The late 90s Cosmo girl, 7: Living alone - Tales from the home front

 I live in Denmark today, but pay an annual visit to the Philippines without fail. Each visit I open up one of the boxes containing my writings (journalistic and creative) dating back to the fun years I spent working in Manila, as well as to my superficially normal childhood. This year, the box I chose yielded a clutch of magazines from the Summit group, which published the Philippine edition of Cosmopolitan. I wrote for Cosmo in the late 1990s, and now that nearly 30 years (gasp! I was a veritable kid!) have elapsed, it's time to share them with a digital community.

How will they be read by young women who have been formed, over the last 15 years, by the very visual platforms of Instagram and Tiktok, for whom Facebook probably resembles a retirement community?  

Back when this was written, one of the most anticipated rites of passage of young adulthood -- moving out of one's parents' house to carve a life of independence, alone -- was something shocking, especially for well-brought up young women in the Philippines (possibly with a convent school background). For the less well-off, economics rather than the need to preserve one's reputation was the reason young women opted to share lodgings. Living with a man was unheard of. 

(Text of article and publishing details to follow)