The Teen Mag Time Machine

Proof That Nostalgia Heals: Disney Podcasts, Media Moments, and Hilary Duff

The Teen Mag Time Machine — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 12:03:35 GMT

I’ve told this story many times before, but it’s worth repeating because it’s one of the most transformative moments of my life.

In the summer of 1999, I moved to New York City a mere four days after graduating from college. I took a railroad-style apartment on 103rd between 1st and 2nd (I know that’s primo real estate now, but in 1999, it was a bit off the beaten path). My roommate—and her parade of suitors—had to walk through my makeshift bedroom to get to the bathroom and kitchen.

I didn’t care.

I sold my car to pay for my move until my job as an editorial assistant at a magazine started. By the way? I did not officially have a job to start, and I knew I only wanted to work at a teen magazine. Never mind that Teen People had yet to respond to the 80 resumes I had faxed them, or that my contact at Seventeen flat-out told me there were no entry-level jobs open. I just knew I was going to get a job at a teen magazine. I wish I could’ve bottled up that fearlessness and unshakeable confidence. I could’ve killed it on Shark Tank!

But I digress . . . a few weeks before arriving in New York City, I spotted the first issue of CosmoGIRL! (yellow cover with Melissa Joan Hart) on the newsstand of a Wal-Mart at 2 a.m. Flipping through the pages, my destiny was sealed. I was going to work there.

The Phone Call That Changed Everything

In the meantime, I applied for an associate editor position at CG’s big sister, Cosmopolitan. I knew I was not qualified and way too junior, but that chutzpah got me noticed. I got a call from Cosmopolitan’s then editor-in-chief Kate White’s assistant, Miriam. She politely informed me that I was in no way a candidate for the associate-level job . . . but asked, would I be interested in an entry-level job at their brand-new spin-off publication, CosmoGIRL!?

I was elated, honored, excited, and ready. But not surprised. I knew this call was coming. I fully manifested it (and this was WAY before “manifesting” went mainstream). On October 20th, 1999, I started as the assistant to the editor-in-chief, and the rest, as they say, is history. I worked at CosmoGIRL! for five incredible years, becoming the entertainment editor and immersing myself in the pop culture movies, music, and TV shows that defined that era. I met a lot of hopeful young stars whom I championed and cheered on as they succeeded.

To this day, I’m still cheering those stars on, no matter where they are in their careers, like a proud big sister. This Substack is an extension of the career I manifested back in 1999. And it’s no coincidence that an incredible project I worked on this past spring is finally out in the world!

Rewriting Y2K History: The Launch of Throwbacks

I was a writer and worked on the creative development of the Disney+ Hulu Throwbacks Podcast that you can watch, listen to, and stream RIGHT NOW!

Hosted by Good Trouble’s Sherry Cola and Cierra Ramirez from a Y2K bedroom that will make you squeal, the three-episode series gives a behind-the-scenes look at some of Disney’s most iconic movies and music of the late ‘90s and 2000s—the very ones that shaped us all.

Out today is the first episode, which deep-dives into Camp Rock with Maria Canals-Barrera and Liamani Segura. Perfect timing, since Camp Rock 3 premieres on Disney+ on August 13th AND so does the second Throwbacks episode all about The Cheetah Girls with special guest Raven-Symoné. With The Cheetah Girls: Next Gen confirmed, you can’t miss it. And finally, the third episode, dropping on August 20th, is all about High School Musical (which turned 20 in Jan!) with Monique Coleman and KayCee Stroh.

READ MY LA FRONDE INTERVIEW HERE!

It was one of my favorite projects this year and a big reminder that I am on the right career path and started my career at the exact right moment in pop culture. I truly believe that the Y2K era is being revered and revisited because it healed us then and is healing us again today.

Press Hits, Headlines, and Being on the Other Side of the Mic

The premiere of the Disney+ Hulu Throwbacks Podcast is just one of many big things I want to share with you this week! The Teen Mag Time Machine got its first press hit! I was interviewed by Stephanie Williams of the incredible new site La Fronde, which covers women in media from all perspectives and places in their careers.

Revealing that Avril Lavigne was my worst interview ever caught Stephanie’s attention (as it did so many of you!), and she reached out to me. We had an amazing conversation, though it’s still surreal to be the interviewee, not the interviewer!

But wait, there’s more!

Come Clean: A Night at The Garden with Hilary Duff

On Wednesday night, I saw Hilary Duff perform the first of her two sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden. There have been headlines everywhere about the big moments from the show, and I’m so grateful I was there to experience it live.

One of my first posts for The Teen Mag Time Machine was about my 2004 interview with Hilary, right as Lizzie McGuire was wrapping up, A Cinderella Story was filming, and her debut album Metamorphosis was about to drop (and change her life forever).

I always found Hilary refreshing, relatable, and authentic. I rooted for her in the years after the teen/tween boom of the early aughts. Maybe in real time, some things didn’t unfold the way she expected. She was criticized for dating Good Charlotte’s Joel Madden when she was 16 and he was 25. Dignity, her 2007 dance-pop album, is most remembered for a now-viral, lackluster performance of “With Love” on The Today Show.

I loved Hilary on Younger, wanted another season of How I Met Your Father, and was giddy over the news that she was working on a Lizzie McGuire reboot. While I was disappointed that the project never got off the ground, I respected the reason why: there were creative differences between Hilary and Disney—differences that Hilary was unwilling to compromise on because she had a vision for bringing Lizzie back. She knew what the fans wanted, and she would not give them less, even if it meant shelving the project.

I loved watching Hilary grow up and settle into adulthood, becoming a mom and finding her real-life “Cinderella Story” with husband Matthew Koma. Interviewing her for Parents in 2024, I felt connected to her passion for her family and determination to keep her career going on her terms.

Hilary lived many lives before releasing luck... or something, her sixth studio album (and first in over a decade), earlier this year. It came when the world needed Hilary to guide us and help us go back, back to the beginning . . . even if her lyrics and song inspiration were complex and mature. We are all a lot more complex and mature now, too. I deeply understood the awkwardness and pain of her complicated family dynamics, especially with her sister, inspiring me to write one of my most personal essays to date for Glamour.

READ MY GLAMOUR.COM ESSAY HERE!

Nostalgia as the Ultimate Connector

Hilary’s Lucky Me tour has been the ticket this summer. I had to be there. I had to soak up the energy I’ve been revisiting in The Teen Mag Time Machine. I needed to be around those who get it—who couldn’t wait to spend a night in a sea of butterfly clips, sparkly skirts, and shirts in bubbly pink letters with iconic phrases ranging from “That’s So Girl Wearing a Skirt as a Top” to “This is What Dreams Are Made Of.”

almost bought one of these outside the garden . . . almost LOL :)

Being in the crowd for the first of Hilary’s two SOLD OUT shows at MADISON SQUARE GARDEN was magical.

It was more than a concert. It was a two-hour reminder of why nostalgia is the glue that holds us together. Maybe two decades ago we were all too wrapped up in our own rites of passage or big coming-of-age moments to realize the pop culture gifts we were given. But now we’re all—including Hilary—older and wiser. She’s given us permission to be both introspective and retrospective. We felt just as vindicated as Hilary while reclaiming her nearly 20-year-old viral moment with the help of iconic Drag Queens from RuPaul’s Drag Race.

It reminded us that we have the power to rewrite and reshape our stories, that we are allowed to grow up instead of apologizing. I mean, when Hilary brought out Benji and Joel Madden to sing “The Anthem”? We witnessed a true full-circle moment in real time.

But the best part was how many times Hilary stopped to soak in the moment, feel the love, and express her gratitude. I’m sure 2004 Hilary Duff dreamed of playing The Garden. I’m sure she wanted to achieve that level of fame 20 years ago. But back then, I don’t think it would have meant the same to Hilary—or to the fans. This was her time. This was our time!

Do you think 2000 Joel Madden (seen below in a POLAROID I dug up of Good Charlotte visiting the CosmoGIRL! offices) thought he’d be making headlines in 2026 for joining his ex-girlfriend (with his wife backstage) to sing “The Anthem” at The Garden? You just never know where life will lead you!

So why not . . .take a crazy chance?
Why not . . . do a crazy dance?
If you lose the moment, you might lose a lot
So, why not? Why not?

Back Here Again: Wrapping Up with BBMAK

Which leads me to one last throwback, full-circle moment I had this week and wanted to share! I interviewed Christian, Mark, and Ste of BBMAK—which many of you knew was coming since I put out a call for fan questions. The response was overwhelming, and I can’t wait for you all to see and read our chat! This summer, BBMAK’s been on the Pop 2000 tour with Chris Kirkpatrick, O-Town, LFO, and Ryan Cabrera, and they can’t get over the way the crowd still knows every single word to “Back Here!”

I first met the guys back in 2000 alongside a group of other teen magazine editors at a once-popular, very early-2000s-coded Times Square eatery called Ruby Foo’s. Those meet-and-greet dinners were always a blast and an intimate way of getting to know “rising stars.” Talking with Christian, Mark, and Ste was like going back in a time machine—we reminisced about that very dinner, their experiences opening for Britney Spears, and what it was like navigating through a sea of chaotic fans whenever they appeared on MTV’s TRL. That interview will be up very soon, and I can’t wait for you to read it.

SURPRISE GIVEAWAY! Channel Your Inner Lizzie McGuire!

This is What Dreams are Made Of! 💖

To celebrate an unforgettable week of full-circle moments, I’m doing a last minute giveaway! One of you can win a set of Profusion’s “Get a Grip (and a Mani)” Lizzie McGuire Press-On Nails (medium almond/drama queen).

ALL the details on entering and how to win can be found by clicking the button below! GOOD LUCK and THANK YOU!

ENTER TO WIN LIZZIE MCGUIRE NAILS HERE!

Up Next in The Teen Mag Time Machine

We are keeping the nostalgia engine running! Coming up very soon, I’m bringing you chats with Lance Bass and Joey Fatone and Boy Meets World’s *Rider Strong!

Plus, I’m doing a really deep dive into one of my most awkward, polarizing and fascinating early aughts cover stories. Just wait because reading through the transcript and realizing what we left out back in 2003 is mind blowing in 2026!

Before I go, I have to ask:

If you could jump in a time machine and experience one Y2K concert, TV premiere, or magazine release day all over again, where are we going?

Drop a comment below—I’d love to know what made that era so special to you!

THANK YOU ALL!

xoxoxo

Lauren

PS - OMG Hilary used the old school magic Disney wand on stage AND in this amazing promo! OBSESSED!

SUBMIT YOUR QUESTIONS HERE!

A Teen Mag Time Machine First: YOU Are Interviewing BBMAK!

The Teen Mag Time Machine — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 17:41:07 GMT

When I was an editor at CosmoGIRL! in the early 2000s, reader mail was at the center of all the magazines. And trust me, if you ever doubted it, your voices were heard. If we got one fact wrong about a favorite celeb (down to something like their favorite color) we heard about it, apologized personally (to the celeb and fan) and corrected it. If there was a star that we weren’t giving enough love to, causing readers to write in and ask why we were ignoring such talent? We always gave those stars a second look and featured them soon after.

But let’s not forget that in the early aughts, teen magazines were one of the only ways fans could connect to their favorite celebs. There was no social media or AMAs or Cameos. We barely had a web site to support the print mag. So when we announced we had a special interview coming up and wanted readers to write in with their burning questions? Our SNAIL mail would overflow!

It’s why I’m taking things back to basics. I’ve been in touch with the boys of BBMAK and will be sitting down with none other than Mark Barry, Christian Burns, and Ste McNally next week. They’ve given me their blessing to open the floor to you for part of the chat! It’s this type of throwback experience that I envisioned while plotting out the launch The Teen Mag Time Machine and I’m psyched!

BBMAK in the November 2000 issue of CosmoGIRL! magazine

The Boys Who Brought Harmony Back

BBMAK was a special part of the early aughts/TRL pop scene. Yes, boy bands and pop vixens were on top of the game but BBMAK was different. They didn’t just sing; they wrote their own tracks, played their own instruments, and delivered those unmistakable three-part acoustic harmonies. It’s what made them stand out then and now.

From their smash breakout hit “Back Here” to classics like “Ghost of You and Me” and “Out of My Heart,” their music is still on the playlist of anyone who was growing up during the turn of the millennium.

Where They Are Now

After a long hiatus, the guys officially reunited. They released their album Powerstation in 2019 and haven’t looked back. They’ve been touring continuously, sharing the stage alongside fellow Y2K favorites (O-Town, LFO and more) on the Pop 2000 Tour, headlining intimate venue shows, and proving that their vocals (and bond) are stronger than ever.

How to Submit Your Question

I have plenty of my own behind-the-scenes questions lined up, but first, I’m handing the honors over to The Teen Mag Time Machine community!

Want to ask BBMAK about their favorite memories from the 2000s teen mag era? Their current tour bus setup? The songwriting process behind their biggest hits? Or what it was like being on TRL, looking out at sea of fans overtaking Times Square, in the early aughts? This is your chance to ask them anything you want to know, no need to know and never thought you’d get the chance to ask!!!

Submissions will close on Wednesday, August 5th at 10am ET. Ask your question using the button above, and keep an eye on your inbox to see if your question gets answered by the guys!

THANK YOU ALL! This is going to be so fun diving deep into the archives with this special trio and having your input to make it all the more special!

xoxoxoo,

Lauren

READ THE PARADE PIECE HERE!

THE VAULT IS OPEN: The Uncut, Unreleased 2004 Chad Michael Murray Interview Audio

The Teen Mag Time Machine — Thu, 23 Jul 2026 01:58:40 GMT

Photo by hosein zanbori on Unsplash

Hi everyone,

First of all: THANK YOU.

This past week was officially the biggest, most explosive milestone The Teen Mag Time Machine has ever had, and it is all thanks to your support. To every single one of you who upgraded to a paid subscription during our 24-hour dash and entered to win one of three exclusive, limited-edition bubly Y2K Nostalgia Kits—welcome to the inner circle!

As promised, I am unlocking something straight out of my personal archives that has never seen the light of day until right now EXCLUSIVE to paid subscribers ONLY!

📼 Setting the Scene: Spring 2004

Cast your mind back to 2004. One Tree Hill is just eight episodes into its now iconic first season, A Cinderella Story and Freaky Friday was on its way to theaters, and Chad Michael Murray was featured in practically every teen magazine on newsstand shelves.

At the time, I was working as an editor at CosmoGIRL!, cassette/digital voice recorders were standard issue, and celebrity interviews were conducted raw, real, and without five publicists monitoring every single word on a Zoom call.

Sooo . . . I pulled out my original master tape, digitized it, and preserved it in all its unedited, nostalgic glory just for you guys!

