Spartan Profiles: Amy Astley
TEEN VOGUE
Early this year, Teen VOGUE magazine debuted with its February/March issue. The Euro-sized magazine boasts a circulation of 450,000 sophisticated teenage girls, although “many 20- and 30-something women like (that) it focuses on affordable but chic fashion,” says Editor-In-Chief Amy Astley, ’89, beauty director for VOGUE the past 10 years. “We differ from other teen books in that most of them are really relationship magazines—they are about dating, boys, sex, parents, and so on. We’re about fashion, beauty and style and feature sophisticated writing and photography.”
Astley, who previously was an associate editor at House & Garden, has found her dream job. ”I find teen age culture incredibly inspiring and relevant, especially in the realms of entertainment, music, and fashion,” she explains. “Young people move our culture forward, and it is deeply satisfying to work on something so dynamic.”
A native of East Lansing, she grew up as an MSU faculty brat and dreamed of becoming the next Natalia Makarova, but opted for MSU instead of a professional ballet company. “MSU was like an enchanted place to me growing up,” she says, recalling her father, then art chairperson, taking her and her siblings to see the farm animals and to the Kresge Art Museum, where she loved the Salvador Dali painting and the Calder mobile.
She lived in Yakeley Hall and succeeded in Honors College. Amy credits professors like Patricia Beard, Dr. McClintock and Diane Wakowski for nurturing her interest in writing, writers and poetry. She also remembers her 8 a.m. French class for four years. “It was Hellish, like going to torture,” she says. “But c’est la vie.”
Her advice to students today? “Study what you love and you will learn and excel,” she says. “Read absolutely everything—especially newspapers. Be sure to take the New York Times, not just local papers, so that you will get that world coverage that is so critical to being an educated person and a good citizen. And have fun!!!”
