For Every Gal Out There Who Collected (Or Desperately Wanted To Collect) Sabrina’s Secrets

You know the ads that used to start popping up on the telly every January for collectible magazines, with their tantalising free gifts?

A serious amount of pocket money was funnelled into those magazines in the early 2000s, and none is remembered more fondly than Sabrina’s Secrets.

It was, as you might have guessed, based on the life and times of Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and it ticked just about every box when it came to 2000s pre-teen obsessions. Whether you actually collected it or not, you’ll probably remember all of this.

Maybe you were lucky enough to get the first issue as a treat

You got the purple beauty box, which was a great achievement, but you were already thinking about filling it.

But then your parents discovered that it would cost them £2.50 every two weeks

Instagram/martinagrott

Kind of rude that they wouldn’t fork it out, now that you think about it. Can you retroactively call Childline?

When you did get it, you pored over the articles about zig-zag hair partings

Instagram/doesthisblackmatch

We didn’t get the irony of being ‘totally original’ along with the thousands of girls buying Sabrina’s Secrets every two weeks. But sure look!

And did the quizzes that would ascertain what kind of style you had, or what boyfriend you would get

https://www.instagram.com/p/BKecG3MAQaY/?tagged=sabrinassecrets

You were 10! You didn’t have any style, and you weren’t sure if you ever wanted a boyfriend! But that was unimportant. (According to this quiz, our current style is ‘Hippy chick Heidi’ which… no, Sabrina.)

The most important part was, of course, the free gift

https://www.instagram.com/p/xO23NPFz4n/

Nail art pens, roll-on body glitter, eyeshadows in the trendy colours of the moment (purple and silver), gloopy lip glosses – every one was absolutely covetable.

If you managed to fill the box even a little bit, you were very lucky

https://www.instagram.com/p/BQmAg04hw70/

The insert had spaces for each product so you could see what you were missing. Kind of cruel, no?

Anyone who actually got as far as owning the magazine holder was basically a god

Instagram/shushuku

We all knew one girl who had every issue. Whether you admired her or resented her was all down to your personality.

Even now, you’re getting kind of twitchy reading this

https://www.instagram.com/p/BEuq5VdM3uU/

You still want a purple beauty box. We know. We do too. *sets up an eBay alert for ‘Sabrina’s Secret beauty box’*

• sabrina the teenage witch
• sabrina's secrets