The UK edition of Cosmopolitan magazine is packed full of snippets and bites of information and visuals to satisfy the cravings of it's readers. Fashion and beauty, real life shocking stories, alongside sex and celebrity and even health issues make for a juicy read and catch up on the goings on of the last month. I was an avid reader of Cosmopolitan for years and I still have the endless throng of magazines piled up in my house. I was a self confessed magazine junkie and have the credentials to prove it in the form of mountains of a decades worth of magazines. However the operative word is WAS.

Magazine readership has declined in recent years with some magazines having to face the prospect of folding in altogether- no pun intended. The introduction of Magazine websites alongside the recession has contributed to this. Cosmopolitan is no different. It satisfied my cravings for all of the features I mentioned above and has done so for nearly ten years. However the December 2008 issue with Leona Lewis on the cover was the last issue I bought and probably will buy.

Cosmopolitan is aimed at young women aged 18 possibly up to around the age of 35- telling from the 'real women' they put in features. Much of what is inside is centred around fashion and appearances with surrounding articles which are very much relevant to women and are injected with healthy doses of substance. However despite being well within the target age range of its readership I feel that I have outgrown the magazine.

This possibly comes down to a number of factors. I started to read the magazine at as young as 15. I still have these 'vintage' issues and could assert that the focus and direction of the magazine has shifted ever so gradually. At 15 years of age I was reading a magazine that was well out of my age range and despite enjoying reading it, couldn't actually relate to the themes touched upon. However as I have grown up I have finally found the opposite occurring, feeling very strongly that the magazine it is today could very well be aimed at girls as young as 15. Are the younger generation growing up too fast? Or has the magazine 'dumbed' and 'younged' down like the rest of the arenas in pop culture including music to engage a younger and ever more influential youth orientated audience.

Now in my early twenties I have lost interest in what the magazine generally has to offer. I enjoy staring at the glossy aesthetically pleasing perfume adverts and trying the samples which come with the issues, even a story or two, but the truth is that I would rather have a magazine giving me tips on how to go about getting on the property ladder, how to decorate and do DIY in my own home and generally be as progressive as I can in my life. Moreover the Online version of the magazine has a forum which I can use to communicate with young women who can possibly give me tips on how to go about doing this whilst saving money in the recession.