The Brutal Truths of Teen Favorites Magazine

I won’t claim to be an expert on the lesser teenybopper magazines of the ’70s, mostly because doing so would shine too bright a light on my personal life. But I will go out on a limb and claim that this headline has to be one of the most awkward ever to appear in such a publication, if not the most ominous.

And it feels all the more awful when you consider that the publish date is listed on the cover as March 1977. See, because Freddie Prinze died as a result of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on January 29, 1977, so this magazine either hit newsstands slightly before Prinze died — and yeah, that’s the best-case scenario — or after.

The full article, embiggenable:

Especially hard to read: “I’m happy. I know too many people who are popping pills all day, they are so depressed. That’s wrong, man.”

Other awkwardness:

• a back-cover retrospective on Elvis the preceded his death by four months
• the piece on the Captain and Tennille headlined “We Want the World To Know They’re in Love,” which is awkward only because they only in the past moth announced their intention to divorce
• a piece headlined “Robert Blake: Kids Shouldn’t Have To Work,” which he certainly proved true
• a photo of young Meredith Baxter-Birney next to young Kristy McNichol

Oh, and this, just because of that heinous monster we call time:

All images via scans found on this site, which is doubtlessly full of even more things that are awkward and disturbing as a result that same heinous monster.