It is hard to imagine a world without the glorious Gloria Steinem,

A woman like no other who had an enormous impact on countless lives, including a shy suburban girl in the early 1970s.

For many women of a certain age Ms. Magazine, that Grande dame of feminist publications started by that Grande dame of feminists Gloria Steinem, evokes a time of exciting challenges, disruptions to the norm, and honest-to-God truth-telling.

Ms Magazine first appeared as an insert in New York Magazine 1971

In 1971, I was sweet 16 when I first read Ms. magazine, an insert in New York Magazine,  and after that, the world would be less saccharine. I was accustomed to the sappy articles in Seventeen magazine offering advice like “How to invent a new you and make the scene with turned-on lips in put-out pink” and colorful dayglo ads for “outta sight” panty girdles because “a girl needs to be tamed.”

Miraculously, Ms. offered suggestions on how to raise my consciousness and not just my hemline.

To hell with being tamed.

Gloria Steinem changed my life, shifted the dialogue, and would be a major influence and shero for the entirety of my adulthood.

Domestic Disaster

The same week when I first read Ms. I was fresh off being completely humiliated by my home economics teacher.

The final project, which required me to sew an A-line skirt from a dreary Butterick pattern, ended in disaster as I ultimately stapled and glued the entire thing together rather than use a dreaded sewing machine.

The teacher rolled her watery eyes and reprimanded me. Shaking her head in disgust, I will never forget being told in front of the class by this plump woman with a sloppy beehive hairdo and a cardigan with a frayed sleeve: “I hope you can do something because you certainly can’t sew.”

First newsstand edition of Ms. July 1972

In “Ms.” there were never any articles on “How to Get Him to Notice You.” Instead, there were those that spoke about the advantages of non-parenthood, living alone by choice and a 16-page handbook on how to start your own business. It gave me my first feminist click that moment of recognition, and I had a name for what I long felt.

Feminism.

In time, I discovered I didn’t have to be someone I wasn’t in order to be who I was.

While my home economics teacher was hell-bent on trying to hem me in, “Ms.” helped me to weave my own unique life in whatever pattern I liked.

It turned out I really could do something else. I became a nationally exhibited artist. And to my delight, Ms. ran a piece on me at 66.

Gloria Steinem March 25,1934- September 2, 2026

The impact Gloria Steinem had on generations of women cannot be overstated. And for an insecure girl in the suburbs in 1971, she was a lifesaver.

Rest in power, Gloria. I am filled with gratitude for all you did.