Former Cosmopolitan Editor-In-Chief Helen Gurley Brown Dies

Helen Gurley Brown, a former editor for Cosmo, passed away Monday in New York.

The Arkansas native, who worked at the magazine for 32 years and was instrumental in turning the then-failing publication into a platform for women’s sexual freedom, died at New York-Presbyterian Hospital at age 90. She hopped on board with the magazine three years after publishing bestselling book, “Sex and the Single Girl” and lived by this philosophy:

“So you’re single. You can still have sex. You can have a great life. And if you marry, don’t just sponge off a man or be the gold-medal-winning mother. Don’t use men to get what you want in life — get it for yourself.”

She also created Cosmo Girl, a pub for a younger audience, but was replaced as EIC in 1997. Before her husband’s death in 2010, the two of them created the David and Helen Gurley Brown Institute for Media Innovation and made a $30 million donation to the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and Stanford’s Engineering School, which sets out to improve journalism with technological advancements.

Hearst said in a statement on her death, “It would be hard to overstate the importance to Hearst of her success with Cosmopolitan, or the value of the friendship many of us enjoyed with her. Helen was one of the world’s most recognized magazine editors and book authors, and a true pioneer for women in journalism — and beyond.”

[TheWrap]

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