I got a subscription to Marie Claire because I needed a magazine to read while using the stair stepper at the gym. Working out without something to read is far too painful as I need more distraction than just some music, and there's no way I could concentrate on a novel or some such when I'm suffering over my workout. I needed something nice and light, so I thought a glossy woman's mag would be just the ticket. In some ways it serves its purpose, but it's far from being a truly satisfying read.

Take this month's issue, for example, dated November 2009. First, I have to give it mega-points for featuring a woman of colour on the cover. This is all too rare and I'm glad to see Marie-Claire breaking the mold on this.

However, the cover model is "Alexandra" who is supposedly "Britain's New Superstar." I've never heard of her, and so am not really interested in an article about her. Shame, as there's nothing else listed on the cover to catch my eye except for some lame "fashion updates" that sound quite boring as I can never afford the clothes in these magazine anyway.

I flip through a bunch of ads to get to the table of contents which is on page 21 - quite a bit of flipping to get there which isn't too convenient while on the stair stepper. And here I can find little to catch my interest. There's an article on sex toys which looks like it would be fun, but it turns out to be only a page and a half long. There's something about a man who dates much younger women and something about addictions of the modern age. These are both very light and fluffy pieces but fine as far as they go.

There are some other very good articles in here though. One about a woman who was a victim of war in Sierra Leone who goes back as a UNICEF ambassador, and one about a woman who went from being homeless at 17 to a company director at 25. These are both very inspirational and well worth reading.

If you do subscribe, make sure you do so with a special free gift offer. Currently it's Frederic Fekkai products worth £20 (if you go to the newsagents and look on page 22 of this month's magazine you'll see the offer - I'm not sure I'm supposed to quote it here so I will say no more...). If this offer has expired there will certainly be another one about so be sure to shop around until you find it. Another good thing about the subscription apart from the free gift and saving a bundle off the cover price is that all the free gifts given with the magazine in the newsagent are also sent to you so you don't miss anything.

In short, I do like this magazine a fair bit and feel it goes more in depth in some issues than a magazine like Cosmo that appears to focus primarily on getting and keeping a man (sad!!!).

But you do have to wade through loads of ads to get to the good bits, some articles are quite light and disappointing, and don't even get me started on what it does for women's self esteem to see all the unrealistically beautiful models featured in these pages....