Here's To You, Ducky

One of the questions that we on COSMO get asked more frequently than you may imagine is this: ‘Where do you get the ideas for your stories?’
Usually, if the question comes from a guy on a first date with one of us, the subtext to that question (evident in the dog-like glimmer of hope in his eye) is this: ‘Oh, God of eternally hopeful horny men, please let me have scored the chick who edits the sex section, oh please, please…’ etc. Many of them, I think, secretly hope for elastic bedroom gymnastics as the happy by-product of dating a COSMO staffer. 
Oh, catch me while I fall off my chair laughing. They should talk to The Guru – he’d put them right in a flash. On our first date, when he asked The Question, I took great pleasure in informing him that, as I spent all day thinking of new names for the same five sex positions, all I wanted to do in my leisure time was discuss politics and listen to obscure German electro-funk.
‘You know what they say about people who talk about sex the whole time?’ I remember saying. ‘That they aren’t doing it? Imagine if you were writing about it all the time, would you want to think about it when you didn’t have to?’ The look of dashed hope on his poor face was pure tragi-comedy.
There is more to COSMO than sex, of course, and being the guide to what to say and do on first dates is only one of the many valuable services we offer.
And when men get over their disappointment at not having scored a nymphomaniac, most of them, I’ve found, enjoy the company of the COSMO crew – whether staffers or readers. Because, of course, COSMO is the bible to a fun, fearless, foxy life. And fun, fearless foxes are generally excellent company.
The real answer to the question is that we get our ideas from thinking of you, about you and for you. You are in our bulls-eye 12/7, for 321 days of the year. (C’mon. Everyone needs a bit of time to listen to German electro-funk and think about nothing very much at all.) And let me say, as we embark on our 26th year together, that thinking of what matters to you has always been a pleasure and a privilege for us. We love our jobs. (Even thinking up names for sex positions. Especially the funny ones!)
We believe that you are the most rewarding community of women in the country and you inspire, encourage and excite us.
Here’s to all of us in 2010. Together, we’re going to have a great one!

Author: Vanessa Raphaely