Early-Nineties Revival Alert! Sassy Follows in Spy'’s Footsteps With Tribute Book, Party “

"“Our inner 15-year-olds are like, oh my God,”" said Marisa Meltzer, co-author of How Sassy Changed My Life: A Love Letter to the Greatest Teen Magazine of All Time (Faber and Faber), standing next to her collaborator, Kara Jesella, at the aptly named Lolita Bar on the Lower East Side.

The two women were celebrating their 128-page, extensively researched homage to a publication that expanded boundaries of girl culture to include Doc Martens, indie-rock bands and first-person essays using the phrase “blow job.”

D.J.s were…--wait for it--…spinning actual records by groups from Sassy’'s germinal Cute Band Alert column, and the room was filled with alumni of the magazine, including the former editor-in-chief of CosmoGIRL, Atoosa Rubenstein, who worked as an intern for Sassy while an undergrad at Barnard. “

"It was for outsider girls who wore black nail polish before Chanel put out Vamp,”" said Ms. Rubenstein, towering over the crowd in platform heels and a cape-like silk dress. "“My magazine took a lot of sort of the same principles,"” she added. “"We told girls that being different is not a negative thing and once they were out of the confines of high school, it would become their calling card and being different would make them special in a good way.”"

Andrea Linett started out at Sassy as a 21-year-old receptionist—“ "smoking my brains out,"” she said, and is currently the creative director of Lucky.

"“It was like Fantasy Island, I was so spoiled,”" Ms. Linett told the Transom in between sips of red wine. "“There wasn’t any bullshit or politics, which I would never realize later was so… ..."” She trailed off.

But Sassy wasn’t a paradise for everyone. Ms. Jesella and Ms. Meltzer'’s book chronicles the often contentious relationship between founding editor Jane Pratt and one of her deputies, Christina Kelly, especially toward the dying days of the magazine, when Ms. Pratt abandoned quotidian office life to appear on talk shows.

As a former staffer recounts in a subchapter titled “"Coundown to the End”":“

Ms. Pratt remains something of a background character in the book, refusing to speak to the authors, “"although she did talk to our editor,”" Ms. Jesella said. "“She had a few factual changes, which we changed. She had a few matters of opinion, which we didn'’t change."

Unsurprisingly, Ms. Pratt wasn’'t at the party. “

"I know she’s busy with her Sirius show,”" Ms. Jesella said charitably.

Ms. Kelly did show up, looking radiant in a slouchy-sleeved purple dress and hanging out with former Sassy fact-checker Jessica Vitkus, who now works as a writer for Fair Game on NPR. “

"It'’s so common now, the whole first-person opinion thing, but at the time it was really not anything like other teen magazines,"” Ms. Kelly said. "“We respected the intelligence of teenage girls.”"

Are there any magazines that can compare to Sassy today?

"“I'’m probably not the one to ask that question,”" said Ms. Kelly, who was editor of ELLEgirl when it folded last spring, less than a year after she replaced Brandon Holley, who departed for—--oh the irony!—--Jane magazine, Ms. Pratt’'s post-Sassy creation.

Ms. Kelly was also editor-in-chief of Sassy’ nemesis YM from 2001 until 2004, when it folded.

"“It'’s not a great time for magazines,"” Ms. Kelly said. "“I'’m not sure why."