“I grew up in the north of England - 200 miles north of London, in a re...” — Joanna Coles Quote

I grew up in the north of England - 200 miles north of London, in a relatively unsophisticated place. And I craved magazines as a way of finding out about the future, about the life that I wanted.

It was quite jarring to go from newspapers to magazines, and the reason I did it was because I had my second son, and with my second child, I just thought, 'I can't travel at will,' which you really need to be able to do. And so I had a sort of slow realization that I could no longer do the job that I loved.

In the same way you pick idly at chips, promising this is literally your last one, you may be in a relationship that you know isn't going anywhere, but you're hungry for love, and it feels less frightening than nothing.

Print is not dead.

I never saw anyone my size in magazines when I was younger.

I love magazines. It's such McNugget kind of information.

I have a problem with fashion magazines sometimes - they seem to have these dogmas or uniforms. 'This is the way you must look; this is this season's must-have.' I really resent the phrase 'must-have.' I prefer to decide for myself what I think is beautiful or fashionable.

I pitched ideas for fashion stories to magazines for years. And it was often; 'No, no, nope, next,' or worse, just silence.

I was always reading those beauty magazines and wanting to become this unattainable thing.