Inside the Vault: The Y2K Pop Star Who Gave Me My Absolute Worst Interview

The Teen Mag Time Machine — Tue, 21 Jul 2026 00:34:20 GMT

Hey Time Machiners,

If you were breathing in the fall of 2002, you remember exactly where you were the first time you heard the driving guitar riff of “Complicated.” Avril Lavigne dropped onto the pop-culture scene like a meteor. In an era dominated by midriff-baring pop princesses singing synchronized choreography, Avril was the tie-wearing, Doc Marten-stomping alternative. She was marketed as the ultimate “rebel.”

At CosmoGIRL!, it was a rarity to be torn over how to cover such a newbie. She became such a sensation so quickly that she was almost too famous to feature her in our “Rising Star” column. It was a notoriously tricky page to edit because, frankly, we were wrong about who the “Next Big Thing” was way more than we were right. And not for lack of trying. Craig David was HUGE in the UK but just couldn’t break through in America. Christina Milian wrote one of Y2K’s most notorious anthems (2001’s “Play” sung by none other than J.Lo) . .. but just couldn’t find her groove as a solo artist.

But we just knew Avril was going to be the exception. In fact, there was debate if we should skip right over the pleasantries of a “Rising Star” feature and go right to the cover. It was almost insulting to our readers to label Avril as such. We booked her in summer of 2002 and by time we hit newsstands in October, Avril’s star was no longer rising. She was a bona fide “It” girl with the TRL stats, fan base and record sales to prove it.

We went with “Rising Star” because no matter what our pop culture guts told us, the lead time of print made it really tough to guarantee the status of any star by the time we went to press. So we played it safe, putting Backstreet Boy Nick Carter on the cover (a rare cover boy) and Avril in the Rising Star feature. When it came time for for me to interview her, I was ready to go cover story level deep. I figured if the interview was that strong, maybe I could make a case that we take the risk and put her on the cover instead. Avril was the new voice of teenage angst, her song lyrics were speaking to the hearts and souls of our readers and I was excited to dive into what made her tick.

Let’s just say that I expected to get the voice of the new generation. To quote Hannah Horvath on Girls, I didn’t even get “a voice... of a generation." What I got instead was the absolute worst, most agonizing interview of my career. A distinction that remains undefeated to this day.

I spilled the entire story over at Parade, where I lay bare the incredible editorial gymnastics it took to turn Avril’s sleepy, one-word yawns into a glossy magazine feature and reveal the most painful, unedited chunks of the original transcript!

The big irony was Avril’s carefully curated “skater punk” attitude was supposed to be her defining trait of authenticity. But on the phone, it felt less edgy rebel and more lost teenager. She had pulled an all-nighter and had not slept a wink because she missed her house, and she was simply too tired to function or think of answers “on the spot.” She yawned more than she talked. I hung up furious yet relieved that I only had to write 300 words for a Rising Star piece instead of a 3000 word cover story!

But I do have some 2026 perspective. In 2002, I was 24 and Avril was 17. I’m now a mom to a tween so I get the defiance. My life is a series of one-word, barely audible answers. But back then, after Avril abruptly cut our interview short to go to her next call, I will admit now that I immediately dialed her publicist and “told on her.” I’m sure my frustration never made it back to Avril or if it did, there is no way she cared or changed her attitude because of my complaint. I’m sure she did not think twice about how much harder her lack of answers made my job or could affect her. She wasn’t thinking about how I was on her side, trying to promote her album and introduce her to our readership, AKA new fans.

But, re-reading the profile that actually went to print in CosmoGIRL! is hilarious because of how much we had to polish her grunted, disjointed complaints to make her sound like an articulate, empowering role model. In fact, we leaned into calling her an “old soul.”

The ‘One Tree Hill’ Retaliation

The behind-the-scenes lore of this disaster gets so much better, and it’s something I recently revealed . . .

READ ON PARADE

But here’s a bit more context! Exactly one year later, in the fall of 2003, I was interviewing Hilarie Burton, not yet of One Tree Hill fame. She was known for winning a contest that earned her a plum job as an MTV VJ on TRL.

Hilarie, who was always delightfully candid, completely broke filter. She got in massive trouble with her team not long after for telling me directly that Avril was the absolute worst celebrity guest to ever come through TRL, and that the entire MTV staff dreaded talking to her because of her attitude. Yes it was uncharacteristic for CosmoGIRL! to print it but what can I say, we were also trying to ride the punk rock wave!

Looking back, the Y2K era was a wild west of media training, fabricated rock personas, and petty behind-the-scenes drama. Avril may have gone on to become a global icon, but to me, she will always be the sleepy 17-year-old who forced me to do the hardest writing job of my life.

Head over to Parade to see the text messages, the absolute brick walls I hit, and how the media sausage was really made in 2002.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE ON PARADE NOW!

Did you buy ‘Let Go’ in 2002? Did you wear a necktie over a t-shirt? Let’s talk about our Y2K Avril memories in the comments!

xoxoxo,

Lauren

PS: Do me a massive favor: If your inner circle consists of people who still secretly own a piece of velour Juicy Couture, can quote Mean Girls line-for-line, or deeply miss the simple joy of grabbing a glossy magazine from the grocery store checkout line—share this post with them!

The Teen Mag Time Machine runs entirely on word-of-mouth from fellow pop-culture obsessives. Hit the buttons below to spread the Y2K nostalgia and keep the vault open.

👇 Share The Teen Mag Time Machine with your besties! 👇

Still to Come on The Teen Mag Time Machine...

Make sure you are subscribed so you don’t miss the rest of the archives dropping ASAP, including:

ANOTHER BIG RETRO INTERVIEW: Can’t say more than he’s a a multi-hyphenate star who we’ve been meeting again and again since the ‘90s! Any guesses? Drop it in the comments!
ANOTHER GIVEAWAY! STAY TUNED - have something really fun in the works! But in the meantime, THANK YOU to EVERYONE who entered to win an EXCLUSIVE Y2K nostalgia kit courtesy of bubly and CHAD MICHAEL MURRAY!

Congrats to our THREE lucky winners: Iliana, Christina and Melyssa!

🚨 URGENT: The Vault is Open for 24 Hours Only (Plus a Massive Upgrade Perk!)

The Teen Mag Time Machine — Sat, 18 Jul 2026 22:42:42 GMT

HI FELLOW TIME TRAVELERS!

I’m dropping into your inbox with zero fluff because the clock is officially ticking: Our massive Y2K Summer Giveaway closes in exactly 24 hours.

ENTER Y2K CONTEST HERE!

Because this week has been absolutely blowing up—thanks to hundreds of you entering to win the bubly Melted Ice Pop Summer Kit and that smokin’ hot Teen Beat-style poster of Chad Michael Murray—I wanted to do something completely unprecedented for the final stretch.

I went deep into my CosmoGIRL! archives and am going to shared something special, nostalgic and RARE!!

🎙️ The Bonus: The Raw 2004 Chad Michael Murray Audio Tape

If you upgrade to a paid subscription in the next 24 hours, you will get exclusive access to the complete, unreleased audio from my 2004 interview with Chad Michael Murray.

This is peak One Tree Hill / A Cinderella Story era CMM. It is a total time capsule, it’s never been published in its entirety, and it is disappearing back into the vault when the giveaway timer hits zero tomorrow. If you’ve ever wanted to be a fly on the wall during a 2000s teen magazine celeb interview, this is your only chance.

ENTER Y2K CONTEST HERE!

☀️ The Upgrade Boost: 5x Entries

To sweeten the pot, upgrading to a paid tier right now instantly bumps your giveaway power. Instead of the standard 3 entries, paid subscribers get 5x entries for that final shot at the ultimate Y2K prize pack.

Remember: You only have 24 hours. Once the countdown ends, the giveaway closes and this audio file goes offline.

Thank you all for making this the most incredible, explosive week in The Teen Mag Time Machine history. Your support means the absolute world to me—let’s close this out with a bang!

xoxoxo,

Lauren

And here’s some fun reading to tide you over:

Share this post with your Y2K (and Chad Michael Murray) obsessed friends so they can subscribe and enter to win too!

DETAILS TO ENTER HERE!!!!

Win an Exclusive Chad Michael Murray Y2K Nostalgia Kit 🎸💥

The Teen Mag Time Machine — Tue, 14 Jul 2026 20:41:32 GMT

Hey Time Travelers!

I am still pinching myself. My interview with Chad Michael Murray went completely viral, first via my Parade partnership and then getting picked up by Vulture, People, and pop culture lovers all over the internet.

To celebrate the massive love for this feature, our friends at bubly sent over three exclusive, limited-edition Y2K Nostalgia Kits to give away strictly to subscribers of The Teen Mag Time Machine.

These are not available in stores (it already sold out at Walmart), and they are packed with ultimate early-2000s vibes.

Each kit includes:

🖼️ A digitally signed poster of Chad Michael Murray

📿 A charm anklet

🥤 2 cans of bubly Melted Ice Pop

🏖️ An inflatable cooler

🩴 A beach towel

👜 A tote bag

✨ Stickers

This is genuinely one of my favorite things I’ve gotten to do as a way to thank my supporters since starting this Substack. I want as many of you to have a shot at winning as possible.

**Enter below** 👇 (multiple ways to enter = multiple chances, and completing everything gets you a big bonus)

ENTER THE GIVEAWAY HERE!

Good luck, and thank you for making this corner of the internet feel like 2003 is alive and well all over again. 💌

GET TO THE GIVEAWAY HERE!

XOXO,

LAUREN

Why Paul Walker Said No to Superman: The Uncut 2003 Interview CosmoGIRL! Left on the Cutting Room Floor

The Teen Mag Time Machine — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 16:13:48 GMT

Hey everyone,

Let’s go back to the summer of 2003. Were you blasting Beyoncé’s solo debut Dangerously in Love on your iPod? Perhaps you were totally convinced a woman president was in our reach after seeing Legally Blonde 2? Or were you wearing a trucker hat to keep out the sun while lounging poolside, flipping through this very issue of CosmoGIRL! magazine?

Oh, and when you discovered there was a centerfold, did you immediately rip it out, stare at it longingly and hang it over your bed? You know, to help you fall asleep . . . .

But back to the summer of 2003! Paul Walker made it a scorching hot(oh yes, pun intended!) time in pop culture! It was rare for a guy to grace the cover of CosmoGIRL! as the whole point was to empower a generation of girls to find themselves and follow their dreams, no boyfriend required!

But when a hot young actor or musician made a major impact on our readership, we couldn’t ignore it. We had to embrace it! Teen magazine editors were desperate for the elusive Josh Hartnett to agree to be on one of our covers. Yes, there was lots of competition among all the teen mags (Seventeen, YM, Teen, Teen Vogue . . .) to book the most in-demand cover stars. But I think we all would have been thrilled for whichever mag could crack the code and book Josh first!

Y2K teen girls were obsessed but alas, Josh was not interested in joining the “teen heart throb” club. He refused to grant interviews, photo shoots or even quick red carpet hellos to any “teen” outlet.

Of course, that didn’t stop any teen mag (including CG!) from putting him on the cover and piecing a story together with existing quotes and comments from people who “knew” him. Sure, putting Josh on the cover sold magazines. But there was a cost. Teen readers were savvy. They came to us because we provided them access to their favorite stars. It was obvious that we had no access. Teen readers knew a “write-around” (media speak for a celebrity profile without a new/exclusive interview) was a kind gesture from us editors trying to give them what they wanted.

But most of all?

Teen readers knew Josh’s refusal to cooperate was a subtle “F You” to his biggest fan base.

Enter Paul Walker.

In the summer of 2003, 2 Fast 2 Furious was about to hit theaters. The Fast and the Furious was one of 2001’s biggest hits and it had catapulted Paul Walker to another level of stardom. There was a lot of buzz and a lot riding on the sequel.

Josh who?

Our readers were mesmerized by Paul’s twinkling blue eyes and effortless, California-cool energy. It was a no-brainer that he was the perfect choice for our big June/July summer entertainment issue. Best of all? Paul was 100% in, posing for an incredible photo shoot and giving me one of the most intimate, revealing, unexpected and memorable interviews of my career.

Over two long phone calls, I chatted with Paul about everything from his then 4-year-old daughter Meadow to his love of risk taking (which ended up being a surprisingly eerie prediction for his tragic death just ten short years later).

My editors were so blown away by how seamlessly I was able to get Paul to open up that they made me play the audio to “hear” our chemistry. He was so down-to-earth that he even gave me his direct cell phone number so I could call him back for follow-ups.

I never took Paul up on his offer to call his cell. And I was devastated when he died in 2013. But I’ve kept his number all these years.

I love the pieces of the interview that made it into the cover story. Paul opened up to me about being deeply devoted to his daughter, though admitted that at 29-years-old, he was terrified too. The way he expressed wanting to protect her and wondered what she would be like all grown up and who she would date and how he would handle it was incredibly moving. But, it’s even more poignant today knowing that years later, Paul’s Fast co-star, dear friend and Meadow’s godfather Vin Diesel walked her down the aisle at her 2021 wedding.

But there was so much soulful, raw, and incredibly prophetic depth that got left on the cutting room floor simply due to space.

While 2 Fast 2 Furious was 23 years ago, the entire The Fast and the Furious franchise hits a milestone 25 years this summer.

[Click here to read the full feature on Parade!]

In honor of Paul, I went into the vaults and pulled out the original, uncut transcript of our interview.

This interview remains one of the absolute highlights of my career and it’s my honor to share more of how he bared his soul during these calls. You can exclusively read those outtakes on Parade.

On Parade, read about:

Turning down Superman: Paul gave me the real, unfiltered reason why he walked away from “unconscious money” and a 7-year studio lockdown because he just wanted to be “Paul Walker,” not a guy in tights.
The Curse of Being Too Handsome: Despite being one of Hollywood’s most in-demand stars, Paul revealed being “too good looking” didn’t always work in his favor
His “Goofy” Way of Defusing A-List Egos: If I learned anything from my chats with Paul? He was a guy who loved his friends and family and just needed a surfboard and a camping trip to be happy. Hollywood was an unexpected detour that he refused to take too seriously!

[Click here to read the full feature on Parade!]

And of course, here’s the full CosmoGIRL! cover story that went to print:

Do me a massive favor: If your inner circle consists of people who still secretly own a piece of velour Juicy Couture, can quote Mean Girls line-for-line, or deeply miss the simple joy of grabbing a glossy magazine from the grocery store checkout line—share this post with them!

The Teen Mag Time Machine runs entirely on word-of-mouth from fellow pop-culture obsessives. Hit that button below to spread the Y2K nostalgia and keep the vault open.

