Bella

...that I’ve read my mum’s Bella every Tuesday since I can remember. Of course I buy my own Cosmopolitan, Marie-Claire and Creative Review (Art Student, yip yip!) but I rarely miss reading my mum’s magazine each time she buys it. Sometimes it makes me laugh, sometimes it makes me cringe, but I find it all highly entertaining.

My mum’s forty-one. And as long as I can recall, Bella magazine has been part of her weekly shopping. This means ...
...the other hand began reading Bella at a much younger age… as early as ten years old! This magazine is the one, which planted questions in my mind about sex, periods, relationships, and also gave me the answers issue by issue. Never too risqué, my mum was quite happy that I should read her grown-up magazine, rather than ‘Just Seventeen’ until I was entering puberty anyway. So I think I’m fairly experienced in the magazine now to give an informed review ... more

How odd, you might think. A young person is writing a review on such a ‘mature’ magazine! But I must admit that I’ve read my mum’s Bella every Tuesday since I can remember. Of course I buy my own Cosmopolitan, Marie-Claire and Creative Review (Art Student, yip yip!) but I rarely miss reading my mum’s magazine each time she buys it. Sometimes it makes me laugh, sometimes it makes me cringe, but I find it all highly entertaining.

My mum’s forty-one. And as long as I can recall, Bella magazine has been part of her weekly shopping. This means that she’s been reading since at least her mid-thirties. I on the other hand began reading Bella at a much younger age… as early as ten years old! This magazine is the one, which planted questions in my mind about sex, periods, relationships, and also gave me the answers issue by issue. Never too risqué, my mum was quite happy that I should read her grown-up magazine, rather than ‘Just Seventeen’ until I was entering puberty anyway. So I think I’m fairly experienced in the magazine now to give an informed review of its contents!

BELLA
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Bella retails at 70p, and is available every Tuesday at your local newsagent. It is published in the UK and so each of the features, be it fashion, make-up or true life stories, is relevant to us. Although each issue contains different articles, at first glance you’d be forgiven for thinking it’s the same issue over and over again. Each week there will be a diet page, that typically says something like “Eat Ice Cream and still stay Slim!” then there will be several true life stories such as “My Uncle was Evil but how could I stop him.?” There is also at least one story about a couple getting pregnant after years of trying. Perhaps it sounds like I’m talking too light-heartedly about such serious issues, but Bella is an informal magazine, that just likes to give people in difficult situations hope, showing that nice things happen to normal people. And for just 70p you really can’t complain- most magazines cost a whole lot more.

The front always has a cover girl (cover lady, I should say, as they generally look like they are in their mid-twenties!) and a few of the headlines from articles inside. The headlines are as sensationalised as possible to make you want to read the story, and you’d be forgiven for mixing this magazine up with the other magazines “Woman” or “Best.”

Contents page:
The contents page is consistent every week and a nice layout is their first column which is “On the Cover.” This makes it easy for you to go straight to whichever article on the front page tickled your fancy and saves a lot of time reading through the magazine to find one page. The other sections are: Real-life stories, Your Health, Your Home, Fiction, Food and Drink, Fashion and Beauty, Giveaways and Your Favourites. There are also a few images and the page numbers relevant to these are in the corner. Personally I rarely look at the contents pages in magazines, so I’m surprised at exactly how useful this one is.

The second double page of Bella is always split into seven sections and labelled Tuesday to Tuesday, and it tells you what interesting things are happening this week, like “Anti-Smoking Days” or films which get released on that date.

Typical Features:
The typical real-life story in Bella will have a mother telling how her beautiful daughter was hurt in a relationship/ murdered/ beaten, and will always have a warning to others. I find the writing style in this section can be a little unrealistic. It is supposed to be the person narrating, but it is obvious that the journalist has made up the words. But it makes good reading, and that is what counts.

The beauty pages are interesting to my mum, who wears conservative make-up and doesn’t spend too much on cosmetics. They focus on easy-to-find, cheaper beauty products, rarely using the trendy designer brands for their makeovers. The pages also look into a lot of supermarket brand cosmetics, which can be very good, and which you rarely see gracing the pages of cosmopolitan. When my mum sees something recommended in Bella she usually is interested in buying it, and thinks it is within her price-range, and not too trendy. I suppose this shows that they understand their target market and hit it perfectly. I, on the other hand, don’t feel too compelled to buy the Collection 2000, and Boots No7 cosmetics. Not that they aren’t good products, I just am slightly snobby about make-up. Probably because I’ve read too many of the more expensive magazines!

Parenting features are quite common, like “How do you discipline your child?” where they will look at all points of view, and get opinions from professionals. The unbiased nature of the magazine is very appealing especially for difficult subjects like breast-feeding, where some publications will make out that you are guilty of hurting your child if you don’t do it, Bella will not condone or condemn you for your own decisions. It is a fence-sitting magazine.

Each week there will be a feature on health alternatives, and a Q & A for people to write in if they need advice on the subject. There are also pages on problems which affect women specifically, like Breast Cancer. Usually a reader will have a positive story to tell about the subject and the magazine will offer advice after the story. Every few pages there is a full-page advertisement, either on Tampons, washing powder, coffee or some porcelain doll made up like a baby. Then there are the food pages where you find recipes for scrummy looking meals and puddings. These are good as they tell you how many servings you should be able to achieve from your ingredients.

I find the interior design pages are really tasteful, and they give me great ideas, and my mum too. The designs can vary from contemporary to traditional and whoever writes for this section has a great eye for design and trends. This section could easily compete with any of the more expensive Home magazines. The bonus is that they find their furniture and materials from everyday stores, so we can all afford it.

What Bella can give you…

So, what’s left is the Problem Page (My Husband is my fifth Child… etc…), the horoscopes, the letters page where the star letter gets £50 and each other gets £25, and throughout the magazine’s 60 pages there are numerous competitions such as “win a rotary watch” or “win a fridge” and for the record you can get £500 for having your story featured in the magazine. That just leaves Rita Rogers for me to tell you about. Rita is one of the magazine’s most popular features. She is a psychic, and readers send their story in to her with a picture of their dead loved one. Rita then tells them that their loved one is safe and hanging out with their mates in the other world. Oddly in my opinion, no one in the spirit world is ever unhappy according to Rita’s readings, so I’m quite sceptical, but you can draw your own conclusions to that one.

Recommended?

Hmmm, well I read it ever week, so I can hardly say no! But I admit I’d never buy a copy myself. However if I were 30 and had a child then this magazine would probably be in my shopping trolley every week. I like Bella, I’ve grown up reading it, and my dad steals it from her as soon as he spies it. I think the stories about people’s real life problems are very relevant to our lives, and sometimes open your eyes to things you were never aware of, like the lengths women go to hiding abusive relationships, or how to really examine your breasts for a lump. It can be educational in many ways, yet never loses its touch with reality.

Bella is a bargain read at 70p and the fact that it has been in publication for many years is testemonial to its popularity with women the UK over. No celeb gossip, this is a read for real people.
 

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