Norwood, Mandi 1963-

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NORWOOD, Mandi 1963-

PERSONAL:

Born October 9, 1963, in Oldham, Lancashire, England; married Martin Kelly, 1995; children: Rosie, Daisy. Education: Attended Darlington College of Technology and London College of Fashion.

ADDRESSES:

Home—312 East 69th St., New York, NY 10021.

CAREER:

Look Now (magazine), sub-editor and deputy chief sub-editor, 1986-87; Clothes Show (magazine), features editor, 1987; More! (magazine), deputy editor, 1987-89; Looks (magazine), editor, 1989-90; Company (magazine), editor, 1990-95; Cosmospolitan, editor, 1995-2000; Mademoiselle, New York, NY, editor-in-chief, 2000-01.

MEMBER:

British Society of Magazine Editors, Periodical Publishers Association (member of editorial committee).

AWARDS, HONORS:

Women's Magazine Editor of the Year Award, British Society of Magazine Editors, 1993, 1999.

WRITINGS:

Sex and the Married Girl, from Clicking to Climaxing: The Complete Truth about Modern Marriage, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2003.

SIDELIGHTS:

Mandi Norwood has been the editor of such prominent women's magazines as Cosmopolitan and Mademoiselle, and has twice won the Women's Magazine Editor of the Year Award from the British Society of Magazine Editors. She is also "fondly known for such headlines as 'Six Guys to Do before You Say I Do' and for unabashedly filling her magazines with sex and salaciousness," as Anna Kierstan reported in Life Changing Books. While editing Company magazine, Norwood included a graphically illustrated "penis supplement" to boost circulation. This same approach to sexuality is also found in Norwood's book Sex and the Married Girl, from Clicking to Climaxing: The Complete Truth about Modern Marriage.

"Norwood is a woman who knows what she wants and works her damnedest to get it," according to Claire Beale in Campaign. "And, if her track record is anything to go by, she usually succeeds." Norwood began her career by freelancing for various London fashion magazines before landing the editorship of Looks magazine at the age of twenty-five. During her tenureship at Company, Norwood increased the magazine's circulation by some forty percent. In 1997 she took the helm of the British edition of Cosmopolitan, "one of the most prestigious jobs in women's magazines," as Beale described it. As editor of Cosmopolitan, Norwood built "a reputation for sexing it up," as a writer for MediaWeek termed it. In 2000 Norwood came to America to take over the editorship of Mademoiselle, a venerable women's magazine suffering from sluggish circulation and declining advertising revenues. Norwood quickly changed the magazine's logo and gave it a new nickname ("Millie"). She also refocused the magazine's direction, "celebrating young women's unabashed passion for shopping, makeup, guys and work," as Lisa Granatstein noted in MediaWeek. Despite Norwood's efforts, by late 2001 the troubled Mademoiselle had folded. By mid-2003 she was busy developing a new magazine for Hearst.

In 2003 Norwood published Sex and the Married Girl, a title meant to echo Helen Gurley Brown's bestselling Sex and the Single Girl of the 1960s. To research her book, Norwood interviewed over 100 women in the United States and England about their married lives. "It dives into the marital bed head first," Rachel Cooke admitted in the London Observer. Kierstan found Sex and the Married Girl to be "a gloves-off look at modern marriage from the female perspective." The book is "plump with sisterly counsel," Cooke believed. "Norwood reveals a lot of truth here," David Leonhardt added in his review for the Library Journal, "and no matter how often readers find themselves agreeing one minute and disagreeing the next, she totally engages and will provoke important discussion."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Campaign, August 4, 1995, Claire Beale, "Cosmo Succumbs to Charms of Aggressive Career Woman: How Will Mandi Norwood's Pugnacious Style Go down at Cosmo?," p.19.

Library Journal, April 1, 2003, David Leonhardt, review of Sex and the Married Girl, from Clicking to Climaxing: The Complete Truth about Modern Marriage, pp. 116-117.

MediaWeek, September 6, 1999, "Cosmo Girl Now a Mademoiselle," p. 5; June 26, 2000, Lisa Granatstein, "Millie's Makeover," p. 66.

Observer (London, England), June 8, 2003, Rachel Cooke, "Thoroughly Modern Mandi."

Women's Wear Daily, September 2, 1999, "Mandi Norwood Appointed New Editor of Mademoiselle," p. 5; December 8, 2000, Lisa Lockwood, "Editors Give Sneak Preview," p. 4B.