👇 Share The Teen Mag Time Machine with your besties! 👇

Still to Come on The Teen Mag Time Machine...

Make sure you are subscribed so you don’t miss the rest of the archives dropping ASAP, including:

MORE CHAD MICHAEL MURRAY MANIA! Thanks to YOU, my amazing time travelers, this interview with CMM went viral! It’s blowing up on Instagram!
AND we were picked up by Vulture and People!
So what could be next? Just my biggest giveaway to date for THREE lucky readers. Trust me - you’ll be telling ALL your friends on your One Tree Hill retro chat that they MUST enter!
MORE LINDSAY LOHAN: Speaking of giveaways - congrats to who won a copy of my 2003 unauthorized biography, Lindsay Lohan: The It Girl Next Door which is now completely out of print, incredibly rare, and a total time capsule. And, did you read the post about my visit to the Mean Girls set?
Still to come is my chaotic play-by-play of how I tracked down Lindsay for a Seventeen magazine cover interview that went horribly (and hilariously) awry!
ANOTHER BIG RETRO INTERVIEW: Can’t say more than he’s a a multi-hyphenate star who we’ve been meeting again and again since the ‘90s! Any guesses? Drop it in the comments!

Giveaway Alert! 🚨 Celebrate Lindsay Lohan’s 40th Birthday with a Rare Piece of 2003 History

The Teen Mag Time Machine — Fri, 03 Jul 2026 14:08:07 GMT

Hey Time Travelers,

Can you believe the ultimate Y2K icon, Lindsay Lohan, just celebrated her 40th birthday on July 2nd? It feels like just yesterday we were listening to “Rumors” on our iPod Minis, wearing low-rise jeans, trying to make “fetch” happen and dissect exactly who Lilo was feuding with Hilary Duff over—Aaron Carter or was it Chad Michael Murray? Hmmmmmmm. . . .

Well, while I’m working on my NEXT big Lindsay post from the vault, I could not let her milestone birthday weekend go by without a celebration!!

I went digging into my personal archives. In 2003, I wrote a biography called Lindsay Lohan: The It Girl Next Door. It is now completely out of print, incredibly rare, and a total time capsule of that exact moment in pop culture history.

I am giving away one pristine copy to a fellow nostalgia lover! I’ll even autograph and include a fun Lindsay tid-bit from my Y2K vault!

How to Enter:

Be a Subscriber: Make sure you’re subscribed to The Teen Mag Time Machine (if you’re reading this, you might already be!).
Subscribe now
Follow on Instagram: Make sure you’re following the journey over on Instagram!
Leave a Comment Below: Tell me your absolute favorite Lindsay Lohan movie, moment or song in the comments on this post!
Leave a comment

That’s it! I’ll random-select a winner next week and announce it right here and on Instagram.

In the meantime, catch up on my earlier Lindsay reveals here:

Good luck, and happy birthday, Lindsay!

XOXOXOXO,

LAUREN

Thanks for reading! This post is public so feel free to share it.

Chad Michael Murray wallpapered Hilarie’s trailer with Avril Lavigne photos... because of me? 🤯

The Teen Mag Time Machine — Wed, 01 Jul 2026 17:20:12 GMT

Hey retro crew,

Last week, my exclusive feature with Chad Michael Murray dropped over at Parade, and the response has been absolutely insane. (Shoutout to PEOPLE for picking it up!!).

But as I promised you, the real unfiltered gold was saved for the pages of The Teen Mag Time Machine.

When I held up the May 2004 issue of CosmoGIRL! to Chad’s face on Zoom, his reaction was priceless.

But re-reading the raw, completely unedited transcript of our original chat from two decades ago? I am now the one losing my mind.

In 2026, Chad is the ultimate clear-eyed, grateful family man.

In 2004?

One Tree Hill was a mere nine episodes old, his face was plastered on every bus stop in America, and he was trying so hard to wrap his head around being a “heartthrob.” He truly was trying to grasp why people like me wanted to interview him and why anyone cared about his dating life.

Quick reminder, this was a pre-social media world. From day one, rumors floated around that Chad was dating his One Tree Hill co-star Sophia Bush. Those rumors could only be put to rest if one or both of them was willing to “share” with the class . . . AKA the press. Because teen mags were deemed “safe spaces,” the unspoken expectation was that we wouldn’t push too hard on the “tough questions.”

But it was a fine line to navigate, especially as tabloids like Us Weekly and In Touch were beginning to break aggressive news about our cover stars, ranging from Lindsay Lohan to Britney Spears. We wanted to show an empowering, confident, and admirable side of these idols, but we would look like amateur hour if we completely ignored the opportunity to clear up gossip.

Case in point... a few months before I chatted with Chad, I interviewed Ashton Kutcher for the February 2004 cover of CosmoGIRL!. Truth be told, a teen fan was originally supposed to conduct that interview, but a last-minute scheduling conflict threw the assignment to me with only hours to spare. Ashton was riding high with That ‘70s Show, Punk’d, AND his alleged new girlfriend Demi Moore (who was 16 years his senior and a mom of three).

Despite it being a phoner, I actually got along really well with Ashton. He dropped plenty of “breadcrumbs” about Demi, referencing spending the weekend in Idaho where he helped “someone” with their geometry homework. I didn’t take the bait because, well, Ashton was 25 and Demi was 41, and making him open up about a girlfriend who was the same age as our readers’ moms felt... irrelevant? A recipe for disaster considering how well we were vibing? Instead, I pressed him to go deeper on his amazing life advice about soulmates, family, and staying true to yourself. I found it way more insightful, and I was so proud of how I presented an unexpected side of his goofball persona.

But I got some major heat from my editors for not “going there.” If you read that printed interview, there are several spots where the text calls out that we didn’t get into Demi, presenting it like Ashton was just being coy.

So, fast forward to my call with Chad. I knew I had no choice but to cut right to the chase about what was really going on with him and Sophia. (I mean, they did get married a year later, so it goes to show there’s validity to most rumors!) Luckily, Chad was incredibly gracious when I brought up Sophia. He answered—and we printed—almost everything I asked about her, minus a literal wink and a nod when I tried to guess if she was his unnamed new “roommate.” It made sense to pry a bit more with Chad than it did with Ashton, because Sophia was his co-star, and their characters on One Tree Hill were part of a love triangle that had everyone tuning in each week.

And in 2026? Chad is happily married to Sarah Roemer and more than happy to talk about her—or rather, gush about her. It was so sweet, and I was truly happy to see him with his true love, raising kids and living his best life. In fact, he loves that his kids are slowly but surely discovering his Y2K past!

Knowing what I know now about Chad, looking back at the transcript and re-reading everything that didn’t make it to print makes me wish that my 2004 CosmoGIRL! piece had focused more on his deep intelligence, wry humor, unexpected sensitivity, and unwavering tenacity. I wish the parts where we went deep on his hard-earned transformation from a scrappy kid growing up in Buffalo, NY, to following his dreams in Hollywood were what we highlighted. He was fiercely determined to prove he wasn’t just another manufactured teen heartthrob. While I still love our 2004 interview, those are my editorial notes with 20+ years of perspective!

And that, my friends, is exactly why I created The Teen Mag Time Machine—so those never-before-seen and never-before-heard bits can finally have their time to shine! Ready to go back? Here we go!

🛑 1. 9021-NO!

In 2004, One Tree Hill and The O.C. had completely revitalized teen television. Wanting to frame how massive the show was, I naturally compared the phenomenon to the ultimate 90s blueprint: Beverly Hills, 90210. To be fair, I was once almost stampeded at a mall trying to meet Luke Perry, so I knew the vibes. The overnight pandemonium of 90210 really wasn’t that different from the cast of One Tree Hill causing literal traffic jams in Times Square during an appearance on TRL!

However, Chad was determined for One Tree Hill to forge its own path and fresh legacy. And fine, 22 years later, I get it...

LAUREN (2004): How do you feel? It seems like this TV season in particular, you guys [One Tree Hill] exploded and then The O.C. exploded. What do you think about being in a whole new generation, like 90210 . . .

CHAD MICHAEL MURRAY (2004): Please don’t compare us to 90210. They had their success in their day, but one of the main reasons I decided to choose the show just seemed like it had a little better content than a lot of the TV shows that are out there... It just seemed like it was Dawson’s to a different level. It just seemed a little higher, a little more intense, a little stronger to me than a lot of the crap I’ve read in the past.

LISTEN TO 2004 CHAD HERE:

The 2026 Reality Check: Cut to two decades later, and Chad is the first to credit the sheer, cyclical nature of television for his longevity. “Everything is cyclical,” he told me warmly on Zoom, completely stripped of that protective 20-something armor. “We got really blessed. Beyond.”

🎸 2. The On-Set Prank Wars (And My Avril Lavigne Epiphany!)

One of the best parts of the 2004 transcript is Chad detailing how chaotic the Wilmington set was. He was the self-proclaimed ringleader of the pranks, setting off actual firecrackers in the camera trucks and admitting to me what he planned to fill up James Lafferty’s truck with!

LAUREN (2004): Now tell me, what are some pranks that you guys have successfully pulled off on each other?

CHAD MICHAEL MURRAY (2004): James is next, I’m going to fill his truck with popcorn.

LAUREN (2004): Any particular reason? Is there significance behind the popcorn o

CHAD MICHAEL MURRAY (2004): I just never got him. When we started, it was little things. Someone would cover your trailer with pictures of a rumor or a joke going around at the time. In the beginning, Brett Claywell [who played Tim], everyone thought that he was in love with looking in the mirror so we covered the entire trailer with pictures of himself.

CHAD MICHAEL MURRAY (2004): And Hilarie [Burton] evidently has issues with Avril Lavigne . . .

LAUREN (2004): Um, she said that in CosmoGirl! Those issues were revealed in CosmoGirl!

CHAD MICHAEL MURRAY (2004): Sure enough, we covered Hilarie’s entire trailer wall to wall with Avril Lavigne pictures!

MY REALIZATION: This is exactly why looking back at these decades-old transcripts is such a trip. I completely forgot that I was the editor who interviewed Hilarie Burton for CosmoGIRL! where she originally vented about her beef with Avril Lavigne!

Chad read that exact interview, used it as fuel to wallpaper Hilarie’s entire trailer with Avril’s face, and then repeated the story back to me without either of us fully connecting the dots in the moment. The absolute meta-layers of Y2K teen media are wild!

PS - I felt SO seen when Hilarie went on the record about Avril! Why? AVRIL WAS MY WORST INTERVIEW EVER TOO (don’t worry - I’ll be spilling on that soon too!)

LISTEN TO 2004 CHAD HERE:

⚡ 3. The Original Lightning Round: Classic Books & Sugar Highs

To wrap up our 2004 call, I hit him with a few rapid-fire profile questions that beautifully sum up his head space back then:

The Definitive Book: “Catcher in the Rye. I’ve read it six times since my sophomore year in high school. The obsessive-compulsive tendencies of Holden Caulfield were a lot of what I kind of endured through high school and through growing up.”
Words to Live By: “No such thing as competition. You got to do what you got to do to get to where you want to be. Just make it legal.”
The Ultimate Guilty Pleasure: “I eat Airheads like they’re water. It’s terrible. I’m going to fall into a sugar coma... Over Halloween, we do mystery ones. So I don’t know what flavor it is. It’s a mystery. The green and a purple one.”

A Love Letter to Chad, Then & Now

The fact that he navigated that white-hot spotlight and emerged two decades later as one of the kindest, most self-aware, and incredibly grounded fathers in the industry is the ultimate storyline. He is a class act through and through.

Here’s a clip of our 2026 interview of the moment Chad acknowledged our shared history while making my 11-year-old daughter’s heart soar (and mine too)!

Still to Come on Teen Mag Time Machine...

Make sure you are subscribed so you don’t miss the rest of the archives dropping ASAP, including:

Bringing the Summer Heat: This summer marks the 25th anniversary of the release of the very first The Fast and the Furious movie! The late, great and amazing Paul Walker was on the June/July 2003 cover of CosmoGIRL! to promote the first sequel. Our interview was one of the most special and memorable that I ever conducted and I’ll be opening the vault wide open on it!
MORE on Lindsay Lohan: Did you read the post about my visit to the Mean Girls set? Still to come is my chaotic play-by-play of how I tracked down Lindsay for a Seventeen magazine cover interview she went MIA for AND a giveaway.
I want to hear all your thoughts on Chad Michael Murray today vs his One Tree Hill Days, Hilarie vs Avril and anything else you want to ask me about or unlock the vault on!

THANK YOU! LOVE YOU ALL!

xoxoxoox,

Lauren

I held up our 2004 CosmoGIRL! interview to Chad Michael Murray’s face. His reaction was everything. 😲

The Teen Mag Time Machine — Thu, 25 Jun 2026 20:19:45 GMT

Hey my fave Y2k loving time travelers,

A literal, peak-millennial dream came true this week. I sat down with the ultimate Y2K heartthrob, Chad Michael Murray, to chat about his massive summer nostalgia campaign with bubly sparkling water celebrating the return of their fan-favorite Melted Ice Pop flavor.

The entire campaign is a love letter to us Y2K pop culture aficionados—complete with an actual, limited-edition, old-school bedroom poster of Chad (the man has not aged a single day since he first put on that Lucas Scott Ravens jersey in 2003!). He stars in the campaign with self-proclaimed “90s and 00s historian” creator Erin Miller.

Check out this video that brings the first-crush fantasy to life set to the ultimate Y2K bop, “Dirty Little Secret” by The All-American Rejects:

Now, because you all know by now that I am utterly obsessed with a full-circle moment, I kicked off my Zoom chat with Chad by holding up a physical copy of the May 2004 issue of CosmoGIRL!—flipped wide open to the pages of the very feature interview I did with him 22 years ago when One Tree Hill was only nine episodes fresh.

His reaction was absolute gold.

WANT MORE?

Of course you do!

I just dropped a juivcy, must-read exclusive feature over at Parade detailing our reunion, the hilarious mistake he made taking Hilary Duff to the Freaky Friday premiere (right in the dead-center of the peak Lohan drama!), how his kids actually react to seeing him as Austin Ames in A Cinderella Story, and the wild reality of the One Tree Hill renaissance.

👉 [CLICK HERE TO READ THE EXCLUSIVE PARADE INTERVIEW WITH CHAD MICHAEL MURRAY!]

But wait... there is so much more.

Coming up on The Teen Mag Time Machine, I’ll be dropping the never-before-seen transcript pieces that didn’t make it into the Parade feature, exclusive snippets from our original 2004 audio tapes, and a few more fun surprises!

