Mag Watch: Yen

It all started with a Best of Yen issue I purchased a couple of months ago. There was all this mental bargaining that goes on in a cash-strapped consumer's mind, and let's just say they got me at rational A: "wow! It's, like, a dollar cheaper than the current issue and it's kinda a good way to preview their back catalogue..."

NAME: Yen
STRAP: Australia's #1 independent magazine for women
CHARGE: $8.50
GENRE: Pop culture
CYCLE: Bi-monthly
MADE IN: New South Wales, Australia
PROS: Intelligent, worldly features
CONS: Can Curvy be permanently woven into the fabric of Yen's DNA?

Yen has found its demographic and place in the market as a "thinking girl's magazine". The broad scope of topical feature articles are what makes this publication - we're talking everything from punk history, to land mine victims in Cambodia, and tattoo artists. The cover girls are real, spunky and charismatic young women like Zooey Deschanel, Patience from The Grates and Chloe Sevigny.

Quite a welcome break from the likes of Cleo and Cosmopolitan. Because there's probably a little more to the world than diets and having to look good in bed...