Helpful hints to get you ready for the warmer weather
It’s a case of good news-bad news. First the good news: We have only two weeks to go before Daylight Saving Time. The bad news? Now we can see in the full light of day just how much we need the best of the self-help mags to get us primed for spring and summer.
New You
Millennials may want to give New You mag a try. The cover wins the prize, with a fetching shot of 19-year-old singer and actress Zendaya, who reveals in an insightful Q&A that she does not believe in Photoshopping because there is no such thing as ugly. While the questions veer to the light and frothy, we do learn in an interview with freshman recording artist Sophie Simmons, the daughter of Kiss founder Gene Simmons, that she finds strength through her family. New You hits on topics on which young women may be struggling, and while Zendaya may say there is no such thing as ugly, that isn’t how the rest of the mag rolls. There are several articles, for example, about improving appearances, including one that explains how groomed eyebrows can have a better lifting impact than Botox — and on getting Kylie Jenner’s pouty lips in amore natural way.
Dr. Oz’s The Good Life
Dr. Oz’s The Good Life tries to put some spring in the step of Gen Xers and Baby Boomers. The popular talk show host confesses he has been diagnosed as having too much mercury in his blood, and writes about the catch in eating too much fish. Answer: eat smaller portions and vary the kinds of fish you eat. Like his show, the mags offer informative feelgood stories, including one on a 42-year-old woman who lost 165 pounds. She changed her lifestyle by taking steps like roasting rather than frying Mexican food. There is a nice pictorial on how to burn 300 calories. One suggestion is getting up every hour at work for five minutes and walking down a flight of stairs or walking to the other side of the office. The Good Life mostly contains eye-catching pictorials including a spread on freshening up body odor. Tip: Clean your belly button.
LiveHappy
LiveHappy sets its sights on parents, with no less than three articles on raising kids, a chief takeaway being that striving to be the perfect parent is a path strewn with pitfalls. Planning a family trip? Sort out the details early to help relieve stress. We liked the feature on Michael Strahan, which offers an inspirational look at how the fat kid transformed himself first into a champion football player, and then into a co-host with Kelly Ripa on ABC’s “Live! With Kelly and Michael.” Cover girl Kirsten Bell, the actress-singer, goes real simple on the best route to happiness with this quote: “Every day I make the choice to smile.” Who can argue with that?
Clean Eating
If you’re a do-it-yourself self-helper, Clean Eating boasts the right ingredients. This colorful array of appetizing recipes and spiff-up-your household hints under Editor-in-Chief Alicia Rewega doesn’t look like just another food magazine. We like the Clean Eating recipe guide that queues up this month’s banner meals: from banana leaf-wrapped green curry fish to Moroccan chickpea stew and whole wheat couscous to miso mushroom pork pot pie. Also, high on our list is the climate-sensitive recipe for DIY citrus dish soap, an eco-friendly product that is, as the clever headline writers say, “gentle on digits but tough on dishes.”
New Yorker
In case you were wondering, the preschool situation in Silicon Valley appears to be just as insane and miserable as it is in New York City. “If you don’t pick your preschool right, your child will be penniless and alone at 30,” tech entrepreneur Max Ventilla gasps to New Yorker. “And there is, absurdly, a little bit of truth to that.” Leaving aside the discussion of exactly where the absurdity lies in that statement, the difference here is that Ventilla has founded an education startup that’s building an “ecosystem” that encourages kids to pursue their own interests, even as a camera-assisted surveillance system monitors them and their teachers. Sound like fun? No, it sounds like the future.
Time
Speaking of which, Time has a cover story on driverless cars, arguing that America’s storybook romance with James Dean and the Porsche Spider he crashed in the California desert is getting slammed shut in a hurry — that is to say, we’ll be forced to surrender control of our cars, and we won’t mind it all that much. One interesting point that’s only mentioned in passing: driving out on the open road may not be totally illegal in the future, but if not, it’s likely to involve a “tax” of some kind, if not in the form of exhorbitant traffic fines for speeders. Hmmm. Sounds like a recipe for a new theater of class warfare. And maybe another “Mad Max” sequel.