👉 [CLICK HERE TO READ THE EXCLUSIVE PARADE INTERVIEW WITH CHAD MICHAEL MURRAY!]

Go devour the Parade piece, grab a cold drink, and make sure your notifications are turned ON for the next massive vault drop. You aren’t going to want to miss this time capsule.

Xoxo,

Lauren

Still to Come on Teen Mag Time Machine...

Make sure you are subscribed so you don’t miss the rest of the archives dropping ASAP, including:

MORE on Lindsay Lohan: Did you read the post about my visit to the Mean Girls set? Still to come is my chaotic play-by-play of how I tracked down Lindsay for a Seventeen magazine cover interview she went MIA for AND a giveaway. Catch up with this link:

MORE with Chad Michael Murray AND a chance to win a bubly Melted Ice Pop Y2K Summer Kit that includes 2000s-inspired accessories with a digitally signed, teen magazine style poster of Chad Michael Murray! In the meantime, you can grab one at exclusively at Walmart.com while supplies last.
Do me a massive solid: If you know someone who still has Hilary Duff and Lindsay Lohan on their playlist, has strong feelings on Team Lucas or Team Nathan or simply misses the days of lying by the pool and flipping through magazines for hours, share this post with them! Hit the button below to spread the nostalgia.

I Spent the Early 2000s Covering Lindsay Lohan. Here Are the ‘Mean Girls’ Secrets Left Out of Print.

The Teen Mag Time Machine — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 14:28:05 GMT

Hello my favorite Y2K time travelers!

I am absolutely obsessed with the fact that in 2026, Lindsay Lohan is living her best life, still riding high on the glorious career comeback and personal transformation we all know and love as the “Lohanaissance.”

Seeing the recent shots of her filming the upcoming Hulu limited series Count My Lies (alongside Shailene Woodley, Kit Harington, and Sophia Bush!) instantly triggered my inner archivist. It inspired me to dig through my old storage bins and notebooks to put together a comprehensive, multi-part deep-dive series for The Teen Mag Time Machine subscribers.

If you were breathing in the early 2000s, you know that Lindsay was the absolute center of the pop-culture universe. Before the 24/7 paparazzi cycle turned toxic, she was the ultimate, freckle-faced “It Girl” next door. In fact, that’s exactly what I titled the unauthorized biography I was tapped to write in 2003: Lindsay Lohan: The It Girl Next Door. I wrote it for the fans who had adored her since The Parent Trap, right before a little movie called Mean Girls blew up the world.

As an entertainment editor at CosmoGIRL! and a contributor to outlets like Seventeen, my career was weirdly, chaotically intertwined with Lindsay’s rise. Even during my short stint at Us Weekly, our paths crossed in the most peak-Y2K way imaginable. I serendipitously chatted with her on the red carpet on the exact day in February 2005 when Paris Hilton’s T-Mobile Sidekick was hacked. Lindsay was one of hundreds of celebs (alongside Eminem, Christina Aguilera, and Nicole Richie) who had to frantically change their cell numbers and emails after they leaked all over the internet. I’m not sure a core pop-culture memory gets more iconic than that!

@viralmovieclips4you Replying to @ST4R<3 Move: Mean Girls (2004)- part 26 #meangirls #reginageorge #movieclips #fyp

We are going to cover all of these Lohan eras in this new series, including a story I have never fully told publicly: The Great 2006 Seventeen Magazine Stakeout. It involves a canceled cover shoot, a secret trip to Long Island, me ringing the buzzer at the Lohan family gate, and a frantic publicist screaming at me the next day, wanting to know why I was sending “Seventeen readers disguised as journalists” to Lindsay’s house. (Yes, she genuinely thought I was a teenager). It’s a wild, hilarious, and bizarre time capsule of 2000s media, and that post will be landing in your premium inboxes next week.

But today, we are launching the series with a massive exclusive over on Parade, thanks to our ongoing editorial partnership.

Today’s Exclusive: Watching the “Burn Book” Implode

In the fall of 2003, I was part of a tiny group of teen mag editors invited to the Toronto set of Mean Girls, spending a long day at the Shaw Street School (the location used for North Shore High’s hallways and bathrooms). Lucky for us, we were there the very day Rachel McAdams nailed the scene where Regina George stands calm, cool, and collected while pages of the Burn Book fly through the hallway, tearing apart friendships in their wake.

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We spent hours sitting in the plastic chairs of an abandoned classroom, watching take after take on a monitor while waiting for the cast to come chat. Rachel, Lizzy Caplan (Janis), and Daniel Franzese (Damian) were total delights. But I’ll be honest, we were all anxiously awaiting the main event: Hollywood’s fastest-rising star.

When a 17-year-old Lindsay finally walked in (dressed in pink after shooting scenes as a “Plastic”), she was worth the wait. Looking back at the transcript, I am still impressed by how candid and honest she was. At that point, she hadn’t even graced any of our covers yet; it would take another six months for Mean Girls to hit theaters on April 30, 2004, and spark an all-out teen mag war over who got her first.

👉 CLICK HERE TO READ THE EXCLUSIVE LINDSAY LOHAN SET TRANSCRIPT ON PARADE.COM!!

For over 22 years, the vast majority of that conversation has sat in my personal vault. CosmoGIRL! only ran a tiny, three-question snippet at the time. But today, the vault is wide open.

The biggest shocker looking back at that afternoon? While Lindsay was making friends with her on-screen “Plastics” clique and grappling with the pressure of being “number one on the call sheet” for the first time, she was actually more excited to dish about a major real-life rite of passage: she had just signed a lease on her very first Los Angeles apartment with a legendary celebrity roommate and new friend, Raven-Symoné.

From color-coordinating their “baby blue” bathrooms to Lindsay admitting she was too terrified to stay in the apartment alone, it is a pure, unadulterated Y2K fever dream.

The exclusive piece is live right now. You can read the unreleased 2004 interview transcript, Lindsay’s unfiltered thoughts on her early insecurities, and the reality of life on the Mean Girls set at the link below:

Still to Come on Teen Mag Time Machine...

I’m not leaving you hanging, I promise! Make sure you are subscribed so you don’t miss the rest of the archives dropping next week, featuring:

The Stakeout: The full, chaotic play-by-play of how I tracked down Lindsay’s Long Island house in 2006.
The Dina Interview: The intense, hour-long phone call with Dina Lohan that saved a Seventeen cover story after Lindsay canceled all her press.
A GIVEAWAY! Stay tuned! One lucky The Teen Mag Time Machine subscriber just won a vintage 2002 copy of Teen Beat magazine with O-Town on the cover . . . autographed by Ashley Angel Parker! More fun Y2K artifacts are on the way!

Do me a massive solid: If you know someone who still owns a piece of Juicy Couture, can quote Mean Girls front to back, or misses the days of buying magazines at the grocery checkout, share this post with them! Hit the button below to spread the nostalgia.

Inside the Y2K Teen Mag Wars: How the Olsen Twins’ Most Secretive Cover Sparked a Tabloid Showdown

The Teen Mag Time Machine — Sun, 14 Jun 2026 01:08:22 GMT

It has been brought to my attention that Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen turned 40 years old today (June 13th).

Yes, that’s “nuts!” I’ll give you a second to let that sink in. I don’t know about you, but in my mind, they are forever Michelle Tanner.

Yet, I feel inexplicably connected to them. I hold a soft spot for the twins—a lingering sense of protectiveness, mostly because they were my first-ever celebrity cover story. This affection remains despite a hilarious, undeniable truth: they still rank up there as some of my absolute worst interviewees.

Putting 16-year-old Mary-Kate and Ashley on the May 2003 cover of CosmoGIRL! was both a risk and a massive coup. We were the very first major teen magazine to put them on the cover, banking heavily on the multi-million-dollar success of their mary-kateandashley brand at Walmart. That empire was light years ahead of its time, spanning trendy clothes, perfume, jewelry, makeup, and bedding. And, of course, there were those insanely popular direct-to-video movies like Winning London (2001), Holiday in the Sun (2001), and Our Lips Are Sealed (2000).

Truth?

I initially wanted my first cover story to be on Hilary Duff. She was dominating the Disney Channel, feuding over Aaron Carter with Lindsay Lohan, and releasing music that defines an era. In one of my first posts here on TMTM, I opened the vault on a long, eye-opening interview I did with Duff in 2003, not long after the Olsen twins’ cover. Duff was 15 and living through peak Lizzie McGuire mania. She went deep, but back then, all I could get approved was a tiny, heavily edited quarter-of-a-page profile. She bared her soul, and we watered it down.

But back to the twins. While I was initially dubious about the assignment, I smiled and internally said, “You got it, Dude!” when my editors excitedly broke the news. I had grown up watching Full House, so in a way, Mary-Kate and Ashley grew up with me. In 2003, it was mind-boggling that the babies from my favorite childhood sitcom were suddenly 16, driving, studying for the SATs, and running Dualstar Entertainment, a company that reportedly raked in a billion dollars in 2002.

Let me live in 2003 for a moment... because 2026 me is deeply struggling with the math of them turning 40!

The Air of Mystery

Unlike other young starlets of the early aughts, Mary-Kate and Ashley maintained an air of mystery. Sure, their faces were plastered across every Walmart in America, and there wasn’t a category of merchandise they wouldn’t slap their names on. But while their peers were constantly vying for the spotlight with high-profile press tours or deliberate publicity stunts, the Olsens rarely granted interviews. They weren’t red carpet fixtures, they weren’t dating famous bad-boy musicians, and they didn’t run with the chaotic Young Hollywood crowd (and if they did, they were masters at hiding it). Remember, this era pre-dated social media. In hindsight, it’s fascinating that they built such a fanatical, loyal following while giving the public next to no access to their personal lives. It only made them more intriguing.

Putting them on the cover of CosmoGIRL! put that intrigue to the test. It was also a massive win for our advertising team to secure the faces of Walmart, one of the most lucrative clients in retail.

For those who’ve joined me on this Substack journey, you know how much I love sharing the “lost” tapes and juicy outtakes from my archived interviews that never made it to print. I really wish that in honor of the twins turning forty, I could release a treasure trove of scandalous, unprinted transcripts that we had to lock away to appease Walmart or protect their squeaky-clean image.

Sadly, I can’t do that.

No, I’m not worried about getting into trouble 23 years later. The disappointing truth is that I simply don’t have any “lost” transcripts to share.

Mary-Kate and Ashley were so robotic in their answers, so visibly uncomfortable being interviewed, and so utterly boring that every single sentence they uttered to me had to be printed. If we had cut anything, we wouldn’t have had enough text to fill a cover story. I interviewed them separately in back-to-back phone calls. They were in the thick of SAT prep, and supposedly their instructor was so rigid that it was nearly impossible to carve out two 20-minute windows for them to speak with me (mind you, most cover stories require a dedicated hour by phone or a full day in person).

I pride myself on my interview skills. I do my research, listen intently, and pivot off-script to chase the best anecdotes. I always try to find common ground early on to build trust, showing that I’m not just a prying journalist, but someone who genuinely cares. I pulled out all my best tricks with Mary-Kate and Ashley, and absolutely nothing worked.

CosmoGIRL! May 2003 Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen Cover Story

Secrets of the Boardroom

CosmoGIRL! was all about empowering readers to dream big. While our older sister Cosmopolitan focused on empowering women in the bedroom, we were teaching teenage girls how to find their voices so they could one day run the boardroom. It made perfect sense to press Mary-Kate and Ashley about their roles as mini-moguls running Dualstar, even if they were doing so under the watchful eye of Robert Thorne, their longtime attorney turned CEO.

The twins gave me generic answers about their business savvy, offering up heavily coached platitudes like learning that “no is a full sentence.” I also spoke with Thorne for the piece. He clearly had superior media training; he knew exactly how to hype up the girls as teenage corporate titans, bragging like a proud father about how they stood their ground in intimidating corporate meetings.

I remember hanging up the phone feeling completely defeated. The transcript was paper-thin. Their answers were brief, they passed on our deepest questions, and they answered follow-ups with one-word responses. It was an incredibly tough piece to edit. Honestly, reading the story again today for the first time in over two decades, I’m impressed by how we cobbled it together to create a mildly interesting read.

But those painful interviews taught me exactly how the Olsens achieved such massive success and why they desperately needed their brand to stay pristine. They were portrayed as wholesome, accessible girls-next-door on every piece of packaging. Parents, relieved to see child stars who hadn’t gone off the rails, felt great about buying anything stamped with their logo. With millions in sales and their names absent from the tabloids, Mary-Kate and Ashley easily hid behind their glossy, bubble-gum empire.

I’m not suggesting they were living a double life. They just wanted it both ways: fame and fortune without letting the media or the fans actually know them. And because the CosmoGIRL! cover sold incredibly well, a blitz of other covers immediately followed. After us, Mary-Kate and Ashley graced YM, Teen People, Teen Vogue, Allure, the iconic “It’s Totally Raining Teens” edition of Vanity Fair, and even Rolling Stone.

It was a bit annoying because I had clearly given them their “warm-up” interview; the profiles that followed were slightly meatier. Considering they were each worth upwards of $150 million by then, I assume Robert Thorne finally invested in some serious media training.

Shifting Tides and Tabloid Wars

However, the cultural tide began to shift in the year following our cover. Increased exposure brought harsher scrutiny. Suddenly, they were open targets for paparazzi.

I know this for a fact because in June of 2004, I made the difficult decision to leave my beloved job at CosmoGIRL! to join Us Weekly as a staff writer. It was a complicated, conflicting move. I had been at CosmoGIRL! for five years, but after major restructuring at the top, I felt lost in the shuffle. If I’m being completely honest, my ego was bruised after being passed over for a major promotion I was assured was mine. I took the Us Weekly job to “show them,” but the second I accepted the offer, I felt a wave of regret. To make matters worse, I had landed the Us Weekly gig by telling the hiring editors that regular teen mag darlings like Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan were “not so innocent.” I didn’t explicitly say I had the sources to prove it, but they assumed I did.

I had been at Us Weekly for barely a month when I was called into the office of the Editor-in-Chief, Janice Min. I wasn’t high enough on the masthead to sit in on the top-secret editorial meetings where leaks were vetted. I knew I was either getting fired or a major star was in deep trouble.

It was the latter. I was grilled on whether I had a direct line to the Olsen twins.

Us Weekly had it on good authority that Mary-Kate, who had just turned 18 and was weeks away from starting her freshman year at NYU, had entered an in-patient treatment center for an eating disorder. They knew I had written one of their first major cover stories. Could I verify the news? Did I have sources who knew what led to this? Was it really an eating disorder, or was it a cover-up for “something else”?

