🧴 Perfume applicators on Etsy

😷 Teen Spirit Pink Crush at Walmart

📖 The March 2023 Vanity Fair article about Jane Pratt's newsletter DeedDa

🗺️ "Where Is DeedDa?" at Dirt

Did Iggy Pop and Debbie Harry approach their "Well, Did You Evah?" cover for Red Hot + Blue with the appropriate level of professionalism? Which downtown shopping and dining spots Christina visited with Sonic Youth still exist today? Was Shawn Wayans One To Watch? What does "gerbiling" really mean? And how did Winona Ryder EVER agree to play a character named Dinky Bossetti? We can't promise we answer all these questions, but we definitely try in the November 1990 Pop Culture episode!

🗒 Full episode notes can be found on this episode's page on our website

🖼️ Check out this episode's Visual Aids

☎️ Call The Hotline! Leave your questions, comments and Sassy stories on the hotline at 720-SASSY-GO or record directly on our site

🦋 @ListenToSassy on Bluesky

📷 @ListenToSassy on Instagram

🧑‍💻 Visit our website ListenToSassy.com

🛍️ Shop the LTS Store

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🎧 It Is November 1990

🎧 What Now

🎧 Watch It

🎧 Listen Up

🎧 One To Watch

🎧 Feature: Sonic Youth On $100 A Day

🎧 Goodbye For Now

🇩🇪 "German reunification" at Britannica

🏛️ "My Washington: Beanie and Drew Spangler" at WashU's Washington Magazine

💸 "Tax evasion by millionaires and billionaires tops $150 billion a year, says IRS chief" at CNBC

🫦 Sound Bites From The Counter Culture on YouTube

😵 "Dead Kennedys' Jello Biafra interviewed during his 1987 obscenity trial" at Boing Boing

🐸 "Toad licking: just say no, National Parks Service tells Americans seeking a high" at The Guardian

📒 Teenage Gang Debs Issue #4 on eBay

🎞️ Tune In Tomorrow... on YouTube

🏡 Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael at JustWatch

💘 Book Of Love playlist on YouTube

🛜 Shawn Wayans's website

🖍️ FAQ at Crayola

🛍️ The Patricia Field store

☕️ "Starbucks on the Riviera" at Jeremiah's Vanishing New York

📸 Kim Gordon on Instagram

👋 Gordon's "Bye Bye" video on YouTube

💿 "Album Of The Week: Kim Gordon The Collective" at Stereogum

✨ "Kim Gordon & model home - 'razzamatazz'" at Stereogum

🎶 "How Kim Gordon and D.C. rap duo Model Home got together to get weird" at The Washington Post

😓 Sweaty Betty utility open back jumpsuit on Postmark

🔥 EEHG 318: In Vogue: The 90s

Let's all open up a new issue together! Yes, the first feature is a dispiriting profile of Bill, who only recently left foster care to reunite with his family. But there's also dating, sleeping, a primer on becoming a vegetarian, and a truly classic fiction story. What He Said is all about your potty mouth; Body Talk is telling you about a new-fangled piece of exercise gear known as a step; Help For Him addresses bad smells Down There...and more! Grab a tall glass of orange juice and listen!

🗒 Full episode notes can be found on this episode's page on our website

🖼️ Check out this episode's Visual Aids

☎️ Call The Hotline! Leave your questions, comments and Sassy stories on the hotline at 720-SASSY-GO or record directly on our site

🦋 @ListenToSassy on Bluesky

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🧑‍💻 Visit our website ListenToSassy.com

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🎧 It Is November 1990

🎧 Feature: Bill Is Just One

🎧 Feature: Go To Sleep

🎧 Feature: How To Have Fun On A Date With A Guy You’ve Never Gone Out With Before In Your Life

🎧 Feature: More Tofu-Lentil Loaf, Anyone?

🎧 Fiction: Breathing Room

🎧 Body Talk

🎧 What He Said: Do You Like Girls Who Curse?

