Biography Magazine:
It's more than just a tell-all rag

By J.D. Estep
Richwood High School

Did you know that Tim Allen from TV’s “Home Improvement” served jail time for selling cocaine?

Did you know that his real name is Timothy Allen Dick?

You can learn all this and more when you read Biography Magazine.

This magazine is crammed full of interesting facts about the stars of yesterday and today. It features many wonderful photos and great stories. For example, “Bioscope Freeze Frame” appears in every issue and contains a timeline with pictures of three stars, past and present, who are related to each other in some quirky way. It then tells the reader a little about the celebrities, such as whom they married, what their children’s names are, their most famous movies, and their most famous character, line or on-screen partner.

Each issue of Biography offers one in-depth look at a prominent person in today’s world. It may be a movie star, it may be a supermodel, or it might be someone from the British royal family. Whomever the subject may be, he or she always graces the cover of the magazine. Readers can learn all about that person’s life, from early childhood to present day.

The February 2001 issue, for instance, has an in-depth story on Catherine Zeta-Jones. But readers still can find information on celebrities such as Bette Midler, Malcolm X, Robert De Niro, Bette Davis, Betty Grable, Nicole Kidman, Jessica Alba, Brad Pitt, Mozart, Julianne Moore, Barbara Bush, Hilary Clinton and many more.

This magazine is full of quizzes, including “Who Am I?” and “Fact or Fiction,” which allow readers to test their biography IQs. There are several little fun fact boxes about random things placed throughout the magazine, which keep readers from getting bored.

Another super thing about Biography is that it is not completely full of advertisements. Like every magazine, there are some advertisements, but Biography does not have page after page of meaningless ads for things teens really can’t afford to buy. This magazine is there to read and enjoy.

There is one negative to this magazine, and that negative is this: It comes out only once a month. This magazine should be a weekly thing. Check it out; it is well worth your while. You never know — the next story it tells could be yours.