As they badgered me with questions, I blinked back tears. The teen magazine editor in me went into overdrive. Suddenly, the puzzle pieces of my frustrating 2003 interview fell into place. The robotic answers, the impenetrable walls, the tight 20-minute windows managed by protective adults. It wasn’t just corporate branding. It was a shield.

The Ultimate Ending

Us Weekly ran the story, of course, and many brutal tear downs followed. It ran entirely without my help; I told Janice Min I had no sources to offer, which was the honest truth. I quickly realized I wasn’t cut out for the cutthroat world of digging up a celebrity’s painful secrets.

But shortly after that story broke, I received a call from my former Editor-in-Chief at CosmoGIRL!. She was deeply upset about Mary-Kate, especially because our young readers were writing in by the hundreds, terrified for their idol. CosmoGIRL! was rushing out a new Olsen twins cover, but without an interview. Their angle wasn’t going to be an exposé; it was going to focus on how to navigate college while in recovery, the vital importance of family support, and a space for readers to send messages of hope.

My former boss called me because my own sister had struggled with an eating disorder right before her freshman year of college. She wanted a first-person perspective to help guide our readers through the reality of recovery. I gladly connected them.

Looking back from 2026, I realize that my frustrating, boring interview with two tight-lipped 16-year-olds was a symptom of a much larger ecosystem. The Y2K teen magazine era has faced plenty of valid criticism for hyping up the “perfect role model” myth and glossing over the fractures in these young stars’ lives. We watered down Hilary Duff’s depth, and we helped build a squeaky-clean corporate fortress around Mary-Kate and Ashley.

CosmoGIRL! Nov 2004 Mary-Kate and Ashley Cover Story

But as I watched the relentless tabloid machine try to strip Mary-Kate of her dignity during one of her most vulnerable moments, I understood the true purpose of the teen mag world. Yes, we traded in fantasy, and yes, we protected icons who were often struggling behind the scenes. But sometimes, those kids desperately needed protection. They needed an outlet that looked at their pain and chose to offer a message of hope and community, rather than a headline designed to exploit them.

CosmoGIRL! Nov 2004 Mary-Kate and Ashley Cover Story

Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen may have been my toughest, most robotic interviewees, but they were the undisputed queens of the absolute peak of Y2K pop culture.

Happy 40th to the ultimate survivors of the Y2K spotlight. May their next decade be as private, mysterious, and fiercely protected as they always wanted it to be. And may I make enough money this year that I can treat myself to this delicious $10k coat from The Row!

MORE Y2K TIME TRAVEL COMING SOON! In the meantime, check out exclusive TMTM content on Parade!

And, if you loved going behind the scenes of this Y2K archive, consider upgrading to a paid subscription so I can keep restoring and unlocking the thousands of interview tapes, articles and other pop culture artifacts sitting in my closet!

@popculturemomo A throwback to the first ever DWTS episode! #dancingwiththestars #DWTS #joeymcintyre #newkidsontheblock #

Joey McIntyre's Son Griffin Sets the Record Straight on the "Nepo Baby" Label and Saying "No" to NKOTB Remakes

The Teen Mag Time Machine — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 17:02:44 GMT

Hey there, Time Travelers!

If you caught my Parade exclusive last week, you saw Joey McIntyre’s 18-year-old son, Griffin, hilariously crash and burn while trying to guess his dad’s 1989 Teen Beat fan stats. We laughed at his dad’s vintage answers—which included car phones and Twisted Sister—while having an absolute blast taking a spin in the time machine.

But today, we are stepping out of 1989 and firmly into the present. In 2026, it’s officially Griffin’s turn to step into the spotlight on his own terms and put his own original music out into the world.

For those of us who are lifelong “Blockheads,” it’s practically impossible not to feel a deeply rooted, highly protective connection to Griffin. We’ve quite literally watched this kid grow up on stage. I still vividly remember him at 7-years-old_,joining his dad and the rest of the New Kids on the Block at massive venues like Fenway Park and Madison Square Garden when he was just a little guy.

“I remember practicing in the dressing room and then going out on stage. It was super fun,” Griffin recalls of those whirlwind childhood memories. “The crowd would be like, ‘Aw’ and then I’d start crying because they were sad.”

(Of course, I had to immediately jump in right there and let him know that those weren’t tears of sadness, Griffin—that was the universal sound of hitting peak, collective fangirl vibration!)

From Child Actor to Solo Pop Maverick

Fast forward a few years from his stadium-trotting days, and Griffin went on to capture a whole new generation of fans at age 12 by starring as Dylan on Netflix’s hit comedy series Country Comfort. He tells me he is incredibly proud of that chapter, but looking back, he feels infinitely more prepared to navigate the entertainment world today.

“I was always ready, but I’m definitely more confident in what I want to do now,” Griffin explains. “I look back on some of the videos [from that time] and I’m like, ‘Bro, what were you doing?’” he laughs.

Now, while it’s incredibly easy for cynical industry outsiders to lazily slap the “nepo baby” label on children of global pop icons, I’m here to tell you that Griffin’s journey is entirely his own. He is a fiercely independent artist. He isn’t trying to assemble a choreographed, five-piece boy band, and he certainly isn’t waiting around for a major label executive to hand him a glossy contract just because of his last name. Instead, he’s meticulously building his own musical identity from scratch... literally right in his bedroom.

Which means—sorry, fellow Blockheads!—you won’t find him dropping a viral remake of “Please Don’t Go Girl” on your feeds anytime soon.

“I don’t think I’m going to cover a New Kid song. I’m going to do my own thing,” he notes firmly. “But I definitely sing a bunch of New Kid songs. I love all their stuff, to be honest. I like ‘Thankful’ right now. And I do like it when my dad sings ‘Please Don’t Go Girl.’”

Griffin’s debut single, “Risk It All,” is an infectious, driving anthem that perfectly blends high-energy pop showmanship with a raw indie-rock edge. And for Griffin, that title isn’t just a clever hook; it’s his actual daily mantra.

The Linda Perry “Switch” and Boy Band Wisdom

What I found most impressive about Griffin is the mature balance he strikes: he completely admires his dad’s legendary career path and is genuinely grateful for the blueprint the New Kids provided, but he is completely dedicated to following his own set of rules.

“I’ve watched my dad perform my whole life and been around the New Kids and learned how they do it,” he says. Though he’s strictly focused on original material, he has nothing but love for his NKOTB “uncles.” “They’re the best guys,” Griffin says. “Just watching them do their thing and letting me come around to watch and be with them is enough. But, I think it’s cool that I’m making my own music in my room. I work hard at that and I’m going to have to do what everybody else does to get my music out there in the best way possible.”

And by putting himself out there, Griffin’s raw talent quickly caught the attention of rock icon Linda Perry. You know her as the powerhouse force behind 4 Non Blondes, as well as the legendary songwriter and producer behind massive, definitive hits for artists like Gwen Stefani, Pink, and Christina Aguilera.

As fate would have it, Perry’s kids actually went to the same school as Griffin. She watched him command the stage in school plays for years and knew he was a total force. Last year, when Griffin was trying to figure out how to navigate the next phase of his music career, Perry stepped in to push him in the right direction.

“I’ll give her credit, she’s incredible,” Griffin says. Perry challenged him to write his own tracks and produce his own album. “She helped me flip the switch and be confident,” Griffin shares. “She really taught me to work hard and to do it [on my own] because, to be honest, nowadays nobody’s going to do it for you.”

One of my favorite interviews EVER was with Linda Perry for CosmoGIRL! circa 2003. She have powerful advice for readers who wanted to write songs!

That pivotal conversation happened last July, and Griffin has been writing, recording, and engineering inside his bedroom studio ever since.

“It’s super hard to be a new artist and be new at anything and having to do it on your own,” Griffin admits openly. “I have a lot of support from my family, my friends, and the people who love me, but it’s hard. The more and more I listen to [’Risk It All’], the more and more I feel connected. I can confidently say I am risking it all. It’s dope.”

Retro Dance Footwork, Pop Icons, and ‘Dancing with the Stars’

Listening to Griffin talk about his musical DNA from influences to process, I was instantly charmed by how many of his foundations are deeply nostalgic and retro. As a little kid, his absolute ultimate hero wasn’t a contemporary pop star—it was Old Hollywood legend Gene Kelly.

“I used to dress up as him with the umbrella from Singin’ in the Rain and dance around,” he laughs. “That footwork, smooth, Bob Fosse type vibe? It’s the base of everything.”

Today, that classic, theatrical showmanship is layered with a healthy dose of modern pop admiration for Justin Bieber. Griffin proudly notes that he’s seen Bieber live on the Believe, Purpose, and Justice tours, studying his path from a kid on YouTube to global superstardom.

“I don’t know how he did it. I don’t know how he does it. You can’t be that set up as a little kid and have any sort of swag as a 15-year-old. It’s crazy,” Griffin says of Bieber’s career. “I mean, I was ready to go when I was 15, but he was just doing his thing.”

Speaking of star-studded trajectories, there is one specific piece of his dad’s multi-faceted career where Griffin could absolutely see himself following suit one day. Back in 2005 (roughly two years before Griffin was born), Joey competed on the historic very first season of Dancing with the Stars.

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As the show enters its 35th season this fall, Griffin’s a massive fan and is even real-life “homies” with two-time Mirrorball champion Val Chmerkovskiy. “We follow each other and I see him in dance class sometimes. He’s the best guy ever and another inspiration to me—what a fricking force! He’s incredible,” says Griffin. “In the future, we’ll see what the deal is with my life, but [being on Dancing with the Stars] would be cool.”

The Next Chapter: “Type of Love”

Griffin’s macro plan for the next year is refreshingly simple: keep releasing music completely on his own terms, build an undeniable catalog of self-produced songs, and eventually hit the road on tour.

And while the world is still spinning “Risk It All,” we luckily don’t have to wait long at all for that next piece of music. Griffin’s brand-new single, “Type of Love,” officially drops tomorrow, Friday, June 12th! “It’s a little bit more uptempo, a little bit more vibey,” Griffin teases of the track. “I made it in my room, so I’m excited.”

The Fast-Paced Lightning Round

Before letting Griffin get back to his bedroom studio to keep creating, I hit him with a rapid-fire lightning round to see where his pop culture loyalties truly lie:

First instrument you ever played: Piano.
First song you remember learning: “Let It Be” by The Beatles.
Go-to song for singing in the shower: “What Do You Mean?” by Justin Bieber

Vinyl, Streaming, or Cassette? Streaming. “Taylor Swift is the only person who’s incredible in that world with CDs and vinyl—my sister has all that stuff and I listen to it sometimes, but I make so much music that I’m not going to freely listen to vinyl. I listen to music in the car all the time.”
Best concert you’ve been to as a fan: Justin Bieber’s Purpose tour.
If you could raid your dad’s vintage 90s closet, what item are you stealing? “My dad has this cool Chrome Hearts Adidas jacket that says ‘Boston Five’ on it... so probably that. But I don’t know if I’d wear it!”
Best Advice from NKOTB: “Just practice.”
Are you in a New Kids’ Kids group chat? “There’s definitely not a New Kids’ Kids group chat, but I am friendly with them!”

Whether he’s rocking his dad’s vintage Chrome Hearts gear or carving out a fresh, independent pop sound under the watchful eye of Linda Perry, Griffin McIntyre is proving he has the drive, the work ethic, and the undeniable talent to back up his famous last name. He might be risking it all, but something tells me he’s going to win big.

Thank you so much Griffin for this fun chat! And sorry that I opened by revealing I’ve been a Blockhead since I was 11.

Actually, my exact words were, “I feel like I discovered your dad and the NKOTB because I saw them open for Tiffany and knew they were going to be HUGE . . .”

You were a good sport. Once a fan girl, teen mag fanatic turned editor . . .always one!

xoxooxoxo,

Lauren

PS - Remember a few weeks ago I caught up with former O-Town heartthrob Ashley Parker Angel? We talked about it all from his teen magazine pin-up days to taking his passion for health and wellness to build a renowned brand today! You can STILL win the autographed copy of the June/July 2002 Teen Beat magazine he signed JUST for The Teen Mag Time Machine readers! Details in this post:

MORE SOON! In the meantime, check out more exclusive TMTM content on Parade!

And, if you loved going behind the scenes of this Y2K archive, consider upgrading to a paid subscription so I can keep restoring and unlocking the thousands of interview tapes sitting in my closet!

Joey McIntyre’s Son Griffin Blew My Mind With His Reactions to This Vintage 1989 'Teen Beat' Questionnaire

The Teen Mag Time Machine — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 21:16:43 GMT

Hey there, Time Travelers!

If you’re anything like me, your childhood bedroom walls weren’t covered in wallpaper—they were completely plastered with glossy, well-worn pages ripped straight out of Bop, Big Bopper, and Teen Beat. My own walls exclusively had the “right stuff” with New Kids on the Block posters. In fact, I played my Hangin’ Tough cassette tape so many times that I literally wore it out and had to replace it at least three times.

Growing up as a massive NKOTB fan, I didn’t just listen to their music; I memorized every single detail about them. I knew Joey’s astrological sign, Jordan’s favorite food, and Donnie’s pet peeves. Those magazines weren’t just pop culture artifacts to us; they were formative, comforting universes where our fandom felt seen and celebrated.

That deep, core understanding of how special it is to be a fan is exactly why I took my job as a teen magazine editor so seriously later in life. It’s why I treat these memories with the utmost respect, and it is the exact reason I launched Teen Mag Time Machine. We aren’t just looking at old paper here; we are honoring a rite of passage.

So, you can imagine the absolute full-circle chills I felt this week when I sat down with Joey McIntyre’s 18-year-old son, Griffin McIntyre.

As “Blockheads,” we have quite literally watched Griffin grow up. We remember him as the adorable little kid singing and dancing on stage with NKOTB at Fenway Park and the Garden. And even though he’s firmly forging his own path—crafting his own modern pop music right from his bedroom rather than taking the traditional boy band route—NKOTB fans feel an incredibly deep, protective connection to him.

He is officially our next-gen pop royalty.

While we talked all about his incredible new solo music (which I’ll be sharing in a deep-dive interview right here next week!), I couldn’t resist bringing a literal piece of the Time Machine to our chat.

I dug deep into the archives and pulled out a rare, handwritten “get to know me” questionnaire filled out by a 16-year-old Joey McIntyre from a July 1989 issue of Teen Beat!

I read the categories out loud to Griffin to see if he could guess his dad’s 1989 answers. I teamed up with my friends over at Parade to host the full, hilarious breakdown of the game, complete with a look at Joey’s actual handwritten 1989 Teen Beat page.

👉 CLICK HERE TO READ GRIFFIN’S HILARIOUS REACTIONS AND SEE THE ORIGINAL 1989 TEEN BEAT PAGE ON PARADE!

