"She had this very intimidating presence," stylish and no-nonsense, said Emily Rooney, who met the fabled editor in the 1970s and remembered her see-through purse. "She was gruff, she was smart, she was in-your-face." More about "H.G.B.":
She’s been described as a pioneer of women. The small-framed, giant magazine editor who ruled Cosmopolitan for more than three decades died on Aug. 13 at the age of 90. But Helen Gurley Brown was more than just fashion and flair.
She stood 5 feet 4 inches and weighed just 100 pounds, but Brown stood out no matter where she was. She became editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan magazine in 1965 — and changed the notion of the “modern woman.” She was dynamic, not just in her style but in her ideas of women and sexuality.
"Sex is wonderful and sometimes it brings emotional distress, but whatever, that’s no reason not to be indulging," Brown said in an archival interview. "Sex is a very dynamic feeling and causes very interesting situations and conditions."
Her best-selling book "Sex and the Single Girl" revolutionized how women talked about sex. Her message: you can be single, successful and have a full love life.
Brown stepped down from Cosmopolitan in 1997. She once said, "Good girls go to heaven. Bad girls go everywhere."
