This is the Vogue UK cover from september 1973. I remember finding the magazine under my parent's bed and stealing it. Have been wracking my brains for decades trying to find this image. At the tender age of six I clearly remember showing my mother the magazine and declaring that I was going to be just like the cover model when I grew up. In my mind I didn't think it any more strange that my tiny little body could grow up to be a man than it could grow up to be a beautiful woman. I knew girls and boys had physical differences but it was a choice to grow up to a man or a woman and everything would all sort itself out physically. When my mum told me that it didn't work that way I was angry, protesting that I should be able to be what I wanted. She agreed it wasn't fair but I was devastated when I realised I couldn't be a woman.
I recently watched a docudrama about Jean Shrimpton and David Bailey and it finally allowed my old brain to make the connection and find the image from so long ago. I am thrilled I've found it after so long. This is my first and possibly most important image of what I wanted to be as a female.
If you don't like the way I'm livin', you just leave this long haired country girl alone:
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Originally Posted by Kate Simmons