Let’s just say... Gen Alpha and Gen X see the world just a tad differently. Griffin was hilariously stumped and genuinely surprised by most of the exchange. His real-time reactions to his dad’s favorite band, his dream car (featuring a very specific piece of throwback technology), and Joey’s peak-1989 dating standards had us both laughing out loud.

At one point, completely bewildered by his dad’s answers, Griffin laughed, “I don’t know what he was on...”

Trust me, you do not want to miss this.

👉 CLICK HERE TO SEE JOEY MCINTYRE’S ORIGINAL 1989 TEEN BEAT QUESTIONNAIRE!

Please check back right here next week for Part 2 of my chat with Griffin. He’s giving us the exclusive scoop on his upcoming music, what it’s really like working with rock icon Linda Perry, his deep respect for Justin Bieber, and his relationship with the rest of the New Kids on the Block and their kids!

Until next time, keep the time machine running.

xoxooxoxo,

Lauren

If you loved going behind the scenes of this Y2K archive, consider upgrading to a paid subscription so I can keep restoring and unlocking the thousands of interview tapes sitting in my closet!

👉 CLICK HERE TO READ GRIFFIN’S HILARIOUS REACTIONS TO DAD JOEY MCINTYRE’S 1989 TEEN BEAT QUESTIONNAIRE!

👑 Unlocking the Anne Hathaway Vault (Pt. 2) + We're Live on Parade!

The Teen Mag Time Machine — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 19:59:39 GMT

Hey Time Travelers!

It has been an absolutely unforgettable week in the Y2K matrix. If you haven’t seen the news yet, The Teen Mag Time Machine has officially partnered with Parade! Last week, I shared with them an exclusive outtake from a brand new interview with O-Town’s Ashley Parker Angel.

This week for Parade? I dug into my original, 50-page CosmoGIRL! transcript from my 48 hours with a 21-year-old Anne Hathaway in January 2004, and the Internet is already loving these lost outtakes.

The exclusive Parade piece features her hilariously cringey, starstruck first meeting with George Clooney (involving a major mix-up over The Nanny) and the legendary “five-minute rule” she used to weed out bad dates.

👉 Read the exclusive feature live on Parade here! 👈

But you know I wouldn’t leave my favorite crew hanging. While Parade got a taste of Annie’s romantic near-misses, there were so many deeply poignant, funny, and incredibly raw moments left to share. Today, we are opening the vault the rest of the way right here.

Below is the remainder of our unreleased 2004 conversation. Anne opened up to me 22 years ago about hitting 21, body image double-standards, surviving a massive family tragedy, and why fame almost made her walk away from Hollywood entirely!

On Turning 21 and Escaping the Teen Time Limit

“It’s not necessarily that you feel empowered when you turn 21, but simply, what it’s been for me is I always kind of felt like there was a time limit to everything I did because you can only be a teenager for so long.

I thought to myself, ‘Oh well, what if it’s not impressive or what if I’m not extraordinary?’ I’d be like, ‘Oh my God, you look at everybody that’s ever accomplished anything, they started when they were teenagers!’ That always freaked me out and made me just go off on these horrible mental obsessive rants.

And at 21, it was literally the day after my birthday and all of a sudden, I went, ‘Oh my God... I actually have the rest of my life.’ Like, that phrase isn’t just floating out there whereas before I used to be like, ‘Yeah yeah yeah, rest of my life, great.’ Now I’m like, I seriously have time. I can plan things, and I can have goals, and they can take 20 years to achieve because I have 20 years. And that just made me feel so calm.”

On Body Image and Finding Her Strength

“I’m really lucky because in the past few years in particular there have been a lot of women that have cleared the way to make it acceptable for girls like me, who are by no means big or fat or anything, but just have a little bit of shape to them. Yet I’ve been told by people that I have to ‘watch it’. It makes me stop for a second and really think about where they’re coming from. It used to really hurt my feelings. The first time I heard it, I was 16. And I heard it from a middle-aged man who simply didn’t understand that when you’re 16 years old your body’s doing some different stuff that you shouldn’t be told at that age...

It plagued me until I was about 19 or 20, and then in the past few months I changed my entire scope on it and said, ‘No more, no more. I can’t feel this bad about myself anymore. I can’t watch every single meal. I can’t be counting calories as much as I am. I just—it’s not fair. This isn’t the way I want to live my life.’

During the time I was focusing on all that weight-oriented stuff, I wanted to be doing something else more positive with my life. I wanted to be going for walks, I wanted to be taking photographs, I wanted to be writing poetry that wasn’t self-loathing poetry. And so I wound up finding a personal trainer who really understands me. I said, ‘I don’t want to be skinny.’ He said, ‘I don’t want you to be skinny, you’ve got a beautiful body, we’re just going to make you very strong.’

Now I feel very much like I’m living life and embracing it fully, and that’s really cool. I don’t know if that’s just something about turning 21 and being out of those god awful teen years or what . . .”

The Trauma—and Ghosts—of Her Childhood Home

“My family has been through a lot together. Our house burned down when I was twelve. So that really cemented us all together. Everyone was fine physically, it was just a lot of material stuff was lost, which was stuff... memories, toys. No photographs were damaged. We were living in this really terrible rental house for almost a year. Everybody was miserable, but we got through it. I know it doesn’t sound like that big a deal, but it was a really big deal when it happened. At that age, I thought I was okay with it, but then over the next few years I realized that I had actually had a lot of feelings that I hadn’t actually expressed and I really needed to.

Your initial reaction is ‘Thank god nobody is hurt.’ That’s the hard part. We left the house. Our insurance covered it all. We rebuilt everything. We are now back living in it. We always said that the house felt haunted before the fire. And then after, we think that the fire might have scared the ghosts because we don’t feel it anymore. The funny thing is, we all felt it. We always felt like there was a presence in my attic. There were noises and just a feeling that you got in your stomach. It really freaked me out. I would feel it at the back of your neck, and you’d break out in sweats, it was really, really bizarre, and it happened to all of us at different times.”

Anne Hathaway circa 1990-something

Fame vs. College: Why She Wanted to Quit

“I was 18 years old and all of a sudden people were saying I was gonna be ‘the next big thing.’ I had to deal with the paparazzi. Not on any sort of major level, but it was something new. All of a sudden, I couldn’t go out to dinner with my family anymore because there would be like, 30 people coming up to me at a table. All of a sudden, I couldn’t have different kinds of conversations or I was being held to a different set of standards and my goings-abouts were being reported falsely.

And all of a sudden I thought, ‘I don’t want this. This is not what I signed on for. I just want to act. I just wanted to make a fun movie.’ One of the reasons why I went to college was to figure out who I was outside of all of that. And now I feel much more comfortable coming back to LA.

Honestly, I recognize that the entertainment world is huge and a lot of people look to it, but it’s only a small part of a much much bigger world out there. I’ve had amazing conversations with people and they didn’t know I was an actress and they were just impressed with me as a human being... It’s everybody’s right to be allowed to get old, change your mind and explore your passions. Fame is a major hindrance for that. It’s a shame when it happens so young, because you almost don’t know what you’re missing, and you don’t know until it’s too late.”

Reading these words today, it is wild to realize how deeply protective of her own humanity 21-year-old Anne already was. She was betting on herself long before the rest of Hollywood caught up.

And if you’re still craving The Devil Wears Prada content, now is a good time to catch up on this gem:

🔥 O-TOWN UPDATE: The Ashley Parker Angel Vault Is Now OPEN!

With all the incredible excitement surrounding the Parade partnership, I want to keep the celebration going with a massive thank you to this amazing community.

I have two huge updates regarding our resident O-Town heartthrob, Ashley Parker Angel:

1. Free Subscribers: Unlock the Complete Ashley Interview!

My recent, deeply personal, and completely unrestricted full interview post with Ashley was previously locked behind our paid archive tier. Because I want everyone to experience this conversation, I have officially updated the settings!

Free subscribers can now officially redeem their single-use unlock on this paywalled post. If you’ve been waiting to read the full, deep-dive interview, now is your chance to crack open the vault completely for free.

👉 Click here to unlock the complete Ashley Parker Angel interview ! 👈

2. The Signed Magazine Giveaway is EXTENDED!

To make sure every single new reader joining us from Parade this week gets a fair shot, I am officially extending the contest to win a pristine, vintage copy of Teen Beat signed by Ashley Parker Angel himself!

If you haven’t entered yet, the rules are incredibly simple:

Be a Subscriber: Click here to make sure you are officially subscribed to this newsletter

Leave a Comment: Leave a comment on this post telling me your absolute favorite O-Town song or favorite Y2K pop memory.

Share: Share this post with a friend who is mentally still standing outside the TRL studios.

I will draw the lucky winner next week, so get to sharing and get those comments locked in!

AND . . .

👀 NEXT TIME ON THE TIME MACHINE: A Total Full-Circle Moment...

Before I let you go, I have to share some news that is currently causing my inner 12-year-old self to completely lose her mind.

This week, I am sitting down for an interview for both Parade and The Teen Mag Time Machine with a brilliant rising singer and actor named Griffin McIntyre.

If that last name sounds familiar, it’s because he is the 18-year-old son of Joey McIntyre of New Kids on the Block.

Yes, you read that correctly. I am interviewing the son of my ultimate teen idol. He just dropped an incredible debut solo single called “Risk It All” (and no, he’s explicitly refusing to join a boy band—he’s carving out his own path!).

As someone who spent the late ‘80s and early ‘90s plastering Jordan, Jon, Danny, Donnie and of course Joey all over my bedroom walls, asking Joey’s son about navigating the music industry and learning tricks of the trade from his dad is the kind of full-circle cosmic shift I never saw coming.

🚨 Help Me Write the Interview!

Since you are the co-pilots of this time machine, I want to know what you want to hear about. Are you curious about what it’s like growing up backstage on NKOTB arena tours? Do you want to know the best advice Joey gave him about handling pop fame?

Drop your questions in the comments below! Let me know what you want me to ask him and your question might just make it into the final Parade feature!

Until next time, keep the time machine running.

xoxooxoxo,

Lauren

If you loved going behind the scenes of this Y2K archive, consider upgrading to a paid subscription so I can keep restoring and unlocking the thousands of interview tapes sitting in my closet!

You can catch up here on the story behind their iconic ballad, “All or Nothing” and why it almost wasn’t part of O-Town’s legacy!

All or Nothing: Inside My Raw, Unedited Chat with O-Town’s Ashley Parker Angel

The Teen Mag Time Machine — Thu, 28 May 2026 14:41:39 GMT

Hello hello my fellow Y2K pop culture lovers, boy band aficionados and teen mag readers at heart!

This has been a huge week. I launched a fab new partnership with Parade, kicking it off with an exclusive bit of my interview with former O-Town member and forever heartthrob Ashley Parker Angel.

But, as I said in Monday’s post, I want The Teen Mag Time Machine to be the ultimate “where are they now” destination. A place for those of us still craving the boy bands, pop vixens, and teen idols that defined the Y2K era. A haven where I can do what I did best as a teen mag editor (and still do today): interview celebs!

Except here, it’s through the lens of nostalgia, with the opportunity to ask burning questions about what those stars really thought, felt, and experienced when they burst onto the scene some twenty plus years ago and how they view that time today.

Enter O-Town’s Ashley Parker Angel.

I could not think of a better Y2K era celeb to sit down with me for The Teen Mag Time Machine’s first big interview.

We met up while he was hosting a “High Level Happy Hour” at a GNC in New York City—an event he’s taking to stores across the country to promote High Level Science, his line of medical-grade supplements. I felt like it was 2001 all over again when I saw the line of fans wrapped around the block.

In one video, Ashley flips through vintage teen magazines featuring O-Town. You can still enter to win the Teen Beat he looked through AND autographed!

How to Enter:

Be a Subscriber: Click here to make sure you are officially subscribed to this newsletter (Paid subscribers get triple entries!).
Leave a Comment: Leave a comment on this post telling me your absolute favorite O-Town song or favorite Y2K pop memory.
Share: Share this post with a friend who is mentally still standing outside the TRL studios.

But without further ado, here’s The Teen Mag Time Machine’s unedited, raw and unfiltered interview with the one and only Ashley Parker Angel!

The Teen Mag Time Machine: Your son Lyric is now 20 years old. The world watched his birth on your MTV series Then and Now. But what’s even more mind blowing is that Lyric is older than you were when you auditioned for Making the Band! How is Lyric different from when you were 20? And what does he think about his dad, a former heartthrob?

Ashley: Well, the late 90s and early 2000s is so back! I’m gifting Lyric clothes that I had in storage containers, all the baggy jeans and baggy shirt looks. He loves to go thrift shopping but when I show him that stuff, he’s like, ‘Dad, this is so cool!’ And I’m like, ‘Dude, I wore all of this in the 90!’ But yeah, it’s mind blowing that he’s two years older than when I auditioned for Making the Band. It’s the circle of life, but it’s so cool how not just in fashion, but in music trends and film that late 90s/early 2000s nostalgia is back and so strong again. Having such a big turnout at my GNC takeover really celebrates that time that we all lived through.

TMTM: How does it feel to be promoting a High Level Science, a brand you’re passionate about and is where your focus is now, and the fans still support you and want to be a part of it?

Ashley: I think it’s a testament to that connection that we all share. And it helps that as millennials, we’re all thinking about healthy aging. We know so much more now about healthy aging, but my whole experience of being in entertainment, whether it was in O Town going solo, then doing over 2000 shows on Broadway, I feel like I put myself through the ringer going from project to project to project. And there’s so much I learned about the mental health piece of this. I would say, speaking as a father to a son that’s 20 years old, this younger generation is so much more aware of the importance of mental health. My experience taught me that if you don’t understand some of the easy things you can do for your health and wellness, which start with proper supplementation, you’re not setting yourself up to be successful in your mental and emotional health and that trickles into every aspect of your life.

So to see the fans with a line wrapped around the block? There were moms and dads bringing their kids. We had a family that literally drove in from Boston and arrived three or four hours before the event started. To experience that honestly just gave me chills.

TMTM: And what does your son say about your legacy? Is dad cool?

Ashley: There’s that tipping point that we all go through, we did with our own parents, when you’re around 11 or 12, and your parents aren’t cool for a while. Now that Lyric’’s 20, he has a little more life perspective and he’s like, ‘Dad, you’re crushing it. I could not be more proud of you.’ I love that we’re at that point now versus the teenage years. Now that he’s a young man, he’s out there in the world pursuing career opportunities with a different vantage point. When I was in Wicked, Lyric would come sit backstage. Sometimes he came down into the orchestra pit or back by the monitor where they do the sound. Even though he missed the O-Town experience, he got to see a lot of the Broadway stuff I did.

