If You are not a Sex Object, You are in Trouble”

                                               –Helen Gurley Brown

                                                                     By: Nia Beals

            Helen Gurley Brown was most known for being the editor of the famous Cosmopolitan magazine during the Sexual Revolution. Helen Gurley Brown was born in February 18, 1922 in Green Forest, Arkansas. By the time Helen graduated from high school her, her sister, and her mother had moved to Los Angeles, California. However, her sister and mother decided to move back to Arkansas. She decided not to go back to Arkansas because she was not made to live in the country. Helen always felt more at home in the big city. Helen is also known for quoting Carson McCullers by stating “I must go home periodically to renew my sense of humor.”

            Years later, Brown began working for several different advertising company. It was rumored that Brown slept with several of her bosses. Some of the people she was rumored to be with included Jack Dempsey and the son of an oil tycoon. However, it was at her seventeenth job that one of her employers noticed how good of a writer she was. With the help of her boss and his wife she managed to win several awards for her articles. By 1950, Helen was earning the highest salary of a female writer. Her new success helped her meet her future husband David Brown who happened to be the producer of the movie Jaws and Driving Miss Daisy. Her new husband was also very influential to her career by convincing her to write her famous book Sex and the Single Girl. Her new book encouraged women to not get married and to enjoy premarital sex with different partners. The book was so popular that the prestigious film company Warner Bros bought the film writes from the book.

            By July 1965, all of the hard work Helen put into building her career did not go unnoticed because she became the new chief and editor of Cosmopolitan magazine. Because of Helen, the magazine grew to be over three hundred pages. However in 1997, Helen stepped down from being the regular chief and editor to being the chief and editor of the international Cosmopolitan magazine. Because of Helen’s efforts, the magazine was the number one women’s magazine. Also, she was named one of the top twenty five influential women. Sadly, at the old age of 90, Helen passed away in a hospital in New York.[1]

                                                                                       

                                                   

                                                                 

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[1] Garner, Dwight. "The Original Carrie Bradshaw." The New York Times. The New York Times, 21 Apr. 2009. Web. 29 Apr. 2014.