🎧 Help

🎧 Help For Him

🎧 Stuff You Wrote

🎧 Goodbye For Now

🍖 Scrapple on Wikipedia

👨‍💼 Retired ACLU attorney Chris Hansen on Wikipedia

📜 "The 'Magna Carta' of Cyberspace Turns 20: An Interview With the ACLU Lawyer Who Helped Save the Internet" at the ACLU's website

👦🏻 “When Should A Child Be Taken From His Parents?” at the New Yorker website

👶 “When Foster Parents Don’t Want To Give Back The Baby” at the New Yorker website

📦 Lori Eaton's Found Archives

🔗 Eaton on LinkedIn

👟 Reebok Step

🪑 The Reebok Fitness Multipurpose Bench

💅 "Abdul backs bill for cleaner nail salons" at SFGate

👂 "Twitter Helps Q-Tip Find High School Sweetheart" at BET's website

💝 Q-Tip's high school sweetheart Pamela Sweat on Instagram

🗣️ "Person-Centered Language" at Mental Health America

🪦 Debra Ashley Nettles Mahany's obituary

🤘 "A study found toxic metals in popular tampon brands" at the NPR website

🌴 The Again With This podcast on Patreon

After skipping the September 1990 Slumber Party, we're resuming with our results from the October 1990 quiz -- What Kind Of Sister Are You? -- then launching into a bumper crop of your latest voicemails. Why are driver's ed films so horrifying? Can you still get Mad magazine? What's lymph? We figure out SOME of this in this all-new episode!

🗒 Full episode notes can be found on this episode's page on our website

☎️ Call The Hotline! Leave your questions, comments and Sassy stories on the hotline at 720-SASSY-GO or record directly on our site

🦋 @ListenToSassy on Bluesky

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🧑‍💻 Visit our website ListenToSassy.com

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🎧 It Is October 1990

🎧 Quiz: What Kind Of Sister Are You?

🎧 From The Hotline

🎧 Goodbye For Now

🎧 Pam's Marriage Award

👯‍♀️ The October 1990 quiz: What Kind Of Sister Are You?

🧴 Colors de Benetton / Woman

👃 Colors de Benetton on Fragrantica

🌮 "Eat Through Austin Day One: The Eatening" at Pamie

🤢 "Reasons For This Tummy Ache" at Jamie

🏀 Mr. Throwback on Extra Extra Hot Great

⛹️‍♂️ Tara's Mr. Throwback review at Cracked

😥 The Change on Britbox

This month's fashion stories run the gamut more than most issues. Do you want to dress like everyone on Twin Peaks? It's 1990 -- of course you do, and so does everyone else! Do you want to wear velvet? Mmmm, depends if you like everyone to see sweat stains on your catsuit. This month we're also learning why we should exercise with weights, how gardening clogs could be worn in everyday life, what benefits you could obtain from loitering around a department store wig section (???), and who came SECOND in the Sassiest Boy In America contest -- but first in our hearts. Snap that Best Friends necklace in half now: you'll want complete silence for our latest episode!

🗒 Full episode notes can be found on this episode's page on our website

🖼️ Check out this episode's Visual Aids

☎️ Call The Hotline! Leave your questions, comments and Sassy stories on the hotline at 720-SASSY-GO or record directly on our site

🦋 @ListenToSassy on Bluesky

📷 @ListenToSassy on Instagram

🧑‍💻 Visit our website ListenToSassy.com

🛍️ Shop the LTS Store

📖 Full cover-to-cover magazine PDFs

💬 Chat with us and your fellow listeners on Discord

🐣 Get episodes earlier than the general public

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🎧 It Is October 1990

🎧 Fashion Feature: Superplush

🎧 Fashion Feature: Anytown, USA

🎧 What Next

🎧 Beauty Feature: Be Strong

🎧 About Face

🎧 Zits And Stuff

🎧 Sassy Ads

🎧 Sassy Club

🎧 Diary: Boy-crazy? Us?

🎧 Say What

🎧 Inside Out: Our First Runner-Up

🎧 Goodbye For Now

👗 "Rare Punk label Betsey Johnson velvet halter dress" on Poshmark

👞 "Smith & Hawken Gardening Clogs - green" on Poshmark

💪 "How can strength training build healthier bodies as we age?" at the National Institute On Aging

🏋️ Iron Method

📷 Bordeaux Modeling on Instagram

💁‍♀️ Nicole Bordeaux's bio at Photogenics Media

📷 Nicole Bordeaux on Instagram

🏫 The Freshman Dorm book series at ThriftBooks

☎️ MC Hammer 900 number commercial on YouTube

🗣️ MC Hammer at All American Speakers

⏳ Tara's review of AppleTV+'s Time Bandits at Cracked