TMTM: Does Lyric have the acting bug?

Ashley: He’s an amazing singer. When he was around 10 or 11 years old, he had an incredible role on American Horror Story. He did a six episode arc and that was his first audition. Maybe this runs in our genes. I definitely helped him prep for an entire weekend, but he never had acting classes. His very first audition and he books it! It’s similar to my experience where my first real audition was for Making the Band.

His very first day of filming was with Lady Gaga and Kathy Bates. To start at that level where your very first day of filming is with Kathy Bates and Lady Gaga, he couldn’t understand it at 11 years old. I was like, ‘Dude, this is not the typical path. This is not what normally happens!’

After that, he started to do some auditioning while balancing school and homework and decided to do school. I’m glad that he did that. Now that he’s 20, he may pursue it again, he may not, but he had that opportunity. He’s got something great on his resume. He’s soulful and spiritual, with long Johnny Depp like hair and he’s crushing it. I’m so proud of him. It’s been a celebration.

TMTM: Talk about your participation in the documentary Boy Band Confidential. Have the other O-Town guys reached out to you since it came out? Do they share your perspective?

🛑 THE REST OF THIS INTERVIEW IS FOR PAID SUBSCRIBERS ONLY. 🛑

Subscribe NOW because you don’t want to miss Ashley’s revelations on:

🎤 The Truth About an O-Town Reunion: Will the 5 of them ever perform “All or Nothing” again? (His answer might surprise you).
🎭 The Massive Broadway Role He Just Turned Down: The huge musical he had to say no to, and why his agent is ready to fire him.
🤫 Boy Band Rivalries & Secret Playlists: What really happened behind the scenes between O-Town, *NSYNC, and BSB, and who is still in his phone contacts today.

Unlock the full interview and get full archive access to The Teen Mag Time Machine for just $5/month. Don’t miss out on the ultimate Y2K nostalgia trip!

The Track Simon Cowell Accidentally Handed to O-Town 🤯 (+ Win a Signed Vintage Teen Beat!)

The Teen Mag Time Machine — Mon, 25 May 2026 21:44:08 GMT

You guys, I am BEYOND psyched for this edition of The Teen Mag Time Machine. I hope you’re ready, because I’ve officially unlocked the exact goal I set out to achieve when I launched this newsletter.

My vision has always been for The Teen Mag Time Machine to be the ultimate “where are they now” destination. A place for those of us still craving the boy bands, pop vixens, and teen idols that defined the Y2K era. I wanted to create a haven where I can do what I love most: interview those stars through a lens of nostalgia and ask them the burning questions about what they really thought, felt, and experienced—with, in the great words of *NSYNC, “no strings attached.”

This newsletter is where fans come to reconnect with the stars they loved so much back then. The ones we slept on sidewalks to score concert tickets for, or tied up the family landline to vote into the coveted number-one spot on TRL. The ones whose pages we lovingly plastered onto our bedroom walls, without a single care about the paint those rolls of tape would inevitably peel off.

This is where the stars who burst onto the scene (and into our hearts) in the early aughts come to reflect, react, redo, and reimagine the days that felt so innocent—perhaps because they were entirely social media-free—yet were often far more complicated than anyone could have guessed.

So, drumroll please... The Teen Mag Time Machine has a TRIPLE whammy of announcements!

ANNOUNCEMENT ONE: The Parade Partnership! 📰✨

I am incredibly excited to share that The Teen Mag Time Machine has officially partnered with Parade! Every Friday, Parade will feature an exclusive piece of content straight from the TMTM vault. It’ll run on Parade.com and then link you right back here for the rest of the scoop and the full interviews!

To celebrate our very first Parade piece, I am proud to present our FIRST ever in-person, deep-dive interview with none other than O-Town heartthrob Ashley Parker Angel!

👉 READ THE EXCLUSIVE STORY BEHIND O-TOWN’S “ALL OR NOTHING” ON PARADE HERE!

Head over to Parade for Ashley’s exclusive breakdown of how O-Town’s multi-platinum 2001 power ballad, “All or Nothing,” was actually intended for a completely different boy band—until Simon Cowell passed on it! Luckily, their loss was O-Town’s massive gain. Can you even imagine a world where prom-goers didn’t melt into each other’s arms to that ultimate slow-dance staple?

I wrote all about how O-Town nabbed the track and how the song quite literally still follows Ashley all around the world.

👉 READ THE EXCLUSIVE STORY BEHIND O-TOWN’S “ALL OR NOTHING” ON PARADE HERE!

ANNOUNCEMENT TWO: The Video Drop & The Reunion

There was absolutely no way I was going to catch up with Ashley nearly 25 years after our first meeting without bringing that old-school CosmoGIRL! energy.

Ashley and I met up while he was hosting a “High Level Happy Hour” at a GNC in New York City—an event he’s taking to stores across the country to promote High Level Science, his line of medical-grade supplements. I honestly thought I had time-traveled straight back to 2001 when I arrived because the line was wrapped entirely around the block. Fans had driven for hours (some even booked flights!), clutching vintage O-Town CDs and photos, anxiously awaiting their turn to meet their teen idol and sing a little karaoke with him. I actually got teary-eyed noticing how many fans had brought their own kids along, beautifully passing the fandom down to a brand-new generation.

It was entirely surreal to reconnect. I was in the thick of my era as the entertainment editor of CosmoGIRL! when O-Town formed during season one of Making the Band. While every boy band member fulfills a specific archetype (the “bad boy,” the “shy one,” “the boy next door”), there was never any doubt that with his spiky blond hair, striking blue eyes, and boyish charm, Ashley was O-Town’s ultimate heartthrob.

I always knew Ashley would find success, with or without the band. When they went their separate ways, he went solo and starred in his hit MTV reality show, There and Back. On that very show, the world watched him become a father—and are you ready to feel old? His son, Lyric, is now TWENTY YEARS OLD!

Ashley went on to star on Broadway in massive shows like Hairspray and Wicked, but when O-Town officially reunited, he chose not to rejoin. Instead, he’s staying true to his deep passion for fitness, wellness, and mental health advocacy. And let me tell you, he is just as charming in 2026 as he was when he first walked into the CosmoGIRL! offices circa 2001.

Ashley is all about celebrating his glossy teen mag days, so we couldn’t resist shooting two exclusive, old-school videos just for you guys:

VIDEO ONE: ASHLEY PARKER ANGEL PLAYS A RAPID-FIRE Y2K ROUND OF “THIS OR THAT!”

VIDEO TWO: ASHLEY PARKER ANGEL FLIPS THROUGH VINTAGE Y2K TEEN MAGAZINES!

ANNOUNCEMENT THREE: 🎁 THE ULTIMATE Y2K GIVEAWAY! 🚨

That vintage Teen Beat magazine Ashley is flipping through in the video above?

I HAD HIM AUTOGRAPH THE COVER JUST FOR YOU GUYS!

An original, signed piece of pop culture history is officially up for grabs.

I am giving away this exact autographed magazine to one lucky Teen Mag Time Machine reader.

How to Enter:

Be a Subscriber: Make sure you are officially subscribed to this newsletter (free or paid!).
Leave a Comment: Leave a comment on this post telling me your absolute favorite O-Town song or favorite Y2K pop memory
Share: Share this post with a friend who is mentally still standing outside the TRL studios hoping for a glimpse of their favorite boy band.

The winner will be randomly selected from the comments and announced in this Friday’s newsletter drop!

TO OFFICIALLY BE ENTERED TO WIN A Y2K COPY OF TEEN BEAT, AUTOGRAPHED BY ASHLEY PARKER ANGEL, PLEASE SHARE THIS POST!

🚨 What’s Coming Next...

This is truly only the tip of the iceberg. Ashley and I sat down for a deep, unfiltered, nostalgic dive into his life today versus his pop star past.

In my next post, dropping in the next 48 hours, I’m releasing my full, exclusive Q&A interview with Ashley. We talk about:

The raw truth about leaving the pop world behind at the height of his fame.
What his 20-year-old son actually thinks of his dad’s boy band past.
The one thing he deeply wishes had been handled differently during his O-Town days.
Whether he’d ever rejoin the guys for a 5-piece on-stage reunion.

You guys, it’s all happening and I’m so psyched for all that’s to come. Lots more interviews on the way and lots more stories from the vault I’m pulling together to share, unfiltered, for the first time!

Thank you for your support. If you’re not already a paid subscriber, please consider supporting me! And thank you to Parade.com for believing in the power of this nostalgic content and audience of fans hungry for it!

xoxooxoxo,

Lauren

Mall Madness with Luke Perry, The 1999 VMAs and New Secrets From the Vault

The Teen Mag Time Machine — Tue, 12 May 2026 16:50:17 GMT

Hello friends!

I launched The Teen Mag Time Machine as a “gut check” to see if I was the only one with my head and heart still permanently parked in the pop culture of Y2K.

Well, I need to trust my gut more.

The nostalgia for the era of teen heartthrobs and pop vixens is so strong that if I close my eyes, I can practically breathe in the overpowering aroma of sweat and Dior J'adore at a sold-out *NSYNC show. (For me, it was Angel by Mugler, which I was banned from wearing when I had my first shared office space at CosmoGIRL! but that’s another story for another time . . .)

I’ve spent the last two weeks taking a beat to make some big plans. You won’t want to miss what’s next for The Teen Mag Time Machine. I have exclusive interviews with your favorite Y2K icons, a major editorial partnership with Parade launching very soon, and so many more stories to spill. I’m ready to set free the lost transcripts, the tapes, and the secrets currently locked in my vault.

The Fan Girl to Editor Pipeline

My time as Entertainment Editor of CosmoGIRL! is where my best career stories and “pinch-me” moments live. In what other job can you witness history on the set of Mean Girls (a set visit the publicist BEGGED me to attend while I promised my editors it was worth it. Yes, that story is incoming soon), prank the paparazzi with a young Anne Hathaway (that poor photographer never knew he’d been “wrong-numbered” by a future Oscar winner - you read about it here, right?), or have your first anxiety attack because you realized too late that you attributed a quote to the wrong member of LFO?

It blows my mind that I moved to NYC in August of 1999 with no job and just enough money to survive until New Year’s. While I spent my days chasing job leads at Teen People, YM, or my holy grail, CosmoGIRL!, I spent my first weeks in NYC waiting outside hotels for glimpses of celebrities in town for the MTV Video Music Awards. Somehow, I managed to meet AJ McLean (this was peak, Millennium, “I Want It That Way” Backstreet Boys era)! So, of course I ended up outside Lincoln Center for the actual VMAs, desperate to catch a glimpse of anyone exiting a limo (okay fine, I heard that Steven Tyler was coming out to perform with Run D.M.C).

Also, four years later, I found myself INSIDE the VMAs, actual ticket in hand, seated in the audience, watching that Madonna, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera history making opener. That girl lurking around the Upper West Side desperately trying to feel a part of that world never would’ve believed it!

By the time I walked through the doors of CosmoGIRL! (October 20th, 1999 to be exact), it was a no-brainer that I’d make my way up to the Entertainment department. Before I was a pro, I was a fan girl. I’m still a fan girl.

And honestly? Fan girls made teen magazines successful.

Fan girls and boys are what makes the pop culture world go round.

Yes, those girls and boys grow up to be full fledged adults with jobs, real life responsibilities, mental loads that keep them up at night, relationship woes and of course all the good things we manifested for ourselves when we were young.

Which is why I believe nostalgia for the ‘90s, Y2K and mid-aughts is hitting hard in 2026.

The Receipts

In 1991, I was 14 and got grounded for the first time. My life revolved around Beverly Hills, 90210. I cut bangs to look like Brenda Walsh. I kissed posters of my boyfriend Dylan McKay goodnight. I wanted to hang at The Peach Pit with Nat and the gang. I couldn’t believe a nice Jewish boy like David Silver wasn’t my school’s DJ in residence!

So, when my parents wouldn’t drive me to a Brian Austin Green meet-and-greet quite far from my house, I told a million lies and took the bus. This was 1991 in Miami, Florida. There was no Google Maps or transit apps and there certainly were no cell phones. My friend and I called a number for Miami transit that we found in the Yellow Pages and took notes from some nice lady over the phone on which bus to take and which Metro-Rail to transfer to. Needless to say, I got caught when I couldn’t figure out the route home and had to ask a cop for help. A month being grounded was a small price to pay to tell Brian how much 90210 meant to me.

A few months later, I convinced my mom to take me and a frjend to the Fashion Mall in Plantation, Florida to meet Luke Perry. This was the big one. I adored Brian Austin Green but I was in love with Luke Perry. We obviously were going to fall madly in love in the 25 seconds I had to hand him a scrapbook I lovingly made him along with a profound speech about how much he (and Dylan McKay) meant to me.

Sadly, it wasn’t meant to be. Luke appeared for 90 seconds before the crowd erupted into hysterics, rushed the stage. In a flash, Luke (and my chance at igniting our love story) was whisked away. Chaos ensued; girls were hurt. In an age before cell phones, I thought I was never going to find my mom and have to live at that mall forever. RIP Luke Perry, you brought me so much joy despite the insanity of that day. And I’m grateful that I did have the chance many years later to meet him, interview him and tell him I was at the mall on that crazy day.

This was before camera phone so you get what you get and you don’t get upset!

A few years later in college, I ditched class for two days and drove across three states with a new friend who claimed he had a connection to Steven Tyler. I took the risk. It was true.

Again, this was pre-camera phones so there was no do overs or selfies. One take and that was it!

That passion for pop culture, the way it moved me so deeply combined with my never ending desire to tell stories was a natural transition into one wild ride of a career. But not everyone finds a way to turn that specific passion into a career yet finding meaning, connection and community in a pop culture fandom is important, meaningful and for some, akin to a religion that gives them something to believe in and turn to.

I hate when fandom is diminished or looked down on as frivolous and silly.

To find art in any form that speaks to your soul can change your life. It can make you feel seen, provide comfort and remind you that you’re not alone. All it takes is one song lyric, one TV show character, one movie that takes your breath away because you see yourself. You feel like someone read your journal or discovered your deepest (and unspoken) desires.

It’s why getting The Teen Mag Time Machine exactly right is so important to me. It’s more than a look back in time. It’s a deep dive and a celebration of a meaningful era that we are collectively looking back on with gratitude and appreciation.

In 2026, so many Y2K era stars are getting a second chance at fame. They’re doing things their way. Telling unfiltered stories. Embracing their fans. Finding a reason for the blood, sweat and tears. There’s a freedom they didn’t have then that they have now to own their legacy and write their next chapter. And The Teen Mag Time Machine is here for it!

