“I accepted the lack of mirroring in my magazines as something that would not change, so best not to be too upset. Even if that’s how I felt inside.”

Ashley C. Ford has long been obsessed with teen magazines. She would buy them with her allowance from her grandma, hoping that one day he would see herself reflected in them. She was always disappointed but tried not to let her disappointment show.

Now she collects these 1990s-era magazines—Seventeen, YM, Teen People, even the Delia’s catalog—and she’s finally in possession of her Holy Grail, the August 1998 issue of Seventeen with Drew Barrymore on the cover, promoting her iconic girl-power twist on Cinderella, Ever After.

History is Public, the Past is Personal