6 existence classes from Legendary Cosmo Editor Helen Gurley Brown

6 existence classes from Legendary Cosmo Editor Helen Gurley Brown

These are some of the fine hints I picked up at the same time writing her biography.

 As the editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan journal from 1965 to 1997, Helen Gurley Brown was once famous—and famously criticized through feminists—for meting out endless advice on learn how to shed extra pounds and easy methods to catch a man. And whilst she almost always deserved the flak, she additionally distributed gemstones of knowledge on numerous different subjects, from balancing a price range to becoming an person, at a time when most ladies’s magazines taught housewives  whip up the perfect pot roast and wax the floors earlier than their husbands received home. Here are probably the most high-quality lifestyles classes, each significant and small, I learned at the same time writing a brand new biography of HGB, Enter Helen: The Invention of Helen Gurley Brown and the rise of the brand new Single lady 

Take your pleasure seriously

“what is a horny girl? Very simple. She is a girl who enjoys sex,” Helen wrote in her 1962 bestseller, sex and the one lady. It used to be a surprising message at the time (high-quality girls weren’t speculated to have sex earlier than marriage, let alone revel in it), and it’s one who she continued to provide for the rest of her career: The more pleasure you get, the more pleasure you give.

Work difficult and pay your dues

As a young woman, Helen labored 17 secretarial jobs before she grew to be a excessive-powered and excessive-paid advert copywriter à la Peggy Olson. In sex and the single lady, she shared what she learned alongside the best way. Rule quantity 1: “DON’T DEMAND instantaneous GLAMOUR.” “give your self time to get priceless earlier than you get difficult,” she informed.

Pack your lunch

I realize it’s now not the sexiest advice, but it is sound. Once I labored at a magazine in ny, I effectively dropped $20 on an common meal, spending as much as $a hundred every week! In intercourse and the place of job, Helen presents two Brown Paper Bag Plans designed to replenish the working woman without draining her wallet. “residence-lunch can be delicious glamor-lady fodder rather of junk,” she wrote, adding that you could even “keep adequate cash to spend Christmas in Jamaica.”

listen to individuals

“certainly not fail to grasp that in case you are doing all the talking, you're boring a person,” Helen wrote in her 1982 booklet, Having all of it. A conversation should be two-sided. Mostly it’s better to hear and gain knowledge of.

Sit down up straight

Helen gave various nutty magnificence advice over the years (she advocated wigs, plastic surgical procedure, and lots of makeup), however this tip is timeless: “sit down up straight, rise up straight, posture, posture, posture!” she wrote in her 2000 book I’m Wild again. “excellent posture can make more difference in the way you look than basically whatever else”—and the high-quality part is, it’s free.

Let your issues be your gasoline

A self-described “mouseburger” from Arkansas, Helen told and retold the tale of her childhood: Her father died young, her mom sunk into melancholy, her sister contracted polio, and the household fell on rough times. But those difficult instances also fueled Helen’s ought to succeed. “Early-in-life issues may also be the yeast that makes you upward thrust into bread!” she once wrote. In different phrases, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Take it from HGB—or Beyoncé.