The 2026 Pop Culture Diet

While I’ve been prepping our next big moves, here’s what’s been on my radar. And yes, of course it ALL relates back to The Teen Mag Time Machine!

Reading: American Fantasy by Emma Straub. This fun novel is about a recently divorced woman who finds herself on a cruise hosted by the boyband she loved as teen. I’m loving it. While I don’t love cruising, I am an OG, ride or die New Kids on the Block fan. I actually was invited by Donnie Wahlberg himself to go on an New Kids on the Block cruise! I could not attend but receiving that invite was just as good, if not better.
Don’t believe me? Watch it go down here!
Theater: I just took my 11-year-old daughter to see &Juliet, one of our favorite Broadway shows, when the touring production came to CT. The show features the music of Max Martin, the Swedish record producer and songwriter behind some of the world’s most massive hits. We’re talking “...Baby One More Time” (Britney Spears), “I Want It That Way” (Backstreet Boys), “Since U Been Gone” (Kelly Clarkson), “It’s My Life” (Bon Jovi), “Confident” (Demi Lovato), “Can’t Feel My Face” (The Weeknd) . . .basically every banger on my iPod in the early aughts. We saw &Juliet again because Joey Fatone of *NSYNC guest-starred in this production. When Joey hit the stage in a role that very much pays homage to his boy band beginnings? I felt like I was at an *NSYNC concert circa 2000! It’s already surreal even if my tween didn’t fully understand the history lesson she was witnessing.
Bingeing: Speaking of my tween, over the past six months she’s binged Glee and How I Met Your Mother and just started One Tree Hill. Is it bad that I’m bursting with more pride over her TV viewing choices than a recent award she won at school? In 2026, my daughter is bingeing some of the very shows I championed before they became fixtures in the culture. I watched the How I Met Your Mother pilot on a VHS tape, squealing with delight the whole time that Willow and Doogie Howser were back on TV . . .together! And, I remember hosting Sophia Bush and Bethany Joy Lenz in my tiny office the day the show was announced for The WB (before The CW existed, kids!). All I wanted to talk about was Chad Michael Murray and “that girl who won the MTV VJ contest” (sorry, Hilarie Burton!).
Movies: I’ve seen The Devil Wears Prada 2 twice . .. once for work and then I went again to take my daughter. But mostly because of the nostalgia for my industry and the pride I feel for Anne Hathaway
Journalism: This article in the Wall Street Journal titled “The Boy Band Heyday May Be Over—But the ‘Man Band’ Era Has Just Begun” makes me smile and feel seen. That is all.

The Vault: Boy Band Confidential: A Hollywood Demons Event on HBO Max is a must watch. Produced by and featuring Joey Fatone, it reveals how members of boy bands (namely those managed by Lou Pearlman) were exploited, underpaid, and even abused. The stories that everyone (AJ McLean, Lance Bass, Nick Lachey, Ashley Parker Angel and more) finally share are chilling and heartbreaking. Boy bands are meant to bring joy so it’s gut wrenching to discover the sacrifices they made and empty promises they believed. Sadly, as a teen magazine editor I did not know what was going on behind the scenes of these beloved boy bands. But in 2007, I was connected with the late Rich Cronin of LFO. He was ready to expose Lou Pearlman. He truly wanted to “tell-all.” We worked on a book proposal that alas, was ahead of its time. The world wasn’t ready and the book didn’t sell. Sadly Rich passed away from leukemia in 2010. So while I’m relieved the silence has been broken, I still have the transcripts and the book proposal that fills in the blanks. I’m working on a special way to share that here soon.
The Cover Story: I interviewed Mandy Moore and Nate Bargatze for Parents’ May digital cover story! They are promoting their new movie The Breadwinner. Both were delightful (Nate is as hilarious as you’d expect) but chatting with Mandy was special. There’s nothing like “growing up” with a former teen star and feeling like a proud big sister as they come into their own. We talked motherhood, how her kids discovered her hit song “Candy” and her all important group of mom friends. And though not in final draft, before we wrapped, we bonded over CosmoGIRL!, Y2K teen mags and why they were and still are so special.

Coming Soon: Ashley Parker Angel

Formerly of O-Town, featured in Boy Band Confidential, and now a health guru—Ashley is coming to The Teen Mag Time Machine very soon. WATCH THIS SPACE.

Join the Community

We are about to enter our biggest chapter yet with the Parade Magazine partnership. If you want access to the full celebrity interviews, the “too-hot-for-print” transcripts from the vault, and the deep dives into the era that shaped us, now is the time to join us.

Share this post with the friend who still knows every word to “Summer Girls.”
Upgrade to a paid subscription to ensure you’re in the room when my exclusive Ashley Parker Angel interview drops!

YOUR SUPPORT MEANS THE WORLD TO ME!!!!!! THANK YOU!!!

xoxooxox,

Lauren

That Time in 2004 that I Helped Anne Hathaway Fool The Paparazzi and Other Stories From Our Vault

The Teen Mag Time Machine — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 12:04:11 GMT

In January 2004, I was 25 years old and living in the midst of a quarter-life crisis that coincided with a massive upheaval at CosmoGIRL!. Our Editor-in-Chief (the same one I had started out assisting) and our Entertainment Director (my boss) had left a few months prior to run Seventeen. Before she left, the EIC promised me I wasn’t being “abandoned,” but was actually being set up for a director-level promotion.

Let me tell you: I wish she had never told me that. It made me incredibly cocky. I flat-out told the new EIC that I had to be promoted or I’d be figuring out my next move. It was a bluff I do not recommend because—spoiler alert—I was not promoted.

Instead, I had to re-prove my talents and eat a lot of humble pie. I had to show the new EIC and the incoming Entertainment Director (the woman hired for the job I wanted) that I belonged in the big leagues of celebrity journalism.

So, when I was assigned the May 2004 cover story on Anne Hathaway, there was more at stake than just a juicy interview. While this wasn’t my first cover, it was the first time I would spend two full days with a subject, pulling double duty to get to know the real person behind the persona.

Two Women at a Crossroads

At the time, “Annie” (as she introduced herself) was at a crossroads, too. She was 21, grappling with the decision to leave college before graduating, and in the midst of filming The Princess Diaries 2 while promoting her other princess tale, Ella Enchanted. She was acutely aware of the “box” she was in; she knew that if the Princess Diaries sequel flopped, the risks and sacrifices she’d made to follow her passion might be for naught.

We first met in her trailer on the set of The Princess Diaries 2. She was the ultimate host, making sure I was fed and hydrated. She introduced me to every single person who came in to check on us and desperately tried to track down Julie Andrews so I could meet the legend herself.

Within an hour, she had given me her acupuncturist’s information and we’d bonded over our shared love of Tori Amos. I confessed that I was self-medicating my quarter-life crisis by listening to John Mayer on a loop. She didn’t even flinch when, during a deep talk about music, she asked if I was into Peaches and I enthusiastically said, “Yes, I love them!” (Note: Peaches is a solo female artist). I found out later she could relate to those little moments where you say something you don’t mean just to fit in—a small shield for your own insecurities.

We didn’t know then that Brokeback Mountain would soon catapult her out of the teen scene or that an Oscar nomination for Rachel Getting Married was just a few years away. We didn’t know she would eventually stand at the podium, clutching a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her gut-wrenching performance as Fantine in Les Misérables. Who could have predicted The Devil Wears Prada, the Christopher Nolan blockbusters, or her evolution into a global fashion icon?

(meekly raises hand . . . I knew right away she was an overachiever!)

The “Hathahate” Defense

When Anne picked me up for our next outing two days later, John Mayer was blasting in the car. She admitted she usually preferred female singer-songwriters like Björk, but she’d made an exception for me. I was touched. It was so kind that she hadn’t just listened to me, but actually wanted to make me feel at home. It was the kind of behavior I found charming, sincere, and empathetic—the same traits that others would later misinterpret as “affected” or “inauthentic” when the “Hathahate” trend took over the cultural conversation a decade later.

I took it personally. I still do.

We spent the day driving around LA. It was my first time out West, and she was determined that I see three things: the view from Mulholland Drive (which was extra smoggy that day, giving it a beautiful, cinematic mist), the beach in Santa Monica, and the lobby of the Beverly Hills Hotel.

As we drove, we talked like old friends. I could tell she had forgotten the recorder in my bag when she spoke about her close pals in the industry, especially Ginnifer Goodwin and Topher Grace. She wasn’t name-dropping; she was genuinely grateful to have them. She even pitched Ginnifer for a future CosmoGIRL! cover. I also got the feeling she either had a massive crush on Topher or their friendship had recently crossed a line into something new and exciting.

The Paparazzi Tutorial

Later, we walked on the beach, and she insisted I put my feet in the Pacific just so I could say I’d done it. When we stopped at a Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, she was recognized by a fan who was so obsessed with her outfit that she begged Anne to stand up and twirl—which she did, without a hint of hesitation.

But the highlight? Mulholland Drive. We weren’t alone; a gaggle of paparazzi was waiting. This didn’t deter Anne. She was determined to show me the view and find out who was attracting the cameras. Anne marched right up to one of them and asked, “Who are you guys here for?”

Without realizing he was talking to a movie star, the photographer shared they had a tip that “Bennifer” (Jennifer Lopez and her then-fiancé Ben Affleck) were about to drive by.

“So, you’re all waiting here hoping to get a photo of them through a car window?” Anne laughed.

What she did next is one of the most amazing things I’ve witnessed in my career. She told him she was a UCLA photography student, pulled her own camera from the trunk, and started an in-depth conversation with him about shutter speeds and gear upgrades. He was clearly smitten, never realizing he was talking to Princess Mia Thermopolis. As we left, she gave him a huge smile and—I kid you not—he asked for her number. She graciously gave him a fake one, and we raced back to the car, praying he didn’t hear us explode into laughter.

“Come on, you should have given him your real number!” I joked.

“First guy to ask for my number in like a year,” she laughed. “Wouldn’t it be funny if an actress fell in love with a paparazzi guy and he didn’t want to tell her? It’s like that movie First Daughter with Katie Holmes where she didn’t know she was falling in love with a Secret Service agent.”

(PS: That conversation is word-for-word, because the recorder was running!)

This photo of us was taken on Mulholland, smog and all, by the paparazzo smitten with Anne Hathaway!

Integrity vs. The Edit

When Anne dropped me at my hotel, we exchanged numbers. I really felt like I’d made a friend. And no, this wasn’t like Butters thinking the Raisins (aka Hooters) waitress was in love with him on South Park. I knew the difference between a celeb turning on the charm and a genuine connection.

But when the issue hit newsstands, I was deflated. Editors have a narrative to sell. They wanted the “edgy” quotes about her going nude for the film Havoc or cliches about being a high school outcast. To save space, they cut the soul out of the piece and stitched together quotes from different conversations. They left out the nuances of a 21-year-old trying to figure out who she was outside of a movie set.

I fought hard for the story I wanted, but I was outnumbered. My new boss was particularly unhappy when she read a line in my transcript where Anne confessed she had survived something “really terrible” the year before but “didn’t want to get into it.”

“Why didn’t you press her?” my editor demanded. “It’s your job to get more out of her.”

Thanks for reading! This post is public so feel free to share it.

I hung up the phone and fought back tears. Get more out of her? Anne had spilled her guts to me, and I knew she regretted even saying that out loud. She said it because she forgot we were on assignment. She said it because when you spend that much time with someone, not everything is meant for the page. She said it because, at that moment, she was talking to me as a friend.

Yes, Almost Famous is my favorite movie, so I’m well-versed in the theory that celebrities are never really our friends. But they are human. This was a teen magazine cover story, not a National Enquirer exposé. She shared her beautiful story with me. That “terrible” event was not mine to force out of her.

The Vault

Looking back now, I can take accountability. I made a rookie mistake by keeping the recorder running in the car without explicitly reminding her. When I finally did mention it, she was understanding but asked that certain confidences remain between us. I knew then that trust was hard to earn in her position, and I wasn’t going to break it.

I stand firm on that approach. You must do your research and ask thought-provoking questions, but it is just as important to trust your instincts. That is how you go deep and peel back layers without being invasive. (Side note: I briefly worked at Us Weekly after CG! and was absolutely not cut out for that abrasive style—I once got in big trouble with Paul Bettany because of it. But that’s another post!)

I learned the most valuable lesson of my career with Anne Hathaway: there’s a thin line between access and integrity. I knew instinctively which parts belonged in the “vault.” Looking through the 50-page transcript for the first time in 20 years, those secrets will stay off the record.

Sadly, the published piece left out the version of Anne who shared the trauma of her childhood home burning down at age 11, or the hilarious (and mortifying) first meeting with George Clooney. They cut her incredible “five-minute rule” for dates:

“When I’m on a date with someone, the second I know that I’m ‘changing’ to be the girl they like the most, I have to stop. I’ll get quiet for five minutes. They’ll ask, ‘What’s the matter?’ and I’ll say, ‘Let’s start over, I’m sorry, this is me now.’ Some guys look at me oddly. Some guys are like, ‘Thank you, I was wondering.’”

2026: The Betting Woman

Looking back at these pages, I’m struck by how much 21-year-old Anne already knew about the woman she wanted to become. She knew she couldn’t please everyone. She was figuring it out. When the backlash began years later, I knew all that undeserved “hate” would never force her out of the spotlight.

When you’re fighting imposter syndrome, it’s hard to believe you deserve success. You work overtime just to make sure people are listening. You feel you have to apologize for your talents. But once you feel settled and can finally breathe, you feel seen.

Over those two days in 2004, I saw Anne and I understood her. My own insecurities caused me to talk too fast and overthink every conversation, but I saw so much of myself in the lessons she was learning.

Now here we are in 2026. Anne is 43, a mother, and in the midst of her biggest year yet. She has a slate of movies “a million actresses would kill for,” from the Devil Wears Prada sequel to the Taylor Swift-esque Mother Mary, and the whispers that The Princess Diaries 3 is finally close.

Maybe 2004 Anne wouldn’t have put a third Princess Diaries on her Bingo card, but she was betting on herself. Deep down, she knew she was worth the gamble.

Oh and in case you’re wondering, I have not crossed paths or spoken to Anne since January of 2004 but I’ve been her biggest fan and cheerleader ever since!

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Stay tuned: Later this week, I have a special gift for paid subscribers. I’ll be posting the raw outtakes from my 2004 interview with Anne Hathaway in their entirety—the poignant, revealing, and “lost” quotes that never made it to print. Please support this “time machine” and subscribe so you don’t miss this transcript and so many others I am cleaning up and gearing up to share!